Paul Klee Notebook 1

by Jurg Spiller

English (translation)Original German

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Architecture, Design

541 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Derek Lacoursiere · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Thinking Eye is an intriguing book showing, through records of lessons Klee taught at the Bauhaus, the impressive depth of his artistic philosophy. He employs a rather reductive approach to create his very personal understanding of art. Whereas most artists are concerned primarily with having a working, utilitarian knowledge of aspects such as perspective, colour, composition, etc., Klee gives a large amount of thought to more basic, and seemingly simple, elements such as the point, the line, the surface. The Thinking Eye is a great read if you love the conceptual side of art and if you have a decent tolerance of dense topics.

[Cj · Rating 5 out of 5]

*If* you are lucky enough to stumble across a used copy of this, snap it up. Includes such gems as an alternative music notation system. This book reveals how limitless Klee was...

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work is an assembly of Klee's lectures on abstract art to his students in conjunction with sketches and drawings. The original notes were in German and the translation does not always ring true. I along with other English readers probably missed some of the subtlety and meaning in the original language. Sidenotes reference drawings on other pages and describe strikes or additions that Klee made to his lecture notes. All of this creates a challenging read without much to show for the effort. There were a few brilliant moments such as the distinction between abstract and representational art, but not enough to justify reading through 500+ pages. Not recommended.

[Andrew]

I can say for certain that I didn't really like reading this book very much, but I can't say whether or not it's any good. On one hand, I tend to think that artists who are very good at expressing themselves through canvas/music/etc. tend to be terrible writers-- they have their medium already. On the other hand, perhaps I didn't fully get this, as someone whose medium is so non-visual. I get that he's trying to find the hidden structure underneath the image, but it strikes me as a bit of a fool's errand, as much as I like Klee's applications of his theories.

[Anna]

Covers for Volumes One and Two: http://www.overlookpress.com/cover/Pa...