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First of all, the art of living then as my ideal profession, poetry and philosophy, and as my real profession, plastic arts in the last resort, for lack of income, illustrations.

Paul Klee

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Paul Klee
Age: 61 †
Born: 1879
Born: February 18
Died: 1940
Died: May 29
Designer
Graphic Artist
Lithographer
Painter
University Teacher
Visual Artist
Münchenbuchsee BE
p. klee
Klee
Paul Klee
Real
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Resorts
Philosophy
Plastic
Lasts
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More quotes by Paul Klee

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He neither serves nor rules, he transmits. His position is humble and the beauty at the crown is not his own. He is merely a channel.
Paul Klee
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All is well with me. The rain doesn't reach me, my room is well heated, what more can one ask for? There's no shortage of work, either.
Paul Klee
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A certain fire pretends to be alive it awakens. Working its way along the hand as a conductor, it reaches the support and engulfs it then a leaping spark closes the circle it was to trace, coming back to the eye and beyond.
Paul Klee
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Democracy with its semi-civilization sincerely cherishes junk. The artists power should be spiritual. But the power of the majority is material. When these worlds meet occasionally, it is pure coincidence.
Paul Klee
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Be winged arrows aiming at fulfillment and goal.
Paul Klee
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The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.
Paul Klee
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It is the artistic mission to penetrate as far as may be toward that secret ground where primal law feeds growth.
Paul Klee
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I want to be as though new-born, knowing nothing, absolutely nothing. Then I want to do something modest to work out by myself a tiny, formal motive, one that my pencil will be able to hold without technique.
Paul Klee
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In earlier days, even as a child, the beauty of landscapes was quite clear to me. A background for the soul's moods. Now dangerous moments occur when Nature tries to devour me at such times I am annihilated, but at peace. This would be fine for old people but I... I am my life's debtor, for I have given promises.
Paul Klee
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Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail. Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.
Paul Klee
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A tendency toward the abstract is inherent in linear expression: graphic imagery being confined to outlines has a fairy-like quality and at the same time can achieve great precision.
Paul Klee
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My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will.
Paul Klee
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What my art probably lacks is a kind of passionate humanity... There is no sensuous relationship, not even the noblest, between myself and the many.
Paul Klee
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Sometimes I dream of a work of really great breadth, ranging through the whole region of object, meaning, and style. This, I fear, will remain a dream, but it is a good thing to bear the possibility occasionally in mind.
Paul Klee
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A line is a dot that went for a walk.
Paul Klee
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Satire must not be a kind of superfluous ill will, but ill will from a higher point of view. Ridiculous man, divine God. Or else, hatred against the bogged-down vileness of average man as against the possible heights that humanity might attain.
Paul Klee
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Color has got me. I no longer need to chase after it. It has got me for ever. I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour.
Paul Klee
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A line comes into being. It goes out for a walk, so to speak, aimlessly for the sake of the walk.
Paul Klee
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Polyphonic painting is superior to music in that there, the time element becomes a spatial element. The notion of simultaneity stands out even more richly.
Paul Klee
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Art does not reproduce the visible it makes visible.
Paul Klee