Bell 2022

Paul Klee and War:
‘Art does not reproduce the visible, but

makes visible’
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for an

Honours degree in Philosophy, Murdoch University, 2022.
Harley Bell, B.A., Murdoch University

COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I acknowledge that a copy of this thesis will be held at the Murdoch University Library and the
University’s online Research Repository.
I understand that, under the provisions of s51.2 of the Copyright Act 1968, all or part of this thesis
may be copied without infringement of copyright where such a reproduction is for the purposes of
study and research.
This statement does not signal any transfer of copyright away from the author.
Signed: …………………………………………………………...
Full Name of Degree: Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy
Thesis Title: Paul Klee and War: ‘Art does not reproduce the visible,
but makes visible’
Author: Harley Bell
Year: 2022
I, Harley Bell declare that this dissertation is my own account of my research
and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted
for a degree at any University.
……………………………………..
ABSTRACT
In this thesis, I examine the life and work of Paul Klee and his struggle against the
mechanisation of society which led not only to its industrialisation but also to the formalisation of the
arts. I suggest further that Klee considered the mechanisation of society to be accelerated by the Great
War. Klee strives to confront this increasingly industrialised world through the development of his
art, while also reflecting on the very ability of art to address the industrialisation of the everyday life.
I examine Klee’s path in this struggle, beginning with his Diaries and also examine his published
text, the Creative Credo, written during the War. In the Creative Credo, Klee spells out his newly
found understanding of art. The motto from this text: “Art does not reproduce the visible but makes
visible” will guide my exploration of Klee’s artistic motivation. I also consider how the artwork of
Klee enables the viewer to pull away from the preoccupations and individual involvement of everyday
awareness to contemplate the complex “networks” that lay beneath. Klee’s art is not one-dimensional,
instead, by investigating complex networks and associations that lay beneath art and life Klee
challenges us to rethink art and life itself. 1 Klee’s artwork is still able to speak to the contemporary
viewer as it did then because we are still subjected to the same battles.
1 Wilshire, 1967. pp. 353-361.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like first to thank the Murdoch Philosophy community. I thank you for giving me the
opportunity to consider matters that are often neglected in other parts of life, for taking the time to
teach me different approaches, for guidance when I have asked, for your friendship and for your
inspiration.
Second, I thank my supervisor Ľubica Učník. Lubica has greatly influenced my life and has
long been my inspiration for continuing my studies. I will always be amazed by Lubica’s ability to
lead you towards understanding by laying out multiple paths but letting you choose which one to
follow.
Third, I thank Jane Macdonald for all your support, advice, and comfort over this journey.
Finally, to Morgan Bell-Macdonald, for who you are.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ___________________________________________________________________ I

ABSTRACT ______________________________________________________________________________________ III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS____________________________________________________________________________ IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS ______________________________________________________________________________ V
INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________________________ 1
CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL SETTING & DIARIES FROM WAR _________________________________________________ 4
INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________________________ 4
ART ILLUMINATING THE HORRORS OF WAR __________________________________________________________ 4
KLEE’S DIARIES & THE DEATH OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES ________________________________________________ 6
DESPONDENCY CREATED BY THE WAR & INDUSTRIALISATION ____________________________________________ 9
COMPARISONS OF ARTWORKS BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE WAR ___________________________________ 11
KLEE’S WORK FOLLOWING THE WAR & LEADING TO THE BAUHAUS ______________________________________ 15
CONCLUSION _________________________________________________________________________________ 16
CHAPTER 2: THE BAUHAUS & KLEE __________________________________________________________________ 18
INTRODUCTION _______________________________________________________________________________ 18
HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE BAUHAUS ____________________________________________________________ 19
WHAT THE BAUHAUS STOOD FOR _________________________________________________________________ 21
CONCLUSION _________________________________________________________________________________ 33
CHAPTER 3: HISTORY OF ART & KLEE’S THEORIES (CREATIVE CREDO) ______________________________________ 35
INTRODUCTION _______________________________________________________________________________ 35
WAR & THE CREATIVE CREDO _____________________________________________________________________ 36
PURPOSE & FOCUS OF THE CREATIVE CREDO ________________________________________________________ 39
ART’S CONNECTION TO EXPERIENCE & WHY IS IT THAT KLEE SPEAKS TO THE VIEWERS OF TODAY _______________ 45
CONCLUSION _________________________________________________________________________________ 49
CONCLUSION ____________________________________________________________________________________ 50
REFERENCES ____________________________________________________________________________________ 53
INTRODUCTION
In this thesis, I examine the life and work of Paul Klee and his struggle against the
mechanisation, leading to industrialisation of society and the arts. I suggest that Klee’s experience of
the Great War and its mechanised nature, made him realise the larger problem of industrialisation that
was already penetrating society. 1 Hence, I discuss Klee’s experience of the War including the
devastation that the War unleashed on German society. Following his Diaries, I suggest that the
devastation of the War led to Klee’s reflection on the role of art. He becomes mindful also of the way
art could help the young ones who had survived the War but had no life to return to. I examine Klee’s
path as he continues to develop his artistic motivations as a response to the struggles of the War and
the industrialisation of the time. I will offer reading from Klee’s Diaries and from the text Creative
Credo, written during the War, to elaborate Klee’s views on his own artistic development. I contend
that the influence the War – and the accelerated industrialisation – had on Klee’s work is largely
overlooked in the scholarship on Klee and as such is the focus of my thesis.
Klee’s realisation of the influence of War continues during his teaching at the Bauhaus, which
is another important period relevant to his art. After the War, Klee began teaching at the Bauhaus
with the hopes that the artistic community would be able to encourage new ways of thinking for
students, most of them returning from the trenches of the War. However, over time, as I will detail in
my thesis, the initial creative intensions of the Bauhaus dissolved as it became more industry focused,
gradually seeing art itself as a superfluous exercise. In his work, the Creative Credo, Klee spells out
his newly found understanding of art, as I will discuss further in the following chapters. The motto
from his text: “Art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible” guides Klee and his students. As
Klee realised, the importance of art is to guide us through troubling times, but it can also illuminate
aspects of life that we overlook amidst everyday life.
1Throughout my thesis, I will interchangeably use “War” and the “Great War” when discussing the War from 28 July 1914 and
ended on 11 November 1918 now known as the First World War or WW1 or WWI. This is because it was known as this is the time
of Klee and his contemporaries.
1
Through art, Klee was able to illuminate matters of the time and to critique them, as his
artwork the Twittering Machine (1922) illustrates. The Museum of Modern Art’s notation on the
artwork encapsulates Klee’s approach, the Twittering Machine’s birds “function as bait to lure the
victims to the pit over which the machine hovers”. 2 Here, Klee’s confrontation with the devastations
of War, was also a battle with the impacts of industrialisation that stifled human life, luring it into a
“pit of damnation.” 3 As I discuss, Klee believed that art and human experience are grounded in nature,
an understanding that humans are always tied to the earth. In this way, the Twittering Machine
ridicules the impossibility of machine to replicate what is essential to human life. For Klee,
mechanism cannot replace the beauty of nature. As I discuss, this particular theme is indicative of an
impetus that informs Klee’s art and theory, as well as his teaching and it is an extension of his motto
to search for ‘invisible’ and bring it into the open through art. It was through teaching that Klee
believed he could promote new ideas and ways of thinking for the future generations.
The method I employ in this thesis is a combination of textual and critical analysis, paying
attention to the primary texts of Klee, and his artworks. I also address the secondary literature
concerning Klee’s work in order to assess his attitude towards art. An approach that sought to
illuminate questions that, at the time, may be overlooked.
In Chapter One, in order to outline my overall argument that Klee strives to confront the
effects of War and increasing industrialisation by reflecting on his art, I present the historical context
of Klee’s time and his reaction to the experience of the War. I use material from his Diaries as well
as a selection of Klee’s artwork to further demonstrate the impact of the War on Klee and his struggle
against industrialisation.
In Chapter Two, I consider Klee’s reaction to the changes in the Bauhaus. I suggest that Klee’s
teaching at the Bauhaus gave him an opportunity to guide the younger generation which had been
2 Seymour, 2019, p. 19.

3 Seymour, 2019, p. 19.
2
devastated by War. The time at the Bauhaus allowed him to realise the possibility of art as a way to
re-examine problems that he lived through. Klee’s mission was to teach students the critical potential
of art as something that can “make visible” what may be overlooked in their everyday life. The
problems might seem unsurmountable, but art can help them at the time of uncertainty. His tuitions
were to provide students with techniques, as well as artistic ‘points of departure,’ to find an underlying
meaning that could not previously be expressed or considered.
Finally, in Chapter Three, I present Klee’s theories from the Creative Credo to consider the
impacts of War and industrialisation on his conceptual writings. Klee used the Creative Credo as a
guiding reference throughout his life, maintaining that art has an ability to uncover “more truths”,
unseen in everyday experiences. As Bruce Wilshire comments, the viewer of art is able to stand back
and consider human concerns unapologetically, which opens up possibilities of community. 4 Through
the artwork of Klee, the viewer can take the opportunity to pull away from the preoccupations and
individual involvement in the everyday life and contemplate the complex “networks” that lay beneath
the artwork of Klee, and ultimately human life itself. Klee’s art is not one-dimensional. Instead, as I
argue in this thesis, we are able to investigate complex networks and associations that lay beneath art
and life that Klee challenges us to rethink. We can challenge through art life itself. 5 I conclude this
chapter by addressing the work of John Berger, who claims – similar to Klee – that art and community
are interdependent.
The aim of my thesis is to examine both Klee’s art, and his conceptions of what art is, while
also considering his understanding of the role of a teacher. Klee’s aim was to teach his students ways
of how to critically respond to the present; by rethinking what is invisible in our everyday experience
and what art can make visible.
4 Wilshire, 1967. pp. 353-361.

