The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918 - (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Paul Klee was endowed with a rich and many-sided 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 left their record in the four intimate Diaries in which he faithfully recorded the events of his inner and outer life from his nineteenth to his fortieth year. Here, together with 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.

Review Quotes

"'I am abstract with memories, ' was Paul Klee's artistic credo. . . . Now fully published in English as edited by his son, Klee's diaries sketch the memories that his art made abstract."-- "TIME Magazine"

"A remarkable book. . . . For those of us who have long admired this painter but were not fluent enough to read his diaries in German, the present publication comes as a windfall. It demonstrates how closely the artist, the writer, and the man were enmeshed."-- "Saturday Review"

"The Diaries record . . . [Klee's] remarkable development in intimate detail; they have aphrodisiac bite, lean sensuosity, and frequently an indisputable candor."-- "Virginia Kirkus Service"

"Unlike most artists, Klee was an excellent writer. Between his 19th and 40th years he wrote of the persons and ideas that influenced the development of his artistic imagination-which has been called 'the most fertile in 20th-century art. The Diaries of Paul Klee are incisive, warm and provocative."-- "New York Times"