Introduction
Paul Klee was born on 18th December, 1879 in Munchenbuchsee, Switzerland. He was influenced by and participated in a variety of movements, which included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was an Art teacher in Germany up to 1933, when his work was declared indecent by the National Socialists (Biography.com 1). However, Klee contributed a lot in the field of Art as discussed below.
In 1908, Klee painted a figure study which was entitled “The Artist (Poet/Painter).” This title indicated that by this time Klee had a dual identity but towards the end of that year, his professional goals were only focused on his visual production. He wrote “Diaries” which demonstrates his commitment/seriousness to the visual arts. Despite the transformation from being a poet to be a painter, Klee continued to be an occasional writer of poetry for experimental verses and particular circumstances for his own uses. Some were copied to form notebook which he labeled “Geduchte” (translated as “Poums” or “Poams”) (Aichele 1-2).
In addition, Klee formed tangential alliance with another group known as the surrealists (popular for its writing and visual artworks). Kleen was entreated by Arragon to avail the reproduction of his work to be published in a new journal called “La Revolution surrealiste”, together with the manifestos, poetry, and reviews of the surrealist. Klee responded immediately by accepting to send photographs. In October 1925, the first Klee’s solo exhibition in Paris was opened at the Vavin-Raspail Gallery, and it produced a small catalogue consisting of an introductory part by Aragon and a poem part by Paul Eluard. During the following month, Klee’s work was also included in the exhibition of the first group of surrealist art. His name, among the rest, was given footnote status in the first manifesto of the surrealist in Andre Breton, and the entire twenties paid homepage of surrealist writers to what they regarded as “the poetic qualities of Klee’s visual images” (Aichele 3-4).
Furthermore, many of the Klee’s ideas that were developed during his lectures at the Bauhaus and Dusseldorf Academy in early twenties and thirties respectively, are introduced in writing that was drafted originally in 1918 and was entitled “Graphic Art” (also “Graphik”) but was known as the “Creative Credo” in its latest version. However, in this essay published in 1920, Klee did not utilize the designation poetic, but instead he used the metaphorical language so as to add his own views to the theoretical frameworks of modern art. Having introduced the line, dot, space, and plane as a visual arts’ formal elements, he then gave a demonstration of how it might be utilized on “a little trip into the land of deeper insight” which is a metaphor that he developed (Aichele 8).
In addition, Klee’s literature was transformed to art history (from art criticism) when it was inaugurated by Jurgen Glaesemer in 1973 and 1976. The “comparative analyses” of Klee’s literature by Glaesemer and his keen use of the “unpublished” material source (that is, Klee’s pedagogical and autobiographical texts, as well as the unpublished texts at that time) were based on Glaesemer’s view that Klee’s pictures had a clear explanation for themselves. Glaesemer had an expectation that those analyses would reveal a great significance of Klee’s art that was intended by the artist and also still seen today’s field of literature (Werckmeister 4).
Works cited
Aichele, Kathryn, P. Paul Klee (Poet/Painter). New York, NY: Camden House, 2006. Print
Biography.com. Stephen Crane biography. Biography.com, n. d. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/stephen-crane-9260647?page=1>.
Werckmeister, O. K. The making of Paul Klee’s Career, 1914-1920. London: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Print.