5 Wilshire, 1967. pp. 353-361.
3
CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL SETTING & DIARIES FROM WAR
INTRODUCTION
In this thesis, I will examine the life and work of Paul Klee and his struggle against the
mechanisation of society and arts, which the Great War accelerated. In this chapter, I will provide the
historical context to Klee’s path that travelled to formulate his artistic direction to enable him to
express his frustration with the War and its impact on German society. In particular, here, I will
concentrate on Klee’s life around the time of the Great War. After the War, as he writes in his Diaries,
human life was being profoundly altered by the devastations of War and changing political views and
attitudes in Germany. I will suggest that it is possible to understand his artwork and Klee’s response
to the time as his realisation of the War’s devastation wrecked upon German society. Specifically, in
the latter half of 1918, continuing into 1919 with the creation of the Weimar Republic, Klee was part
of the socialist movement where people were searching for new ways of thinking due to the
disillusionment following the Great War. The question that Klee grapples with is – how was it
possible to let human lives to be destroyed in such a way? Klee’s confusion and shock after the War
motivated him to reflect on the role of art, in order to help him to understand and communicate a way
of seeing the post-war world. Here, I will pay attention to The Diaries of Paul Klee (Diaries), 1898-
1918 (1992) to provide an insight to Klee’s direction and artwork especially around the Great War.
At the time, Klee sets his path more clearly as an artist and embarks on his most productive years.
I will consider Klee’s Diaries and the Zeitgeist in Germany, to provide the post-war historical
situation that influenced Klee as well as many artists of the period while they were coming to terms
with the devastations of the Great War. Klee in his Diaries, as I will discuss, expresses a frustration
with post-war situation as well as the industrialised ways of the time.
ART ILLUMINATING THE HORRORS OF WAR

The disaster of War forced people to re-examine many things and led them to search for new
ways of thinking. The historical setting and influence the War had on Klee (1879-1940) and his
artwork is often overlooked by commentators. For many artists and politicians (among others), the
4
previously unfathomable devastation that happened during the War led to attempts to understand,
reflect, and deal with the ‘causes’ of the War and its aftershock. It was during 1918, the final year of
the Great War, that Klee wrote the Creative Credo 1, a text that I will focus on as part of Chapter
Three. I will suggest that the ideas contained in the Creative Credo can be seen developing in Klee’s
earlier Diaries. As I will discuss in Chapter Three, In Creative Credo, Klee points to art’s ability to
provide different ways of looking at the world around us, which, as he states, is not usually possible
within the distractions brought about by our everyday living, or, more importantly, at times of
catastrophes. 2 Klee writes, “Art plays in the dark, with ultimate things and yet it reaches them.” 3 In
1906, when he was still developing himself as an artist, 4 Klee reflects on the art and asserts that art is
more than just a drawing, art had a higher purpose. In other words, “a drawing simply is no longer a
drawing, no matter how self-sufficient its execution may be. It is a symbol, and the more profoundly
the imaginary lines of projection meet higher dimensions, the better.” 5 This ability of art to be more
than just a stagnant technical drawing, only produced by a trained skill, is a notion that continued
throughout Klee’s life. Klee also made a connection between the horrors of War and the creation of
abstract art. Klee believed that the horrors of War and abstraction could not be separated, or to put
another way, just understanding War in photographic visual terms did not truly illustrate the atrocities
of War and abstract art could communicate better those sensibilities. As Klee writes in Diaries during
the onset of the Great War, “The more horrible this world (as today, for instance), the more abstract
our art…” 6 As mentioned, these ideas continue through the life and works of Klee. At the time he
1 Klee, 1961.
2 Klee, 1961, p. 80. In this section of Klee’s text, he concludes that “Art plays in the dark, with ultimate things and yet it reaches
them.” From this, Klee continues to call on his fellow humans (‘man’) to arise and enjoy the ‘holiday’ or ‘villégiature’ in French.
Effectively, Klee is connecting the ability of art to further experience the ‘holiday’ of life, saying how it can “change your viewpoint”
from “a world that distracts you, and gives you strength for the inevitable return to work-a-day grey.” I understand this to be Klee’s
way of saying how the distractions of life limit it from investigating, enjoying, and experiencing what is around us, and Klee sees art
as having this ability to be a gateway for this access.
The ‘distractions’ of life could be compared to ‘hypernormalisation’, a term originally coined for the feeling in living in the last years
of the Soviet Union. This is where all of the Soviet society was aware of the corruption and political issues of the time but also knew
that there was no alternative vision. This created a sense of society ‘fakeness’ that no one believed in or wanted, however still
accepted and operated in as normal. The issues were seen as unavoidable and therefore accepted. ‘Hypernormalisation’ is also used
by the director Adam Curtis in his 2012 documentary of the same name, using it to point to Germany’s feeling of the National
Socialist Party as well as the confusion and uncertainty that we live in today.
3 Klee, 1961, p. 80.
4 In his text, Paul Klee: His Works and Thought (1991), Franciscono says this period around 1906 was Klee’s “making of a modern
artist”.
5 Klee, 1992, p. 183, entry 660.
6 Klee, 1992, p. 313, entry 951.
5
was drawn to the power of art to express different ways of looking at the everyday. The art, as he
comments, gives the artist the power to illuminate the horrors of the time through his abstract art.
KLEE’S DIARIES & THE DEATH OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES

As Klee’s son Felix writes in the preface of the Diaries, the Diaries throw open the
“encompassing world of Klee”, his personal confessions and reflections that show a struggle with
human and artistic challenges that confront any developing and serious artist. 7 The Diaries provide a
“marvellous” insight into Klee’s thinking and his art for the “younger generations” or any observer
of Klee’s work. 8 Klee was stationed at a flying school where he was able to write and draw during
the War. 9 By assessing the entries from the Great War, 1914-1918, including the time when he served
as a military officer, we can examine his attitude regarding the War especially near its end; where he
writes about the suppression of the “revolutionary spirit” that hoped for progress and prosperity for
society, as well as the machine-like military operations of the army. 10 Exhausted in the final months
of the War, Klee’s desperation is clear. His reflections about performing his military tasks around the
airfield highlight his concerns: “Duties [are] now performed in a purely mechanical way. I won’t be
able to take it much longer.” 11 It is also indicative of Klee’s worries related to his creative work. The
monotonous, mechanical processes and existence at the final stages of War was stifling for Klee’s
creative mind.
To provide further historical information about Klee, beginning his life as a talented musician
and draftsman, according to Ann Temkin, in the Dictionary of Art (1996), Klee had a wide-ranging
intellectual curiosity that was evident in his art. 12 Klee’s art was profoundly influenced by many
different sources and containing structures and themes often drawn from music, nature, and poetry. 13
7 Klee, 1992, preface, ix.

8 Klee, 1992, preface, ix.
9 Temkin, 1996, pp. 110.
10 Klee, 1992, pp. 406-408. The term “revolutionary spirit” is one that Klee uses when writing to his son. According to Forgács,
though revolutionary sentiments were short-lived, the post-war dream was still that prosperity would be found after the War, seeing it
as an opportunity for change. Forgács, 1995, pp.14-15
11 Klee, 1992, pp. 408-411.
12 Temkin, 1996, pp. 108.
13 Temkin, 1996, pp. 108-113.
6
As Temkin notes, through the phases of Klee’s life, he changed and varied his style of works;
sketches, geometrical landscapes, the influence of colour and, finally, in his final works at the end of
his life, Klee’s work appeared childlike and touched upon the subject of death. 14 While the work of
Klee had confronted death previously, the impacts of a severe illness (Scleroderma) lead Klee to
increasing consider his own mortality. During this later period of life, specifically from 1937 onwards,
the changes in the work of Klee is observable as the style is seen to be simpler and more curved. 15
The reason for this change in style remains to be investigated. 16
Prior to the Great War, Klee was a member of the avant-garde artist’s small group The Blue
Rider (Der Blaue Reiter). For Klee, as he notes in his Diaries, the group was a “radical offshoot”
from formal private galleries in Germany. It provided Klee with a sense of optimism and belonging
that he lacked previously. 17 Through exhibitions and collaboration, the group, The Blue Rider,
encouraged Klee to experiment with abstract, Cubist styled art. 18 According to Marcel Franciscono
in Paul Klee: His Work and Thought (1991), the human and creative connection of the group of
artists, The Blue Rider, also brought Klee out of his artistic isolation. 19 Klee formed a strong friendship
with two of The Blue Rider founding members, German Expressionist painter, Franz Marc (1880-
1916), and the cubist artist August Marcke (1887-1914). 20 As Franciscono notes, Klee was
enthusiastic about the works of both Marc and Marcke and their friendships enabled him to become
more intwined with the artistic circles of Germany. 21 Effectively, these friendships encouraged Klee’s
artistic motivation prior to the Great War. Eventually, the deaths of both Marc and Marcke at the
Western Front were one of the influences that impacted the artistic direction of Klee.
As Franciscono writes, except for being published in war journals, Klee’s artworks at the time
of the Great War lacked the pathos of the propaganda like expression that was indicative of most of
14 Temkin, 1996, pp. 108-113.

15 Franciscono, 1991, pp. 284–289.
16 Franciscono, 1991, pp. 288.
17 Klee, 1992, pp. 265-267.
18 Klee 1992. 267. Entry 907, Klee writes “‘Der Blaue Reiter’ so the thing is called. Enterprising “editors” Kandinsky and Marc have
already organised a second show this winter.”

19 Franciscono, 1991, p. 139.
21 Franciscono, 1991, pp. 139-140.
7
the artists at the time. As is discussed in many historical accounts of the period, most futurists’
paintings focused on the activity and progress of War. 22 By contrast, Klee’s artwork at the time of the
Great War portrayed War in a “ironic and idiosyncratic manner”. 23 As documented in his Diaries,
Klee expressed a “contempt” for the War. Yet his artwork remained ambiguous. His views early in
the War could not be clearly discerned. This ambiguity changed after the death of his artistic friend,
Marc. 24 With the death of his friends, Klee’s artistic responses to War became more explicit.
In contrast to Klee’s attitude to War, Marc had a “naïve enthusiasm about adventures in the
field”, seeing War as an opportunity for “purification” of their country and a means to remove the
“unhealthy blood” from the “fatherland”. 25 Marc’s views are in stark contrast to Klee’s “contempt”
for the War, and, according to Franciscono, Marc romanticised War. 26 Klee was frustrated by Marc’s
and the German society’s early romanticism of War. In his Diaries, Klee discusses his interactions
and difficult dialogue about War with Marc over several entries. 27 Klee observes that the War had
changed Marc, not just physically but mentally – I suggest that Klee saw the progress, restrictions,
and commands of War effect Marc. Klee notes that about Marc that “The continuous pressure and
loss of freedom clearly weighed on him”. 28 Their differences in attitudes towards the War gradually
caused distance between the two. 29 Yet, when Marc died at the Western Front in March 1916, Klee
was struck with a profound level of grief. 30 Moreover, not only the loss of his friend to the horrendous
War, but also the changed backdrop of the War marked by the wounded returning from the War with
disabilities have a profound impact on Klee.

