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Tagebücher von Paul Klee, 1898-1918
Paul Klee was endowed with a rich and multi-aspected personality that was continually spilling over into forms of expression other than his painting, and that made him one of the most extraordinary phenomena of modern European art. These abilities have been recorded in the four intimate Diaries where he faithfully wrote about the events of his inner and outer life from his nineteenth to his fortieth year. Here are recollections of his childhood in Bern, his relations with his family and such friends as Kandinsky, Marc, Macke, and many others, his observations on nature and people, his trips to Italy and Tunisia, and his military service. The reader will find Klee's crucial experience with literature and music, as well as many of his essential ideas about his own artistic technique and the creative process.
429 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
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About the author
Paul Klee
325 books105 followersPaul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a Swiss painter and a German painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually mastered color theory, and wrote extensively about it; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are considered so important for modern art that they are compared to the importance that Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting had for Renaissance. He and his colleague , the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the German Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. His works reflect his dry humour and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 6, 2012
I had push my way through what I thought would be a really exciting diary. Don't get me wrong because it is a good insight into how this man arranged his life and what was important to him. However, it doesn't reveal any great artistic secrets. His genius shines through in short theories here and there:
"Actually, the main thing now is not to paint precociously b to be or, at least, to become an individual. The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions. Not only to master life in practice, but to shape it meaningfully within me and to achieve as mature an attitude before it as possible. Obviously this isn't accomplished with a few general precepts but grows like Nature."
"In our dreams moment of our life often recur which have surprised us and made us momentarily helpless. The are mostly trifling occurrences. The great impression of times when one has exercised self-control remain t a distance."
"For these are primitive beginning in art, such as one usually finds in ethnographic collections or at home in one's nursery. Do not laugh, reader! Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in their having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and the must be preserved free of corruption from an early age."
"Now the country is becoming flatter, the first windmills appear, and there are signs of a large city soon to come (Hanover.) Like a dream, the great city floats by in the haze, beyond the flooded area/ A boastful dome with a gilded knob at the entrance of town and, finally, an old, three-pointed church steeple. In the foreground, a hellish industrial section. Great waste of space everywhere, as also in the installations of the freight station at Seelze."
"Actually, the main thing now is not to paint precociously b to be or, at least, to become an individual. The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions. Not only to master life in practice, but to shape it meaningfully within me and to achieve as mature an attitude before it as possible. Obviously this isn't accomplished with a few general precepts but grows like Nature."
"In our dreams moment of our life often recur which have surprised us and made us momentarily helpless. The are mostly trifling occurrences. The great impression of times when one has exercised self-control remain t a distance."
"For these are primitive beginning in art, such as one usually finds in ethnographic collections or at home in one's nursery. Do not laugh, reader! Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in their having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and the must be preserved free of corruption from an early age."
"Now the country is becoming flatter, the first windmills appear, and there are signs of a large city soon to come (Hanover.) Like a dream, the great city floats by in the haze, beyond the flooded area/ A boastful dome with a gilded knob at the entrance of town and, finally, an old, three-pointed church steeple. In the foreground, a hellish industrial section. Great waste of space everywhere, as also in the installations of the freight station at Seelze."
August 26, 2017
A very enjoyable diary of the early 20th century.
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October 7, 2023The early years of this journal weren't very interesting, and I let it sit for a while. The German draft made Klee a Private in the Kaiser's Army, and suddenly his observations about life become focused and concrete. He was very, very lucky, and assigned first to work maintaining airplanes--well, painting them, because when he signed up he said he was a painter. He got along very well with his noncom officers who got him reassigned to other duties, first escorting airplanes close to, and, on one trip, right at the front in Belgium. Then he was given an office job. He never rose higher than Pvt First Class although he did responsible administrative work as a paymaster. He was annoyed and frustrated by his service; and I find it astonishing that he willingly participated in the German draft--he could have gone home to Switzerland. Given that his friends August Macke, who he'd traveled to Tunis with not long before, and Franz Marc, both painters participating in the Blue Rider movement, were killed in action, maybe he felt some obligation to participate. If so, he doesn't say so, no detail at all as to why he served in the German army in WWI, other than that he and his wife had settled in Munich.
During the war he began to experience long-desired success in the art world, and he found time away from his office duties to go out and paint in the landscape. He loved nature and hiking, music and food. He had a happy family life, and got out of Germany back to his homeland of Switzerland in 1933, after a noted teaching career, owing to the urging of his wife. He'd lost his teaching post in Dusseldorf when the Nazis came to power and was considered one of the Degenerates.
There are some reproductions in this book of drawings and prints but they are really poor. I was kind of surprised to find that for much of the time up until 1920s, Klee was working from life in the landscape--there's a large catalogue raisonnee of his work I can get hold of with a trip to a research library. Reading these diaries has sparked my interest in seeing his development over time. One of his best friends was Kandinsky who returned to Russia during the war, but they reunited afterward at the Bauhaus and were next door neighbors. I didn't know any of that, but looking at their work side by side, and knowing how much Klee admired Kandinsky, it makes me think about his work differently. Klee was a true individual in art, and deeply devoted to making. He was also a professional musician for much of his life before the war, usually playing violin or viola. I had no idea!
