Lawrence Cheng
GSI Tara Phillips
Discussion Section 103 (Fri. 1-2)
October 29, 2016
Paul Klee, born in 1879 in the country of Switzerland, was raised by Hans Klee—a music teacher—and a Swiss mother. Although he initially began his interests in the arts through music as he had played the violin, he ultimately began to turn his attention towards the visual arts during his teenage years. Attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1898, Paul Klee began to train as a painter, studying painting and drawing for three years while becoming involved with an Expressionist group called “Der Blaue Reiter” (The Blue Rider). At that point, Klee had been beginning to experiment with different forms of media and unique styles of art, such as by creating caricatures and Symbolist drawings. He was also influenced by various styles of art, such as Cubism, and by other famous artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Delaunay. Then in 1914, Klee went on a trip to Tunisia, an experience that exposed him to the true potential of color and pushed him towards an abstract form of artwork.
Believing in transcendentalism, Paul Klee considered the material world as just one of a multitude of realities that might be available for human awareness. As a result, he tried to make the design, colors, and patterns of his artwork reflect that philosophical principle, challenging the traditional boundaries for writing and the visual arts. For instance, in many of his art pieces, he would use an abstract and poetic language of signs and pictorial symbols, drawing arrows and hieroglyphs into his work. Klee also would break “academic” and traditional ways for painting oils on canvas, such as by spraying and stamping paint onto canvas. His modernist qualities were revealed through various paintings such as “Affected Place” [Betroffener Ort] (1922), where he uses many ambiguous signs and symbols over modulated purples and oranges. This piece of artwork also contained arrows that generated movement, shifting the eye of the viewer toward the center of the painting, ultimately creating a type of abstract sign system. Another famous painting that Klee created was “The Twittering Machine” [Die Zwitschermaschine] (1922), a painting alluding to a child’s toy with mechanical birds resting on a hand crank. Within this painting are underlying themes of Dadaism and Surrealist fantasy, helping to center this as a unique work of art. Klee also broke from the mold by using inventive techniques to make this, such as by drawing on top of a sheet covered in black oil pigment to create the effect of blurred lines and black marks.
I find Paul Klee particularly fascinating, as his work was able to defy the traditional ways of creating art forms and influence other artists, such as those belonging to the later generations of abstract expressionists, to also break away from homogenous methods of making art. Klee also greatly influenced musicians, such as Pierre Boulez, through his writings, as they began to also embrace spontaneity while composing. Instead of being confined to certain ways of creating art, artists became more liberated in their forms of expression and began to experiment in their techniques. This freedom in expression and this break from the conventional styles at the time relates to poets such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, who were part of the Imagist Movement at the time. As seen through poems such as “In the Station of the Metro” and “Libertad, Igualdad, Fraternidad”, these writers also began to break away from the romanticism form of writing that was prevalent at the time and started experimenting with new styles of writing. For instance, they began to employ free verse poetry and also played around with new rhythms in order to convey certain moods, paralleling the artistic experimentation that Paul Klee had been endorsing. Klee’s boldness in breaking tradition influenced others to do the same, allowing innovation to flourish during the Modernist Era.
Discussion Questions:
- What other examples of experimentation and breaking away from homogeneity have you seen in the other works we have read, and in what ways?
- Do individuals derive their own meaning from abstract pieces of art, or are there already inherent meanings in the artwork for viewers to find?
Works Cited
"Paul Klee Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
"Paul Klee Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
Leung, Anna. "Paul Klee – Making Visible at Tate Modern." The Art Section. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
Rewald, Author: Sabine. "Paul Klee (1879–1940)." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
Image Credits: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-klee-paul-artworks.htm#pnt_3
In response to your second question, I believe abstract art, especially Modernist abstract art, is meant to evoke an emotion in the viewer which gives them an understanding of the author's perspective. Because perspective varies, which we expect to see in Absalom Absalom! and the painting that makes the background of this blog, there cannot be one central message to abstract art. Rather, it must be a viewer's response or thought process upon viewing the piece.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, I believe that both approaches are correct. I think the artists themselves attempt to assign a meaning to he work they have created. However, their work is so subjective that viewers can interpret their work if many different ways.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your second question, I think that artists create a work with some sort of specific meaning in mind. I think though, the through the creative process, the viewer can find some meaning in the work that perhaps the artist did not directly intend or think about. I believe this is a fundamental aspect of art, the intention of the artist, finds more meaning through the eyes of the individual. This is what gives art power.
ReplyDeleteHi your post was great and definitely interesting. For the second question, I would like to say that each art is dependent on the artist. Some artists, I think, perform art for a purpose and to inform society while other forms of art can be free for interpretation for the audience.
ReplyDeleteTo address your second question, I personally believe that although abstract art may be considered more bizarre, it is still constructed by the artist with an intent. Although the meaning behind is instilled upon the art by the artist, it is still left up to the viewer to take away this meaning. This concept also touches on the notion of "the beauty is in the eye of the beholder" because we can all react very differently to the same piece of art.
ReplyDeleteI think that this second question also plays an interesting role when considering "art for the sake of art". It may be that abstract art does or does not have an intended meaning, but the viewer plays a role in creating a meaning for themselves.
ReplyDelete