24 Franciscono, 1991, p. 206. Franciscono writes how the diaries and letters of Klee clearly express his contempt for the War.
25 Hopfengart & Baumgarter, Paul Klee: Life and Work, 2012, p. 90.
26 Franciscono, 1991, p. 206. Franciscono writes how Klee’s feelings towards the War cannot be dismissed. He writes, “there is
ample evidence to show that his reaction to it was a far more complex matter…” Marc in contrast, was one of the first to enrol when
the War broke out.
27 Hopfengart & Baumgarter, 2012, p. 90.
28 Klee, 1992, p. 319.
30 Tempkin, 1996, “Paul Klee”, The Dictionary of Art, p.109.
8
The death of August Marcke at the Western Front in September 1914 shocked Klee also.
These close personal experiences of death made Klee realise the horrific nature of War even more. 31
Even though Klee was away from the front line, the realities of War had become more startling, and
as a result, Klee turned to abstract work that had helped to deal with the loss and horror through
“heightened luminosity and motifs”. 32 Klee notes in his Diaries a connection between the horror of
War unfolding around him and his turn towards abstraction. 33 This realisation of Klee and his
distinctive work during the War, and near the time of Marc’s death, is revealed by his painting Death
of the Idea (or, Dying for Cause) from 1915. As the title of the artwork reveals, Death of the Idea (or,
Dying for Cause), the artwork is not just a reaction to Marc’s death, but it also makes clear that it is
not just a physical death but the death of Marc’s beliefs about War that he discussed with Klee. To
put it differently, the title indicates Klee’s realisation of the end of the romance with War. It is a
recognition of the end of the idea or cause, that also stands for the dying of the romantic idea of the
country when the horrors of War were being exposed. I the following, if the earlier artworks of Klee
are compared to those during the War, I suggest it is possible to see a change in his artistic direction
that was influenced by the mechanical brutality of War.
DESPONDENCY CREATED BY THE WAR & INDUSTRIALISATION

Prior to his machine-like artworks like the Twittering Machine, 1922, Klee’s despondency
towards the War and Germany’s increased industrialisation can also be found in his Diaries. Through
Klee’s entries we can glimpse his changing attitudes toward the War and his place in society. At the
onset of the Great War in 1914, in his Diary, Klee discusses his understanding of his place in society.
As he writes, he is part of a lost land and society that has no memory of what it was, a country that is
now “reinless”. According to him, “Misery[.] Land without ties, new land[.] With no warm breath of
memory, With the smoke of a strange hearth. Reinless! Where no mother’s womb carried me.” 34 With
31 Hopfengart & Baumgarter, Paul Klee: Life and Work, 2012, p. 89.
32 Tempkin, 1996, “Paul Klee”, Dictionary of Art, p. 110. Furthermore, according to Temkin, they also sometimes had an
“Expressionist “air” to them.
33 Tempkin, 1996, “Paul Klee”, Dictionary of Art, p. 110.
34 Klee, 1992, p. 309. Entry 934. The diary entry has the note “Between 934 and 935, war broke out.”, indicating this is the time
when the War commenced.
9
the progression of War, Klee’s become noticeably darker and cryptic, “Only one thing in me is true:
in me, a weight, a little stone;” “Human animal, timepiece built of blood.” 35 These darker entries are
a clear deviation from those prior to the outbreak of the War. Earlier entries in the Diaries, only
months prior to those above, are simple and mainly cover his activities, like spending two hours at a
station to have breakfast, 36 or being awoken by a roommate brushing their teeth. 37 The demoralising
impact of the War on Klee becomes explicit in his writing.
Another theme is important in Klee’s outlook at the times. As I will later show in the case of
Twittering Machine, 1922, Klee questions the wider framework of the War’s catastrophic unfolding
and his entries suggest that science has no ability to understand all aspects of human life. In the same
months during the previous diary entries that are at the onset of the War, Klee questions the role of
science in the modern world. As I already suggested, there is a link here between the industrialisation
accelerated by War and Klee’s questioning of science that shapes the modern view of the world. Klee
asks, “Cannot science work its way out of just being repetitive?” 38 At this entry of Klee’s Diaries,
Klee’s statement about science is specifically in reference to his opposing views with a friend and
neuropsychiatrist Fritz Lotmar (1878 - 1964). Klee describes their relationship as defined by “a thick
fence” erected between them. The issue of discontent was Lotmar’s view concerning biological and
scientific explanations of human behaviour. Lotmar was a comprehensively trained neurologist. 39 In
another section of the Diaries, Klee is more explicit about his scepticism for science and its role in
art and human life. Klee writes, “But the worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself
with art.” 40 Though briefly mentioned in his entries, Klee’s underlying frustration is consistent with
his artwork that mockingly points to the shortcomings of the scientific and industrialised world’s
35 Klee, 1992, p. 310. Entry 936. This entry contains the cryptic quote: “Only one thing is true: in me, a weight, a little stone.” And at
entry 937. “One eye sees, the other feels.” And entry 938. “Human animal, timepiece built of blood.”
36 Klee, 1992, pp. 305-307. Entry 926u.
37 Klee, 1992 pp. 305-307. Entry 926t.
38 Klee, 1992, p. 315. Entry 957.
39 Fuchs. 2016, pp. 55–78.
40 Klee, 1992, p. 194. Entry 747.
10
efforts to control and replicate those in nature. For Klee, in his Diaries, the issue is the increasingly
industrialised and formularised mechanised world.
COMPARISONS OF ARTWORKS BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE

WAR
In order to visually summarise the changes of Klee’s style over the years and suggest the
impact of industrialisation in Klee’s work, I will present the artworks of Klee in three different
categories: before, during, and after the Great War. I will suggest that these ‘visual representations’
of Klee’s expressionist and abstract perspective reveal how the artistic motivation of Klee was
impacted by the War and its industrialised, mechanical nature.
Paul Klee, In the Quarry, 1913.
Paul Klee, Untitled, 1914.
The first two artworks presented above, In the Quarry, 1913, and, Untitled, 1914, were
completed prior to the War when Klee began to see himself more clearly as a painter and use colour
prevalently. In his entries, written prior to the War, Klee often associated colour with beauty,
11
tenderness, virtuosity, and happiness. 41 The colours and landscapes Klee created at this time align
with the optimistic views of an artist beginning to discover their style. As he writes in 1914, “Color
possesses me… Color and I are one. I am a painter.” 42 The above paintings were created before his
conscription to the War. It is instructive to see the changes of his style, after his direct experiences of
War and the death of his artistic friends. His style had changed substantially.
Paul Klee, Death on the Battlefield, 1914.
Paul Klee, Death for the Idea, 1915.
41 Klee, 1992, p. 297. Entry 926 o. In this entry 926, Klee seems delighted with colours which he more certainly identifies with
during his trip to Tunisia in 1914. Closer to 1906, at p.126, entry 431 of the Diaries, Klee writes “How beautiful thou art in colors
which are only a semblance of colors.”
42 Klee, 1995, p. 297. Entry 926 o.
12
Two above artworks of Klee’s are direct responses to War and, once again, representative of the
further changes. According to Hopfengart & Baumgartner in the book Paul Klee: Life and Work
(2012), Klee translated the “destructive energy of War into nervous lines and hatchings”. 43
Furthermore, as Hopfengart & Baumgartner write, after the deaths of his friends, August Marcke and
Franz Marc, Klee’s “renunciation of the world through art increased”. 44 The two artworks above,
Death on the Battlefield (or, Battlefield), 1914 and Death of the Idea (or, Dying for Cause), 1915, are
examples of Klee’s response to the War. Death on the Battlefield, 1914, was produced by Klee for a
war periodical, A War Diary by Artists, whereby artists published both written and visual work about
their feelings regarding the War. 45 According to Hopfengart & Baumgartner, Klee’s art and his second
image above, Death of the Idea (or, Dying for Cause), 1915, begins to show the discrepancy of idea
of a “new beginning” that War promised and the horrific realities of War on humans. As I have
already discussed above, Death of the Idea (or, Dying for Cause), 1915, shows a man with a German
helmet at the bottom of a flurry of lines. 46 According to Hopfengart & Baumgartner, the “vehement
and uncontrolled lines” are a visual form of the destruction that strikes the victim at the bottom of a
“superstructure” symbolic of sacrificial death. 47 As I am arguing here, we can see the way of
destruction of War and how Klee has dealt with it in his paintings.
Paul Klee, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine), 1922.

45 Klee’s artwork was not always understood at the time. Franciscono mentions how an art editor, Stein, considered the style ‘too
abstract.” Franciscono, 1991, p.207.

13
Paul Klee, Analysis of Diverse Various Perversities, 1922.
I propose that Klee’s work is a trajectory from responding to the horror of War to his critique
of the War’s accelerated industrialisation in his post-war paintings. After the War and beginning in
his time at the Bauhaus, the lines within Klee’s works begin to represent machine-like apparatus.
Twittering Machine, 1922, above, is perhaps the best example of Klee’s opposition of the mechanical
and industrial that begins to be represented in his artwork. According to Shapiro’s close analysis of
Klee’s Twittering Machine, Klee’s painting contains a sharp sense of sarcasm that has a tragic sense.
Using the description of another theorist, Janson, Shapiro writes that Klee has created, with “just a
few simple lines”, a “ghostly mechanism that imitates the sound of birds, simultaneously mocking
our faith in the miracles of the machine age and our sentimental appreciation of bird song.” 48 Klee
invites the viewer to reflect on the industrialisation of the world and its violent subjugation of nature.
A similar mechanical work at this time is Analysis of the Diverse Various Perversities, 1922.
Via discussion of these different paintings, I aimed to show how Klee’s frustration and
reaction to the experiences of War transitioned into a realised opposition to the industrial and
mechanical. As I have already noted, to understand the work of Klee, it is necessary to understand
the ideas that Klee was aiming to illuminate and make visible in his art. Klee expressed sentiments
of the time that were perhaps not even fully realised in society. Klee did not just illustrate direct
experiences or impacts of the War, he was also concerned with the surrounding nature and spirit of
48 Shapiro, 1968, pp. 67-69.
14
the world which was expressed abstractly through his artwork. 49 Through the impact and acceleration
of War, Klee began an abstract battle against the mechanical and industrial nature of the world that
had no room for human life.
KLEE’S WORK FOLLOWING THE WAR & LEADING TO THE BAUHAUS

In the Diaries of Paul Klee, that continue to the end of the Great War, we can follow his
personal thoughts and reflections that make it possible to understand what Klee was responding to in
his artwork. The entries I have focused on are those where the War’s impact on Klee is made clear,
and where he expresses distaste for the increasingly industrialised and mechanised world. What is
striking after the political and social changes following the Great War, is the lack of hope in the new
age in Klee’s artwork. 50 The end of the War did not change Klee’s attitude. It seems to indicate that
for Klee, although the War had ended, the world had not changed that dramatically. Even though it
was a time of apparent “new awakening”, as Franciscono writes, “Not a single work of his, so far as
I know, unequivocally expresses faith in the New Age. He remains skeptical throughout.” 51
After the Great War, Klee’s artistic approach changed to be work extensively with oil for the
first time, painting mysterious landscapes in intense colours. 52 Even though he was sceptical of the
new age, as I discussed previously, the sense of freedom and opportunity influenced his artwork.
Carola Giedion-Welcker comments how, immediately after the War and before his employment as a
teacher of art, “Klee seems to flourish like a tropical plant”, as if it was through the constraints of the
War that he was able to establish his “roots”. 53 As I will discuss in the following chapter, this growth
that Geidion-Welcker mentions is key to Klee’s time at the Bauhaus, a school that aimed to facilitate
the union of craft and fine art. I will pay attention to Klee’s time at the Bauhaus in order to more
clearly establish how, even though the War had ended, Klee still battled against industrial frameworks
and principles of order.