During the war he began to experience long-desired success in the art world, and he found time away from his office duties to go out and paint in the landscape. He loved nature and hiking, music and food. He had a happy family life, and got out of Germany back to his homeland of Switzerland in 1933, after a noted teaching career, owing to the urging of his wife. He'd lost his teaching post in Dusseldorf when the Nazis came to power and was considered one of the Degenerates.
There are some reproductions in this book of drawings and prints but they are really poor. I was kind of surprised to find that for much of the time up until 1920s, Klee was working from life in the landscape--there's a large catalogue raisonnee of his work I can get hold of with a trip to a research library. Reading these diaries has sparked my interest in seeing his development over time. One of his best friends was Kandinsky who returned to Russia during the war, but they reunited afterward at the Bauhaus and were next door neighbors. I didn't know any of that, but looking at their work side by side, and knowing how much Klee admired Kandinsky, it makes me think about his work differently. Klee was a true individual in art, and deeply devoted to making. He was also a professional musician for much of his life before the war, usually playing violin or viola. I had no idea!
November 3, 2007
Though I like to think Paul Klee was not a mortal, this book reveals the thoughts of his day to day life and the rational behind his genius paintings. This book helps me to appreciate his paintings in a whole new way.
January 5, 2010
Genius from the inside out.
January 29, 2009
The best book I've read in 2009.
January 5, 2023
Honesto, sincero, brillante, sencillo; como Klee.
(La pintura, el color, incluso la música era lo más importante para él, pero iba por encima “ser”.)
“Esta guerra la tenía yo desde hace mucho tiempo dentro de mí. Por eso no me importa nada en cuanto a mi fuero interno. Para sacarme a mí mismo de entre las ruinas, tendría que volar. Y volé. En ese mundo destrozado ya sólo vivo en el recuerdo, así como a veces se piensa en algo pa sado. Despojos de elementos inauténticos, destinados a formar cristales impuros. Así es el día de hoy. Por lo tanto, soy <>.”
(La pintura, el color, incluso la música era lo más importante para él, pero iba por encima “ser”.)
“Esta guerra la tenía yo desde hace mucho tiempo dentro de mí. Por eso no me importa nada en cuanto a mi fuero interno. Para sacarme a mí mismo de entre las ruinas, tendría que volar. Y volé. En ese mundo destrozado ya sólo vivo en el recuerdo, así como a veces se piensa en algo pa sado. Despojos de elementos inauténticos, destinados a formar cristales impuros. Así es el día de hoy. Por lo tanto, soy <>.”
December 23, 2019
Not a lot of art instruction in these records by the young Klee, but an intriguing description of his experiences of career struggles, starting a family, as well as a couple travelogues and his Great War experience (as a clerk) in the German Army.
March 25, 2018
Klee is echt geen schrijver.
February 19, 2022
Paul Klee was my grandma's favorite painter so he's my favorite painter too.
September 3, 2022
Poslední část byla nejlepší.
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March 19, 2024Not read yet
June 30, 2025
His entries from WWI are most remarkable, but it was interesting to watch his inner struggle at learning his craft & seeking recognition for it.
December 20, 2014
I bought the book straight after leaving the Paul Klee exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. Luckily I had a free ticket and was happy to have saved money from this spontaneous trip to the museum. But at the museum shop I spent it on this book, and I am glad I did so. During the exhibition, some of Klee's thoughts and quotes were printed on the walls and I was drawn to his writing and to his way of seeing the world.
This collection of diaries is a great telescope to the beginning of Klee, what moved him as an artist and as a person and it documents his journeys from a naive little boy to a renowned painter. He handles words with care, with humour but also playfully. I particularly enjoyed the last diary, which documents his experience during the first world war with the same wit as the previous chapters but also with incredible detail. Overall a great read.
This collection of diaries is a great telescope to the beginning of Klee, what moved him as an artist and as a person and it documents his journeys from a naive little boy to a renowned painter. He handles words with care, with humour but also playfully. I particularly enjoyed the last diary, which documents his experience during the first world war with the same wit as the previous chapters but also with incredible detail. Overall a great read.
Currently reading
May 10, 2009As precisely light and lightly precise as his paintings.
I’ve been flipping through this book on and off for over a year; and his observations don’t seem at the time when you read them as being that profound. But you’ll be picking up some blackberries and one of his notions will float into your head that you read months ago.
I’ve been flipping through this book on and off for over a year; and his observations don’t seem at the time when you read them as being that profound. But you’ll be picking up some blackberries and one of his notions will float into your head that you read months ago.
April 23, 2009
makes me sorry I never kept a diary. it's very good.
January 3, 2012
Excellent document of seminal years in the life of this artist...
August 28, 2012
How I fell in love...with words
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August 4, 2012Sorry but anybody knows how to read the book at goodreads
June 18, 2013
Couldn't finish it
June 5, 2013
An incredible mind, a great book.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews