Thinking about the many aspects of creativity for a live online event I am leading on Tuesday, today I went on a little trip back into the life and work of an artist who has meant so much to me over the years, but whom I had not thought of for a while. Paul Klee. It was in college that I discovered his paintings and line work, and fell in love. There is a playful seriousness to it, which of course I adore. His drawings and paintings can be absurd, ironic and sarcastic. Born in Switzerland in 1879, he was influenced by all the modern art movements of the early 1900’s; but he remained very individualistic and extremely prolific.
In a 2013 article, Philip Hensher of the Guardian says, “Comedy was at the heart of Klee’s work.” I think I was and am smitten because so much abstract art at the time—which I also loved and studied— was so serious. I was aware of the power of humor and playfulness is a drawn line. I encourage you to look up his work if you don’t know it. Or even if you do, go back and look again.
A postcard version of this painting below of Klee’s, titled Comedy, was taped to my wall in college and my first apartment in NYC. I still have it.
Thank you, Paul Klee.
As an art student a long time ago (1969-73) I enjoyed Klee but felt he was irrelevant to what I was learning, which was taught by painters who studied under Han Hoffman. But now an old man, I see him much differently. Not necessarily a central figure but one whose work presaged the period we are now in where no set of big ideas prevail.
Ah, Liza. You touch it with a needle. All of us who create, however humbly, have people like Paul Klee in out past and present. Mine are men and women of words: Shakespeare, Mary Shelly, Dostoevsky, P.G. Wodehouse, Mr. Orwell, Shirley Jackson, Philip K. Dick, so many others. I suppose it’s much the same with you: a long and star-studded list. We have that, if not much else, in common.