50 Franciscono, 1991, pp. 226-227.
52 Tempkin, 1996, “Paul Klee”, Dictionary of Art, p. 110.
53 Di San Lazzero, p. 97.
15
As I have shown in this chapter, when we take into account Klee’s Diaries and various entries,
a different picture emerges. The War plays a crucial role in his creative impulse. In their text, Paul
Klee: Selected by Genius, 1917-1933 (2007), Roland Doschka writes about Klee’s many works and
how they were, in fact, inspired by his immediate surroundings, while the experience of War escapes
their consideration. Therefore, the question might be – if all Klee’s art was influenced by his
surroundings, as Doschka stresses, then how did the War influence Klee’s art? Or, perhaps, to put it
differently, ‘What was it that spurred creativity and led him to certainty of his now chosen artistic
mission?
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I have compared the works of Klee before, during and after the War, showing
the changes in his style. I have suggested that Klee is not only reacting to the impacts of the War but
also the accelerated industrialisation of the time. Klee was impacted by closer experiences to the War
but the underlying issues he had with industrialisation continued in his art following the War.
Fundamentally, I have stressed the proximity of Klee’s increased creative output, focused direction
and production of artwork that reacts to the mechanical nature of War and accelerated
industrialisation of the time. Klee’s creativity and artistic motivation seemed to be generated by the
experience of the War, as though it was a powerful turning point that gave him inspiration. 54 By
concentrating on the historical context surrounding Klee’s life at the time of the Great War and before
he continues to teach at the Bauhaus, as I have discussed above, I have aimed to help understand what
Klee was responding to, and the source of his artistic motivation. Though Klee’s art deviates in style,
there is an underlying battle by Klee against both the mechanical nature of War that disregards human
life and, by extension, the accelerated industrialisation of the time.
Included in the final pages of the Diaries, that finish at the end of the Great War, is the note
by Klee requesting release from the army. In this note, Klee writes how he would “incur great damage
54Klee, 1992, p. 408. During Klee’s period of military service covered in Klee’s Diaries, Klee writes about his daily experience of
War, detailing his movement between locations by horse cart, illnesses, shortage of supplies, the level of pay, while also,
occasionally, touching on what surrounded him, noting that he seems to sit in the middle “in all this chaos”.
16
by being retained any longer in the army” because he is needed to be a teacher of art. 55 Through the
time and experience of the War, Klee became more assured and certain of his artistic motivation. As
I will discuss in the following Chapter Two, it is with this certainty and clarity of direction that Klee
begins teaching at the Bauhaus directly after the end of the Great War. Following the War, Klee not
only expanded creatively, but he also began to consider, examine, and theorise his work more deeply.
55 Klee, 1992, pp. 410-411.
17
CHAPTER 2: THE BAUHAUS & KLEE
INTRODUCTION
In the previous chapter, I discussed the impact of the War concomitant with the accelerated
industrialisation of German society to advance my overall thesis where I argue that Klee’s footing
within and battle against the mechanisation of arts and society that was not conducive to human life
are key to understanding his work. Here, in order to expand my discussion of Klee’s battle against
the mechanisation of arts and society, I will concentrate on his time at the Bauhaus, to further
elucidate how despite beginning his time at the Bauhaus to teach methods of expression, Klee still
found himself situated within the mechanisation as the School eventually changed from its initial
direction.
Following the end of the Great War, Klee began teaching at the Bauhaus school of art, design,
and architecture. His work included not just pedagogical focus, but he had also begun to reflect on
his work in a more theoretical and methodical way, analysing and understanding his creations in a
conscious manner. These reflections were a part of his lectures and notes, which he used to instruct
his students and pass on his “inventiveness”, as Klee observed himself. 1 This period also became the
most productive creative period of his life. Initially, Klee hoped not only to train students to become
technical experts of their creative fields but also to help them to explore new ways of expression
reflecting on the situation they have found themselves in. 2 In the later years of the School, the
curriculum was slowly repositioned away from art to focus on architecture, this change created a
greater division between the liberal arts and industrial design fields of the School. 3 At the same time,
the political tensions were also increasing, internally from the increased division of arts and industrial,
and externally from “antagonistic experts” who disagreed with the School’s direction. 4 The changes
1 The reference to “inventiveness” is taken from a letter to Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) dated May 12, 1919, prior to Klee’s
employment and when hearing of Gropius’s conception for the Bauhaus school. Klee writes “As a theoretical experimental station
we would not train original creators…; rather, we would be able to pass on the results of our inventiveness to the people as a whole.”
The letter is quoted in full by Franciscono in Paul Klee, His Work and Thought, 1991, p. 241.
2 Geidion-Welcker, 1950, p.50.
3 Geelhaar 1973, p. 14.
4 Geelhaar 1973, p. 14.
18
meant that Klee became “increasingly torn between the demands made on him by teaching and his
work as an artist.” 5 As the School gradually reduced artistic and creative qualities, pushing them
further to the background, Klee was no longer comfortable with his role at the Bauhaus.
It is important to note that the Bauhaus was established initially to revitalise means of artistic
creation that the founder, Gropius, believed to be lost through the Industrial Revolution and ultimately
the Great War. The School began out of concern that industrialisation was encroaching the world
leaving no room for human life that could be expressed uniquely through art. In the later years at the
Bauhaus, Klee’s role, and the Bauhaus’ use of art in the curriculum, had become more reduced as the
School leaned more heavily towards a strict functionalist point of view that favoured economy,
efficiency, and use of what was created. Strict functionalist ways did not prioritise art. During his
time at the Bauhaus, Klee opposed the functionalist ways that changed the School. At this time, a
battle against the mechanical nature of production begins to be seen in Klee’s work.
To address Klee’s artistic direction and influence, I will first outline what the Bauhaus was,
when Klee came to teach there, and, also, what the School stood for in a description of its founder
and his successors, because the Bauhaus is important for development of Klee’s creative work. It is
also important to pay attention to the times when Klee accepted his work there. Klee began teaching
at the Bauhaus following the devastations of the Great War, which shaped this entire period, as I have
discussed in the previous chapter. Here I will set out an analysis of the Bauhaus and an influence it
had on Klee’s artistic development.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE BAUHAUS

According to many commentators, 6 Klee’s time of teaching and living at the Bauhaus (1920–
1931) was very important for the formation of his artistic direction. 7 Not only was Klee able to grow
5 Salley, 2007, p. 10.

6 Salley, 2007, pp.9-10 writes “Klee was able to devote himself to intensive theoretical study of the creative process and to focus his
thoughts on where he personally was headed. According to Giedion-Welcker in Paul Klee (1952), “His new teaching duties led
naturally to an increased consciousness of his own working methods and techniques.” Giedion-Welcker, 1952, p. 50.
7 “There is no doubt that the Bauhaus contributed greatly to the evolution of both Klee and Kandinsky’s thought, to the formation of
their personal theories and to their particular dialectic.” Di San Lazzaro, G, 1957, p. 117
19
and develop his theories from painting and practicing art at the Bauhaus, 8 but by becoming a teacher,
Klee was allowed to guide the youth of his time. By teaching them the practice of art and opportunities
that art allowed, Klee was able to guide youth to express the frustrations and uncertainty following
the Great War through art. For Klee, art can bring light to aspects of life that were silenced by political
powers or societal norms. Klee was constantly searching introspectively for “new solutions to achieve
the deepest level of meaning” and experimented with processes of the creation of art to achieve this. 9
He expressed both the sentiment of the time through his artistic methodologies and processes to
“spark off psychological effects.” 10 Klee often lectured how his methods prescribed to students were
meant as “points-of-departure” to explore “nature”, with “nature” not merely meaning the “physical
reality”, but instead he meant the “mysterious inner life”. 11 In other words, Klee encouraged his
students to not only follow prescription how to create their works but also explore what could be
expressed through deeper thought and meaning in the creation. Giedion-Welcker notes how Klee’s
art showed his desire to “expose make-believe and pretense, to deflate the false hero”. 12 Or, to put it
another way, Klee believed that through the creations of expressive art, as he guided his students, art
could express the frustrations of the time, exposing the ‘false heroes’ of War and politics. 13
As I have mentioned previously, Klee reflects, “art does not reproduce the visible, but makes
visible”, in other words, art can express sentiments of society or deeper inner thoughts about meaning
that people are not explicitly aware of. 14 The Bauhaus was a key point of his life where he began to
inspect these aspects of his artwork he was “for the most part doing unconsciously.” 15 The theorising
“Klee’s years at the Bauhaus form the centre of his career. He produced a vast range of paintings, drawings and prints, undertook a
heavy schedule of lecturing and supervising craft workshops and devised voluminous theoretical notes based on his teaching.”
(Temkin, 1996, p. 111)
“Walter Gropius appointed Paul Klee as a master at the Bauhaus in December 1920. This not only marked the height of Klee’s social
standing thus far...” (Kase, 2018, p. 57)
8 Carola Giedion-Welcker suggests that for Klee, the theory of art grew from painting and practicing art, not the other way around
(Giedion-Welcker, 1952, p. 50).

9 Doschka, 2007, p.19.
10 Salley, 2007, p.13.
11 Giedion-Welcker, 1952, p. 52.
12 Giedion-Welcker, 1952, pp. 14-15.
13 Franciscono, 1995, pp.267-270. Later in his life, Klee experienced first-hand the controlling powers of the German National
Socialist Party, suffering pressures around the “purity of his blood”, government searches of his house and his career tarnished by the
Nazi exhibition of his artwork under the banner of “degenerate art”.
14 This quote is part of Klee’s Creative Credo, published as part of Klee’s Notebooks (Klee, 1961).
15 A quote from Klee used by Giedion-Welcker, 1952, p.50.
20
Klee completed during his time at the School are key to allowing his work to be understood more
meaningfully today, like it was then. As Giedion-Welcker notes, Klee’s Bauhaus period artwork and
theoretical work, whereby he reflects on his creative imagination and the way he approaches his own
painting, “represent the most important source and guide for the student of his work today.” 16
WHAT THE BAUHAUS STOOD FOR

