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Art Quotes by Paul Klee

40 Art quotes by Paul Klee

All Art quotes Paul Klee’s page

Klee notes that art makes things visible or audible and that a harsh world pushes art toward abstraction. He praises children’s natural artistic talent and warns when science tries to dominate art. He also reminds us that great works often require sacrifice.

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Art makes something a lot more visible or audible.

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I paint in order not to cry.

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Drawing is the art of taking a line for a walk.

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“Art does not reproduce what we see. It makes us see.”

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A line is a dot that went for a walk.

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Art does not reproduce the visible; it makes visible.

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The work of art is above all a process of creation.

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Color and I are one. I am a painter.

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“Art does not reproduce what is visible, it makes things visible.”

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Art does not reflect what is seen, rather it makes the hidden visible.

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The worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself with art.

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All art is a memory of age-old things, dark things, whose fragments live on in the artist.

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Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

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Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.

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All the things an artist must be: poet, explorer of nature, philosopher!

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The more horrible this world (as today, for instance), the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art…

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In earlier times artists liked to show what was actually visible... nowadays we are concerned with reality, rather than the merely visible.

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Every artist would like to live in the central organ of creation... Not all are destined to get there... but our beating…

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When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

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The artist of today is more than an improved camera, he is more complex, richer, and wider. He is a creature on…

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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…

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Democracy with its semi-civilization sincerely cherishes junk. The artist's power should be spiritual. But the power of the majorityis material. When these…

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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;…

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Chosen are those artists who penetrate to the region of that secret place where primeval power nurtures all evolution. There, where the…

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Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in there having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are…

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We document, explain, justify, construct, organize: these are good things, but we do not succeed in coming to the whole. But we…

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From the root, the sap rises up into the artist, flows through him, flows to his eye. Overwhelmed and activated by the…

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There is plenty of room left for exact experiment in art, and the gate has been opened for some time. What had…

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One eye sees, the other feels.

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Art doesn't reflect what we see; it makes us see.

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Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar. Art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes visible.

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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…

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The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical…

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The Biblical story of the creation is an excellent parable of movement. The work of art, too, is above all a process…

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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…

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The creation of a work of art must of necessity, as a result of entering into the specific dimensions of pictorial art,…

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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.

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The beautiful, which is perhaps inseparable from art, is not after all tied to the subject, but to the pictorial representation. In…

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Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point…

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Spatial art does not begin with a poetic mood or idea, but with construction of one or more figures, with the harmonizing…

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More by Paul Klee

Art makes something a lot more visible or audible.

The creation lives as genesis beneath the visible surface of the work. All intelligent people see this after the fact, but only the creative…

The more horrible this world (as today, for instance), the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the…

Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in there having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples…

Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.

See with one eye, feel with the other.

“After all, it's rather difficult to achieve the exact minimum, and it involves risks.”

The worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself with art.

What my art probably lacks is a kind of passionate humanity... There is no sensuous relationship, not even the noblest, between myself and the…

The pictorial work was born of movement, is itself recorded movement, and is assimilated through movement (eye muscles).

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…

My hand is entirely the implement of a distant sphere. It is not my head that functions but something else, something higher, something somewhere…

I have a clear view of 12 years of history of my inner self. First the cramped self, that self with big blinkers, then…

When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

Colour has taken hold of me; no longer do I have to chase after it. I know that it has hold of me forever.…