In October 1920, Klee received an unsolicited invitation to work at the Bauhaus as an artistic
master of form, which guided the design, composition and theoretical artistic processes of a class
rather than teaching technical skills. 17 Despite Klee’s lack of teaching experience, he began
systematically devoting himself to theorising and developing fundamental principles of composition
to introduce his students to methods of Expressionism that encouraged liberation of the individual
through expressive form. 18 At the same time, Klee utilised his time and resources at the Bauhaus to
not only teach but also develop his own theories while part of a group, like the Blue Rider (Blaue
Reiter) prior to the War, that he saw to be like-minded. 19 Having experienced the positive influence
the Blue Rider (Blaue Reiter) artistic group had on himself and his artistic motivation, Klee wanted
to test the possibilities of living in such an artistic community like the Bauhaus. 20
Returning from the Great War at the age of 39, Klee was an older man whose life extended
beyond just the experience of War. Klee’s understanding of the societal situation was very different
from the young ones who had spent their early years of life fighting in War. As I already noted in
16 Giedion-Welcher, 1952, p. 50. Giedion-Welcker writes: “Klee’s theories were formulated, on the whole, between 1919 and 1925.
Next to his diary entries they represent the most important source and guide for the student of his work today... In this formulation,
he meant to suggest it was not his purpose to train experts or breed geniuses but simply to guide a younger generation toward a new
basis of visual expression and to increase sensitivity by means of a vocabulary of forms which each might elaborate in his own way.”
17 “In October 1920 Walter Gropius summoned Klee to join the newly established Bauhaus at Weimar. Klee’s years at the Bauhaus
form the centre of his career.” (Wick, 1996, p. 110). Temkin has a similar thought and adds detail about his position as a ‘master of
form’: “As a Bauhaus master, Klee was expected to facilitate the union of craft and fine art that Gropius envisaged. He was first
responsible for the bookbinding workshop and in 1922-3 he supervised the stained-glass workshop. In both of these roles his
involvement was little more than perfunctory. His lectures for the mandatory lecture notes indicate his meticulous investigation of the
logical principles from which compositions are built” (Temkin, 1996, p. 110). According to Wick, the founder of the Bauhaus,
Gropius, called upon Klee to be part of the avant-garde artists he was gathering to be part of the Bauhaus’s initial ethos to merge art
and technology (Wick, 1996, p. 400). Moreover, it is also said that Gropius recruited Klee because he was a known artist of the time
and therefore increased the attractiveness of the School to prospective students (Kase, 2018, p. 57).
18 Kase, 2018, p. 57.
19 Effectively, following the destabilisation of the Great War, the ‘congenial group’ provided Klee with certain income, secure
housing and an opportunity to focus of the development of his own work and theories.
20 Franciscono, 1991, p. 241. Franciscono quotes Klee’s own observations about the position in a letter to a friend in 1919.
21
Chapter One, Klee had the opportunity to develop his art in his own youth prior to the Great War, not
just through education but also by being part of the Blue Writer (Blaue Reiter) artistic group. For
Klee, these early experiences allowed him to develop not only his artistic skills but also understand
an important role for artists in society. Klee realised that the young people that fought in War had
been denied these artistic opportunities, and he understood the loss of their future leading to
hopelessness. He also realised that teaching was the only opportunity given to him that could provide
space for opening and redefining possible futures to young students. Enabling students to understand
how art can open a different way of looking at the world. As Klee himself noted, art students needed
a teacher “whose art is alive and sufficient in keeping with the spirit of the times to serve as a guide
to youth.” 21 Moreover, Klee, like the rest of society, was trying to understand what was going on,
what was the reason for the destruction, what kind of future lies ahead and how young people who
went to War too young had nothing to return to. 22 What was the purpose of those young people, and
is there something that was to be learned from this Great War’s furnace?
As he writes in Creative Credo, art can open different was to understand the frustration, the
enjoyment, the everyday experiences – all of those cannot be reproduced – but art can make them
visible by drawing the attention to aspects of life that we usually overlook. Ann Temkin suggests that
this sentiment of Klee’s stands as the “cornerstone of his work and of other art in the 20th century”. 23
According to Franciscono, Klee pursued an “uncorrupted purity of vision”. 24 In other words, Klee
aimed to show something that was not obvious, but it was overlooked, and obscured from the
21 The letter by Klee to Schlemmer is dated 2 July 1919 and is regarding a possible teaching position. It states: “I must make it clear
from the beginning that my willingness springs from the realisation that in the long run I shall not be able to avoid with a clear
conscience taking a profitable teaching position. The essential, it seems to me, is that you insist on the necessity of appointing an
artist whose art is alive and sufficiently in keeping with the spirit of the times to serve as a guide to youth.” (Klee, 1961, p. 29)
22 From his own experience, Erich Maria Remarque writes about this lost generation of youth obliterated by War in his book All
Quiet on the Western Front (1930): ““Our early life is cut off from the moment we came here, and that without our lifting a hand. We
often try to look back on it to find an explanation, but never quite succeed. For us young men of twenty everything is extraordinarily
vague... All the older men are linked up with their previous life. They have wives, children, occupations, and interests, they have a
background which is so strong that the War cannot obliterate it. We are young men of twenty, however, have only our parents, and
some, perhaps, a girl - that is not much, for our age the influence of parents is at its weakest and girls have not yet got hold over us.
Besides there was little else - some enthusiasm, a few hobbies, and our school. Beyond this our life did not extend. And of this
nothing remains... For the others, the older men, it is but interruption. They are able to think beyond it. We, however, have been
gripped by it and do not know what the end may be. We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become waste
land. All the same, we are not often sad.” (Remarque, 1930, pp. 27-28)
23 Temkin, 1996, p. 110.
24 Franciscono, 1991, pp. 1-2.
22
everyday view. Klee taught students that the essential nature of the problem that is hidden can be
made ‘visible’ though art. As noted by Giedion-Welcker, the Bauhaus provided a way for him to give
young generation hope in the future by providing them with the ways to express themselves and
sensitised them to a novel visual vocabulary –As opposed to just silence that would suppress their
vision for the future. 25
To understand the importance of the School to Klee’s artistic development, it is important to
note that the Bauhaus was a school of art, design and architecture established by Walter Gropius in
Weimar, Germany, in April 1919. The establishment coincided with the constitutional establishment
of the Weimar Republic, the German state from 1918 to 1933 that had democratic aspirations like the
School. 26 According to Rainer Wick, the School was active in Weimar until 1925 when it was
relocated to Dessau until 1932. In 1932, the School moved again to Berlin, where in 1933, the same
year that Hitler was appointed as the Chancellor of Germany, it was closed down by German National
Socialists authorities. 27
At the beginning, according to Wick, the School established workshop training, only to be
later dissolved in favour of functionalist view, that favoured the use of what was created rather than
artistic processes, as I mentioned previously. 28 Already, in the opening years, the School prioritised
workshop training. Gropius, believed practical training was more appropriate for artistic creation as
opposed to “impractical academic studio education”. 29 For Gropius, the importance of workshop
training laid in its focus on “handicraft”, 30 because it utilised both artistic creativeness and craftsmen
skill. For him it was a way to build a “new, spiritual society” that was “unhindered by technical
25 Giedion-Welcker, 1952, p. 50.

26 Wick, 1996, p. 399.
27 Wick, 1996, p. 399.
28 Wick, 1996, pp.399-400.
29 Wick, 1996, p. 399.
30 Franciscono notes the issues with the translation to ‘handicraft’ and how the German word ‘Handwerk’ (and Gropius’ use of the
word in speeches and articles) does not have the restricted meaning it does in English: “…it is necessary to observe that the word
Handwerk does not have, and had even less in the time of the Bauhaus, the restricted meaning that “handicraft” has in English. It
denotes the manual disciplines in general, and in the early part of the century included the work of the skilled factory worker and
industrial craftsman as well, especially in small factories… where artisan labour…accounted for most of the product. The distinction
Gropius draws [on]… is not between industry and “handicraft,” but rather between big, highly mechanised industry on one side, and
craftsmen’s shops and relatively small, artisan-dominated industries on the other” (Franciscono, 1971, p. 24).
23
difficulties”. According to Franciscono, right from the start, Gropius “intended the handicrafts to be
ends in themselves” and ‘crafted’ the School’s direction based on a strong orientation towards crafts
in the early Bauhaus. 31 The early Bauhaus program included such traditional crafts as metal chasing,
enamelling, mosaic and stucco. 32 The first Bauhaus curriculum was based on the idea of “a society of
artist-craftsmen united”. 33 Wick also notes that the Bauhaus was not alone in this understanding of
the curriculum, but it exemplified the post Great War Zeitgeist, which was to form unified academies
incorporating art colleges, colleges of arts and crafts and schools of architecture. The post-War
impulse for the schools was in “promoting a closer cooperation between the practice of ‘fine’ and
‘applied’ art and architecture”. 34 Likewise, Michael Siebenbrodt and Lutz Schöbe assert that the new
direction was formulated as a general direction for a renewal of art and architecture. 35
As Siebenbrodt and Schöbe also stress, the Bauhaus as a school and its direction was a reaction
to the Great War, and Russian (1917) and German Revolutions (1918). The radical political change
occurring at the time in Germany informed the School’s direction. 36 Changes at the level of society
were a part of the vision for the new school. The founders were looking to contribute to a new form
of a democratic society.
In the lead up to the establishment of the Bauhaus, Gropius issued a manifesto, writing: ”The
Bauhaus is committed to forging all forms of artistic creation into a single whole, to bringing back
together all artistic disciplines – sculpture, painting, arts and crafts, and manual trades – and making
them integral components of a new art building”. 37 Importantly, Gropius was also looking to address
tensions created by the impact of Industrial Revolution in Germany, where mechanical apparatuses

34 Wick, 1996. p. 400). The similar claim is offered by Boris Friedewald, who writes that the School was designed as a “modern,
anti-academic artistic training facility for the difficult, directionless post-war era” (Friedewald, 2018, p. 96).
35 Siebenbrodt, Michael, and Lutz Schöbe, 2009, p. 17.
36 Siebenbrodt, Michael, and Lutz Schöbe , 2009, p. 17.
37 Siebenbrodt, Michael, and Lutz Schöbe, 2009, p. 376. Furthermore, according to Wick in The Dictionary of Art, 1996, the creation
of the Bauhaus “… exemplified the contemporary desire to form unified academies incorporating art colleges, colleges of arts and
crafts and schools of architecture, thus promoting a closer cooperation between the practice of ‘fine’ and ‘applied’ art and
architecture. The origins of the School lay in attempts in the 19th and early 20th centuries to re-establish the bond between artistic
creativity and manufacturing that had been broken by the Industrial Revolution.” (Wick, 1996. p. 400)
24
had replaced age-old tools of the trade. 38 An architect himself, Gropius was aware of the problems
that mass production wreck on the small scale artisans, changing the handmade human creations into
a standardised production that has changed not only architecture but human connectiveness to the
process of creation and society too. 39 At the time, and, perhaps still today, it was feared that big,
highly mechanised, industrial production would create a loss of human touch, quality and
craftsmanship. In response to the standardisation of arts, Gropius believed that a return to medieval
craftsmanship will bring back a pride in artist for what they created, and it could counteract industrial
changes that were beginning to penetrate the post Great War society. The idea was that pride of a
blacksmith creating a sword with quality – quality not just in the sense of function but also in the
sense of beauty – was important to preserve. In short, the crafted sword still has a clear human
connection, and it will also preserve the human creation of beauty in the industrialised world. 40 This
stress on craftmanship and the unity of technical and creative aspects of art, or as Gropius in Bauhaus’
manifesto put it, “forging all forms of artistic creation into a single whole,” was the core aspect of
Gropius’ vision for the creation of the Bauhaus.
Gropius believed such unity was necessary to improve societal and communal ideals that were
being dissolved following the Great War’s destruction and highly mechanised, industrial
production. 41 According to Wick, Gropius was concerned with the “machine” of industrialisation. I
suggest that Gropius was alarmed that meaning and societal direction was being taken further away
from the individual creation toward the mechanical process of industrialisation. 42 Again, according
to Wick, while Gropius’ belief was essentially based on the “romantic utopian hope”, believing that
turning back to the Middle Ages could give meaning and direction to the post Great War industrialised
society, it was also a view of many of his contemporaries. 43
38 Siebenbrodt, Michael, and Lutz Schöbe, 2009, p. 13.

39 Fogaces, 1995, p. 5.
41 Wick, 1996, p. 400.
42 Wick, 1996. p. 400. Wick writes, “The devastation of the War and the immediate post-war period caused Gropius to have grave
doubts about the machine and the expectations of progress associated with it.”
43 “Like many of his contemporaries, he was borne along by the romantic utopian hope that by turning back to the Middle Ages with
its deep spirituality and communal ideals, meaning and direction could be given to one’s actions.” (Wick, 1996. p. 400.)
25
Wick stresses that the aim of the School was to establish a bond between the “artistic creativity
and manufacturing that had been broken by the Industrial Revolution”. 44 Similarly, Franciscono
suggests that Gropius was aware that “big, highly mechanised industry” was already changing
Germany. 45 Hence, for Gropius, the way to counter the social changes brought about by the
industrialisation of Germany, was to introduce the curriculum at the Bauhaus that will encourage a
hands-on creation with theoretical instructions. 46 Students at the Bauhaus were encouraged to create
as well as to reflect on their work. In other words, diversity and independent thinking was encouraged.
Boris Friedewald claims that another unique aspect of the Bauhaus was its explicit aim to
dissolve traditional hierarchy of the academia between ‘teachers’ and ‘students’. Instead, directors at
the Bauhaus introduced a model of liberal education whereby training and skills were taught
alongside a cultivation of the mind and character. 47 There were ‘masters’ and ‘apprentices’ that
worked together. 48 This new design at the time was originally conceived by Gropius, who believed
that there was no difference between the artisan (technical expert) and the artist (creator) and he
wanted the School to operate in this unified sense. 49 As Friedewald details in Paul Klee: Life and
Work (2018), a distinctive aspect of the School was that workshops had two masters: the “work
master” who was the trained artisan, teaching technical skills, and the “form master”, who was the
artist guiding the students in terms of the creative aspect for formative properties of their work. 50
Moreover, the School was a community itself, often existing separate from a town. 51 The masters and
students lived together at the same Bauhaus site as well as working together during the day. 52
44 Wick, 1996, p. 400.

46 Siebenbrodt, Michael, and Lutz Schöbe, 2009, pp. 375.
47 According to Slezak in their 2020 article “To what are the humanities relevant?”: “liberal education was articulated by Wilhelm
von Humboldt in the wake of the founding of the University of Berlin in 1810 and became a model for the rest of Europe and the
world. von Humboldt’s vision was based on key ideas of the Enlightenment and held that vocational training and skills should be
taught alongside a cultivation of the mind and character.”
48 Friedewald, 2018, pp. 96-98.
49 Friedewald, 2018, p. 98.
51 As Éva Forgács details in The Bauhaus Idea and Bauhaus Politics (1995), the Townsfolk of Weimar were concerned with
restoring ‘law and order’ following the Great War in 1919, and they were worried by the ‘unruly strangers’ that dressed differently
(Forgács, 1995, pp. 39-41). According to Forgács, the issues with the Bauhaus mainly were because the towns considered the
Bauhaus to be too right-winged and liberal (Forgács, 1995, pp.39-41).
26
In practice, Gropius’ hopes of unity between the technical and artistic staff led to squabbles
between these divisions. The result was an uneven development of the School, having several phases
and changes in direction of its ‘mission’. 53 As Wick also notes, the Bauhaus was not only divided
internally, but also threatened externally – exposed to persistent criticism from politically
conservative forces. 54 Seen as too liberal, egalitarian and left-wing, the victory of right-winged parties
forced closure of the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1925. In the similar fashion, victory of the National
Socialist Party forced its closure in 1932 in Dessau. Eventually, in Berlin, its last site, the Bauhaus
was finally shut down completely, when Hitler seized power in 1933. 55
Due to these internal and external disputes, the Bauhaus’ direction and mission of artistic and
artisan unity was constantly challenged and changed. In Paul Klee and the Bauhaus (1973), Christian
Geelhaar notes that the School’s intended mission never ran smoothly. While the founder of the
Bauhaus, Gropius had hopes of what it could be (a unification of the artist and the artisan), the
volatility of the time, internal and external conflicts, and changing directors caused several
modifications to the original direction of the Bauhaus. In Geelhaar’s view, a better way to approach
the history of the Bauhaus is to see the School’s development and changes chronologically, defined
by three different periods: Expressionist (liberation of the individual towards expressive form, solely
from a subjective perspective), 56 Constructivist (learning by experience to ‘master’ a process of
construction) and Functionalist (whereby function was prioritised over aesthetics). 57
In the following, I will focus on two phases, relevant to a discussion of Klee’s work: the
Expressionist phase that enabled Klee to ‘guide youth’ returning from the Great War, as mentioned
53 Wick, 1996, p. 403.

54 Wick, 1996, p. 402.
55 Wick, 1996, p. 403.
56 The first internal phase at the Bauhaus was an Expressionist period from the foundation in 1919 to an internal crisis in 1922 and
1923 (Geelhaar, 1973, p. 13).

57 These three basic summaries of Expressionist, Constructivist and Functionalist are developed from Geelhaar, 1973, pp. 9-15. As a
summary, the Expressionist phase focused on the union of art and craft that promoted the “liberation of the individual towards
expressive for, towards self-expression”, therefore focus is on the subjective experience (Geelhaar, 1973, p. 13) The Constructivist
phase was based around the educational position of using creative feeling in the process of construction (Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14),
therefore learning by experience. The Functionalist period was said to push all Liberal Arts to the background, industrial design
taking their place and aesthetics was said to take no part at all. This Functionalist phase was seen as being more focused with the
“scientific and rationalistic” (Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14).
27
previously, and the Functionalist phase that was steadily imposed by administration against an early
expressionist focus of the School’s curriculum.
These phases of the School are important to consider here since they are related to Klee’s
theories he ‘developed’ while teaching at the School. Right from the beginning, as already noted
above, Klee was searching for different ways in his approach to artistic expressions. However, Klee’s
approach intensified in opposition to the rigid framework that the Bauhaus represented in the later
Functionalist phase which begun near the ‘Bauhaus Week’. In 1923, a “Bauhaus Week” marked the
end of the Expressionist period. According to Geelhaar, the name of Gropius’ address, Art and
Technology – a new unity, at the ‘Bauhaus Week’ best sums up the change in direction from the
original union of art and craft. 58 According to Eva Forgács, in The Bauhaus Idea and Bauhaus Politics
(1995), in 1923, Gropius was under pressure from external bureaucrats and officials for the School to
change its curriculum to integrate what was taught and the curriculum and teaching with the industrial,
manufacturing part of town. 59 Basically, for the School to continue, the student skills trained and
curriculum style of the School needed to align with the town’s manufacturing priorities. Furthermore,
1923 in Germany was also a time of political and social unrest. It was marked by the ruin of trade,
rising inflation and struggles between extreme right and left groups,. 60 Oskar Schlemmer (1988-
1943), like Klee, was a master of form at the Bauhaus and believed that the School change of direction
mirrored societal changes. Schlemmer, in retrospect, acknowledged how the 1923 change in direction
reflected the “disintegration of a nation”. 61 At this period (1922–1923), advocates for pure
58 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14.

59 Forgács, 1995, p. 115. Forgács notes how the slogan, Art and technology – a new unity, should not be taken so literally when
understanding the direction of the Bauhaus. Forgács writes how it must not be forgotten that the slogan was also a political
manoeuvre by Gropius. According to Forgács, Gropius devised the slogan so that the bureaucrats and officials, that had a say in the
future of the Bauhaus, would see the Bauhaus as a flexible place, willing to change and give the School another chance. Effectively,
Gropius was aware of the balancing act that was needed for the School to be allowed to operate in a location, integrating with both
arts and industry of the town. For example, the Bauhaus made an offer of services to manufacturers in Dessau, when the School
moved locations, attempting to keep peace with the town that was wary of the alternative art crowd.
60 Geelhar, 1973, p 12.
61 Geelhar, 1973, pp. 12–15. Geelhar quotes Schlemmer, “Four years of the Bauhaus reflect not only a period of art-history, but a
history of the times too, because the disintegration of a nation and of an era is so reflected in it.” According to Geelhaar, before the
end of the Bauhaus, Schlemmer also had the “prophecy” that the Bauhaus “would turn towards building, towards the industrial and
intellectual-technical”, a prophecy that later proved correct.
28
Functionalism pressed for the complete elimination of expressionist tendencies within the School’s
teaching. 62
As Geelhaar notes, Klee contributed to the 1923 “Bauhaus Week” exhibition (Bauhaus
Exhibition Weimar 1923). For this occasion, he designed two lithographs to be reproduced as
postcards to advertise the School to prospective students. The two lithographs were: The Sublime
Aspect (The Sublime Side), 1923, that illustrates the maxim “the aim of all creative activity is
building”, and The Cheerful Aspect (The Bright Side), 1923, which “recalls splendid Bauhaus
festivals”. 63 Or, to put another way, The Sublime Aspect (The Sublime Side) represented the
increasingly functionalist industrial qualities of the Bauhaus that focused on production and use, and
The Cheerful Aspect (The Bright Side) represented the past expressionism period of the Bauhaus that
encouraged, festivals, collaboration and interaction between the students and teachers – seen as more
joyous times.64 In other words, these two postcards represented Klee’s opposition to the increasingly
functionalist styles of the School that represented the mechanisation of arts and society. Christine
Hopfengart and Michael Baumgartner in their book Paul Klee Life and Work (2012), make clear that
the two postcard motifs were an “indirect act of resistance” to disavow Gropius’ call for the unity of
art and technology and no longer concerned with the union of art and craft. 65 The exhibition is a
marker of the change in the School. Klee’s resistance to shift from the focus on expressionism to the
usefulness of objects was to challenge the increasingly functionalist ways that focused on economy
and method. 66 The original impetus for Klee to join the School was guided by his desire to give
students a new way to think about their lives and society they inherited. For Klee, to be an artist is
more than just being an expert in skills of production of the use of objects. However, the School
62 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 13.

63 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14.
64 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14.
65 “His (Klee) main personal contribution (to the ‘Bauhaus Week’) was the essay “Wege des Naturstudiums” (Ways of Studying
Nature”) published in the exhibition handbook. He (Klee) also created two postcards advertising the exhibition, The Sublime Side and
The Bright Side. Viewed against the background of official Bauhaus doctrine, it seems that the text (‘Ways of Studying Nature’) and
the two postcard motifs constituted an indirect act of resistance. For Klee’s affirmation of the study of nature as the foundation of all
artistic design served in effect to disavow Gropius’ call for the unity of art and technology, while the two postcards – like his
programmatic diagram of the idea and structure of the Bauhaus – asserted an extension of the Bauhaus idea beyond architecture to
the visual arts” (Hopfengart & Baumgartner, 2012, p. 136)
66 Geelhaar, 1973, p.15.
29
moved into extreme functionalism, whereby art became “superfluous” while activities connected with
painting were banned, and preliminary courses were designed to teach the “best use of material”. 67
The expressionist phase’s original idea expressed in the foundation course, still retained from the
previous phase that every student was required to complete, was the liberation of the individual
towards expressive form – ultimately towards self-expression – and this is precisely what Klee
attempted to support. 68
Paul Klee, Inscription (Inschrift), 1918.
67 Geelhaar, 1973, pp. 14-15.

68 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 13.
30
Paul Klee, The Sublime Aspect (The Sublime Side) postcard for “Bauhaus Exhibition Weimar 1923”, 1923.
Paul Klee, The Cheerful Aspect (The Bright Side) postcard for “Bauhaus Exhibition Weimar 1923”, 1923.
The change in direction that the School underwent inspired Klee’s opposition. As mentioned
previously, The Sublime Aspect (The Sublime Side), 1923, is the “building”, representing the
industrial, and The Cheerful Aspect (The Bright Side), 1923, is the joyous aspects of the expressionist
phase. For The Sublime Aspect (The Sublime Side), 1923, Klee drew upon a pen-drawing called
Inscription, 1918, which he had made in his wartime service. 69 Commentary around this postcard
does not explain why Klee used a wartime drawing, made prior to the establishment of the School, to
represent the changed functionalist phase of the Bauhaus in the lithograph. However, the intersecting
lines to display a ‘structure’ is also like those used for Death of the Idea (or, Dying for Cause), 1915.
69 Geelhaar, 1973, pp. 13-14.
31
I suggest that Klee opposes the idea of War in the same way that he opposes the functionalist industrial
methods of the Bauhaus. According to Franciscono, Klee’s use of “towering cubist construction of
intersecting planes” like in the lithograph was used by him to form symbolic representation of
complex ideas that locked ‘figures’ under or within his artworks. I suggest such as the restriction of
the freedom of a soldier under the idea of War, like Death of the Idea (or, Dying for Cause), 1915, or
the changing functionalist curriculum of the Bauhaus restricting the creativity of the artist teachers in
the The Sublime Aspect (The Sublime Side), 1923. 70
The move of the School to Dessau, Germany, in 1925, occurred following this change in
direction and it continued to operate there to 1928. 71. From 1928 to the final years of the Bauhaus in
1933, Geelhaar notes that this period was increasingly scientific or rationalistic. 72 According to
Geelhaar, in the final phase, the Bauhaus became primarily a technically and scientifically based
institution. 73 The new director, Meyer was convinced that “form [formative properties of creation]
was essentially a product of calculation and aesthetics played no part in it”. 74 Effectively, Meyer
rejected the notion that art and technology could be combined, seeing the attempt of the unity of the
two to be merely romantic vision irrelevant to the times. Therefore, he completely separated fine arts
from object production and craftsmanship skills in the course work, putting fine arts to one side,
banning every activity connected with painting. 75 While Gropius sought to keep political matters
70 Franciscono, 1991, pp 185-187 and pp. 205-207. At pp.185-187, Franciscono discusses the use of cubist structures that came into
Klee’s style to represent illusionary spaces of rooms or the ‘monster’ in a room like Dance You Monster to My Gentle Song by Klee
in 1922. According to Franciscono, Klee used this style in stages of his career and tended to lock figures into a structure, forming an
“architectural complex” as a symbolic representation that locked figures into pictorial structures, especially in these two periods of
1915 during the War and 1923. This could be read at a simple representational level or the developed of some highly abstract
representation, like that of William Blake’s The Ancient of Days where the structures are used to represent a line to God. At pp. 205-
207, Franciscono more specifically discusses the use of cubist structures as a symbolic representation of a soldier’s death in War,
forming a grandiose “idea” that is above the “spattered” dead soldier.
71 As detailed by Wick, Dessau was an up-and-coming industrial town at the time and the city provided funding to enable the
building of a specifically designed structure to house the School (Wick, 1996, p. 402). The second Constructivist phase continued to
the end of Gropius’ time as a director in 1928 (Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14). Gropius himself was not only worn down by administrative
duties but he was also a target of external criticism by conservatives (Wick, 1996, p. 403). The new director started in 1928, a
Marxist named Hannes Meyer,71 which marked a new phase in the School’s direction (Wick, 1996, p. 403). According to Wick,
Meyer advocated the systematic teachings of architecture on a scientific footing, discarding all aesthetic considerations with his
socialist-inspired functionalism (Wick, 1996, p. 403).
72 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14.
73 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14.
74 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 14.
75 Franciscono, 1995, pp. 260-261 & p. 266. Franciscono writes how Meyer made a clear split, believing art had no place in
architecture. According to Geelhaar, painting was banned altogether. Geelhaaar, 1973, p. 15.
32
away the School, Meyer did not and drove the School to the political left. 76 Meyer was later accused
of “politically radicalising” the School and his dismissal sighted “communist machinations”. 77 Meyer
scrutinised the income from workshops and economic performance, necessitating ‘products’ made
for industry and the country’s growth – he believed art was an unnecessary luxury. With the increased
division in the School and economic drive towards ‘customer’ needs meant that painters such as Klee
became no more than a “necessary evil” and suffered increasing isolation, 78 as the creative art in the
curriculum was diminished. Subsequently, Klee left the Bauhaus in 1931 to seek a new post in
Düsseldorf where he could focus on his elements of painting. 79
Even though Klee left the Bauhaus in 1931, prior to its final closure, the School was important
to Klee’s artistic theory. Furthermore, as noted by Wick, the influence of the Bauhaus exceeded its
physical existence and became a lasting inspiration for new schools to emulate structure and teaching
internationally. 80 Items such as today’s iPhones are said to draw inspiration from the Bauhaus
methods, having not just functionality but also quality that still preserves the beauty of human touch.
CONCLUSION
The beginning years of the Bauhaus to around 1922 have been labelled “romantic” with
“expressionistic” attempts that only demonstrated an uncertain nature with “unrealistic hopes for the
future”. 81 In these early days of the School, Gropius, often suggested the humanity, or expression of
humanity, and ‘beauty’ of human creations were being lost. Gropius was increasingly frustrated by
architecture shaped only by utility. He believed that human creations also served the purpose to
“beatify nature”, as he suggested in an essay: “Things shaped by utility and need cannot still the
longing for a world of beauty built completely anew…” 82 Effectively, the Bauhaus’ original intention
76 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 15.

77 Franciscono, 1991, p. 267,
78 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 15.
79 Temkin, 1996, pp. 111–112.
80 “Internationally numerous establishments came to model themselves on the Bauhaus… As well as setting standards for the
development of modern design and the International Style, the Bauhaus established concepts for the teaching of art and design that
remained relevant more than half a century later.” (Wick, 1996. p. 403)
81 Franciscono, 1971, pp. 3–4.
33
to create new conceptual spaces for art, in the battle between the technical-industrial direction and
the aesthetic direction, had lasting influence on the creative imagination of Klee. It is also an example
how the attempt to provide liberal education can be undermined by internal and external frictions that
stresses function over aesthetics. Despite the unfortunate turn in the School’s orientation in the end,
it is important to emphasise the impact that the Bauhaus has on Klee and also other international
institutions.
By becoming a teacher at the Bauhaus, Klee had ceased the opportunity to guide the youth of
his time, and, subsequently, future generations through his theorising, in ways of expression that are
not just formal artistic natures. His varied ways of artistic creation of creation and teaching
encouraged opening up the student’s own artistic creativity. Klee provided students with ‘a point of
departure’ via his lectures and writing rather than strict methods. He encouraged students to see for
themselves how art can “make visible” what perhaps could not previously be expressed or considered.
In this chapter, I have focused on the influence the Bauhaus had on Klee and what he believed his
own purpose to be in teaching, to guide the youth of his time. Furthermore, the Bauhaus was important
for Klee’s artistic trajectory because the School gave him an opportunity to theorise his artistic
techniques and methods and consciously analyse them. Through the vast manuscripts and papers of
theoretical work created at the Bauhaus by Klee; it is possible to ‘reconstruct’ his artistic journey.
Klee was intertwined with the Bauhaus while, at the same time, he resisted the technicised
Functionalist methods that the School’s direction eventually adopted. When the Bauhaus became
preoccupied with the laws of form, he searched for a way outside of such rigid frameworks.
To further understand Klee’s creative motivations and how his work still speaks to the viewer
today, in the next chapter, I will turn to the documented theories of Klee in order to expand Klee’s
artistic direction and approaches towards art.
34
CHAPTER 3: HISTORY OF ART & KLEE’S THEORIES (CREATIVE
CREDO)
INTRODUCTION
In this thesis, I have examined the life and work of Klee and his struggle against the
mechanisation of society and arts, which the Great War accelerated. In the previous chapter I
examined Klee’s time at the Bauhaus and Klee’s opposition to the changes to a formalistic approach
that viewed artistic classes as frivolous, implemented at the School during his time. In this chapter, I
will turn to Klee’s theories in order to understand his artistic motivation and approaches toward art.
Furthermore, in the latter part of this chapter I will utilise the writings of Watson and Berger to outline
the extensive philosophical engagement that Klee’s artwork has been subject to and the role of the
viewer in this process. By doing this, I suggest that Klee’s art is still relevant today because of the
viewer’s role in the artwork and that the issues of industrialisation for Klee are still relevant to the
viewer today. Klee’s theories, especially in the years of the Bauhaus, set out to define artistic creation
in a formal way, however, as I will discuss in this chapter, he acknowledged that there are
unexplainable aspects of what ‘art’ is. While Klee, as he wrote, guided his creativity through ‘formal
elements’ – such as line, tone (the relative lightness or darkness of a colour) and colour – he points
to an underlying unknown ability of art to say something more. Klee’s aim in his theoretical work
was to define what the role of art was; why was it a case that the artist can bring ‘unrealised’ elements
that define our everyday worries into the open, to make visible what is not explicitly given. As
discussed previously, teaching at the Bauhaus was a period when Klee seized the opportunity to
conceptually approach his artistic motivation and reflect on art. By examining Klee’s own theories in
this chapter, I will suggest how Klee was also ‘ensnared’ in the industrialised mode of expression that
he also questioned.
35
WAR & THE CREATIVE CREDO
During 1918, the final year of the Great War, Klee wrote the Creative Credo. 1 In this chapter,
I will use this text to discuss Klee’s formal creative elements, focusing on his implicit realisation of
art’s aptitude to speak to what “real truth” is, because it is not “visible” through objective limitations
of “being”. 2 Klee points to art’s ability to provide different ways of looking at the world around us,
which, as he states, is not usually possible within the distractions brought about by our everyday
living, or, more importantly, at times of catastrophes. 3
While Klee was writing the Creative Credo, he was serving for Germany in the Great War.
The War was coming to an end and German supplies and soldiers were exhausted from years of
warfare. To recall Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, – who is still
considered the voice of the War generation – the youth of Germany had been falsely led into War
through heroic propaganda and they were now shattered by the War’s senseless killing. Military
government had thrown Germany into the furnace of War, which had shattered soldiers’ lives, leaving
behind only torn limbs, disabled bodies and confusion. 4 How could Germany end up in a situation
where people inflicted such damage to one another? To answer this question forced the post-war
government to start searching for a new democratic direction that aimed to give more power to all
1 Klee, 1961.
2 Geelhaar quotes entry 1081 of Klee’s Diaries to arrive on the conclusion that Klee saw the objective limitations of “being” that
could not expose all aspects of life, and therefore the artist’s effort was to make ‘real truth’ visible. Geelhaar writes, “The knowledge
that everything mortal is only an image enabled Paul Klee to look objectively at the limitations of being. ‘What we see is a proposal,
a possibility, an expedient. The real truth, to begin with, remains invisible.’ The artist’s efforts are directed to making ‘real truth’
visible.” Geelhaar, 1973, p. 25.
3 Klee, 1961, p. 80. In this section of Klee’s text, he concludes that “Art plays in the dark, with ultimate things and yet it reaches
them.” From this, Klee continues to call on his fellow humans (‘man’) to arise and enjoy the ‘holiday’ or ‘villégiature’ in French.
Effectively, Klee is connecting the ability of art to further experience the ‘holiday’ of life, saying how it can “change your viewpoint”
from “a world that distracts you, and gives you strength for the inevitable return to work-a-day grey.” I understand this to be Klee’s
way of saying how the distractions of life limit it from investigating, enjoying and experiencing what is around us, and Klee sees art
as having this ability to be a gateway for this access.
The ‘distractions’ of life could be compared to ‘hypernormalisation’, a term originally coined for the feeling in living in the last years
of the Soviet Union. This is where all of the Soviet society was aware of the corruption and political issues of the time but also knew
that there was no alternative vision. This created a sense of society ‘fakeness’ that no one believed in or wanted, however still
accepted and operated in as normal. The issues were seen as unavoidable and therefore accepted.
4 See Otto Dix’s 1920 artwork Skat Players (Card Playing War Cripples) as one of many examples of artists addressing the
destruction of War. Dix’s piece is more obvious in the connection to the physical impact of War. The painting portrays three
wounded Great War veterans playing cards. The soldiers are extremely disfigured and have metal implements used to help the
disabled during this period. Klee on the other hand has the 1915 drawing titled ‘Dying for a Cause’ that is a series of straight lines
and at the bottom what appears to be a small basically drawn person obscured by more lines, insignificant in size compared to the rest
of the drawing. There is also Klee’s ‘View of the Severely Threatened City of Pinz’ (1915), which, according to Hopfengart &
Baumgartner, (Paul Klee: Life & Work, 2012, p. 107), appears to be a bit like a War report provided from a strategic observation
point. It is however of a fictitious city of Pinz shown in a concentration of symbols.
36
Germans rather than keeping the military in charge of the state. The outcome of this political, artistic,
emotional, social disquiet gave rise to an institution of the Weimar Republic. On the one hand, the
government formed the Weimar Republic as a structural response to sort through the social disorder
left in the wake of the Great War. On the other, the artists challenged the old tradition that brought
about the destruction of the Great War. 5
It was in this situation when The Creative Credo was conceived and written. In this text, Klee
focuses on formal elements of art that will empower the artist to understand what art can achieve.
Klee’s objective was to understand the power of art to make ‘visible’, what is normally overlooked.
As he writes, “Art plays in the dark with the ultimate things and yet reaches them.” 6 In other words,
Klee believed there were limits to the objective visual world of “being” and that there were “truths”
of life that could only be understood if we leave behind simple objective terms. 7 For Klee, the dark,
chaos and bleakness of War that surrounded him could not be completely understood just in visual
terms. There was a deeper level of sensitivity that was needed to understand what occurred. In the
Diaries, which I discussed in Chapter One, Klee notes the bleakness of the War that surrounds him
and the possibilities of a form of revolution to end the disasters of the War and provided new hope. 8
Klee’s theories about artwork also addressed the interaction of chaos. His concerns with chaos and
disorder in the artistic process were translated into the systems that the artist can utilise in the creation
of work, as contained in Notebooks, where Klee already confronted a contrast of chaos and ‘natural
order’ within the creation of art. 9
To put it another way, Klee transforms chaos into ‘artistic chaos’ that he is thinking through.
His claim to make visible what is ordinarily invisible, I suggest, can be understood as Klee’s attempt
5 As Geelhaar notes, traditions that split artistic practices and elevated fine art to the privileged created the divisions of rank and
segregation of functions. This segregation meant that a larger split in German society was being created and voices were also absent
or not heard in the political and social spheres. Therefore, artists and artistic movements, like the Bauhaus, sort to dissolve divisions
of rank that had developed. Geelhaar, 1973, pp. 10–11.
6 Klee, 1961, p. 80.
7 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 25.
8 Klee, 1992, pp. 408–411.
9 Klee, 1961, p. 9. This section of Volume 1 of the Notebooks discusses the interplay of chaos and disorder that creates a state of
confusion, but it is more so concerned with the contrasting of chaos and ‘natural order’ within the creation of art. Directly relating
these theories to experienced ‘chaos’ is not clear, it instead relates to the concept of chaos and confusion and how this is best applied
to lines, shapes and colour in the creation of art.
37
to speak to strains of the time in Germany, such as the War’s accelerated industrialisation and
mechanisation of society. Recall here the opening of Creative Credo, where Klee underlines what
was important for his art: “Art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible”. 10 As Klee seems to
suggest, what is visible might not be what is important. It should be a role of an artist to make what
is important visible to others, hence, to show them what they have overlooked. This ‘credo’ runs as
the underlying theme in Klee’s text, as well as in his work as a whole. For Klee, through art, the artist
can create what may not be so apparent to the viewer. Or, once again, to put it differently, the meaning
what is ordinarily seen is not the meaning that can be discerned by the artist and made visible to
others.
As I have mentioned, the impacts of War resulted in more questioning and search for meaning,
a fundamental aspect of Klee’s belief of the role of an artist. The War had caused dissolution of artistic
communities and decimated the art market. 11 It wasn’t until after the War that artists and artistic
communities began to consolidate themselves. 12 During the post-war time of confusion and
questioning, Klee seemed to be more certain in his direction as an artist. As covered in Chapter Two,
this conscious trajectory for Klee started when, in 1918, he requested a transfer from his military
service to begin teaching at an “unspecified” art school in Berlin while writing the Creative Credo. 13.
With the government uncertainty following the War, as I mentioned above, the devastation from the
War, debt ridden country, inflation and basic food supply shortages had propelled the country into a
depression period. Hence, Klee sought stability and financial support of the teaching position
following the War. Teaching at an art school provided him with both security and also the opportunity
to continue his artistic direction. Despite Klee’s eagerness to teach, he was overlooked for a role in
Stuttgart in early 1919 and no prospect in Berlin eventuated despite it being mentioned in his
discharge request.
10 Klee, 1961, p. 76.

12 Forgács’, 1995, pp. 14–15.
13 Whether the Berlin art school position even existed is unclear, however a copy of the letter Klee writes to request his army
discharge is in part of his Diaries. Klee, 1992, pp410–411. Franciscono also notes how the Klee had longed to teach and how his
military discharge request would provide an opportunity at “an unspecified art school in Berlin…” Franciscono, 1991, p. 241.
38
Klee’s employment at the Bauhaus coincided with publishing of the Creative Credo, and at
the same time enhancing Klee’s artistic reputation as becoming “one of the brightest in Germany”. 14
The text proved that Klee not only was capable of reflecting intelligently on his creations, but also
explaining its parts as an “imaginative whole”. 15 Whilst teaching, Klee continued to refer back to the
principles he outlined in Creative Credo. He used the principles in his lectures at the Bauhaus,
beginning in 1919, Klee’s own personal copy shows, with notes throughout. 16 In Creative Credo,
Klee was mapping out what he believed to guide him through his most productive creative years
during the decade following the War. It was written to focus his creative direction, desire and found
beliefs in the power of art. After all, for Klee, the art opens the opportunity for “a change of air and
viewpoint” to ‘fill’ the ‘tired veins’ of life. 17 As the title of Klee’s text suggests, ‘credo’ means ‘I
believe’ in Latin. Hence, in this text, Klee outlines what constitutes his creative ‘beliefs’.
Fundamentally, Klee’s text is concerned with the questions of artistic creation and what elements are
available to the artist. Though there is no direct link in the text to the outcomes of the War, as I
mentioned above, the timing of the piece cannot be overlooked. Klee steps from War to the most
creative phase of his life. As previously touched on, Doshchka notes that, although Klee never
explicitly admitted it, many of his works were inspired and impacted by his surroundings. 18
Therefore, the importance of Creative Credo for Klee’s art cannot be overstated.
PURPOSE & FOCUS OF THE CREATIVE CREDO

The Creative Credo became a textbook or guide for himself, and it also became his reference
point for his artistic creation and art teachings. In the text, Klee first outlines what he calls the ‘formal

16 Wick, 1996, p. 399. According to Wick, the Bauhaus was a German school of art, design and architecture, founded by Walter
Gropius. It was active in Weimar from 1919 to 1925, in Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and in Berlin from 1932 to 1933, when it was
closed by Nazi authorities.
Oswalt, 2009, pp.–6–10. Oswalt notes how the Bauhaus emerged in Germany amid the revolutionary turmoil of 1919. After the
catastrophe of the Great War, the initiators of the School saw the need to break with tradition; decades of nationalistic policy and
laissez-faire capitalism had led to a dead end. What was needed was a fresh start in every respect. The Bauhaus sought a vehement
rejection of the immediate past.
Klee, 1961, p. 76. The Notebooks’ editor commentary mentions how Klee made scribblings and notes through his own copy of the
text he kept with him while teaching.
17 Klee, 1961, p. 80.
18 Doschka, 2007, p. 21.
39
elements’ that are available to the artist – line, tone and colour – and how they can be used creatively
as part of the artistic processes. 19 While Klee navigates his creativity through his detailed ‘formal
elements’, he also stresses the underlying ability of art to reveal something new.
Klee was concerned with the meaning of the artistic creation, not just the technical aspects of
art. In the Creative Credo, Klee investigates the role of the artist and their interaction with the viewer.
He animates the elements of art (the line) in his work with ‘movement’ of the line through the work
that the spectator can follow. As he stresses, formal uses of lines are important, but he takes into
account also the role of the spectator and how the artist can direct “paths for the beholder’s eye, which
gropes like a grazing beast”. 20 Effectively, Klee recognises the role of the spectator who is
participating, like the artist, in the meaning of the created work. While the artist lays out the lines of
the art, the spectator is active in what they are engaged with and searching to the meaning of the
whole. Klee speaks about there being a created “genesis beneath the surface of his work”. 21 According
to Klee, the spectator is to be active and involved in the viewing of the art, following the paths, and
meaning (genesis) that the artist has laid before them.
As Klee notes, art is unique in this ability to show not just what is seen but also an “interplay
of functions” creating a chorus of voices that brings the artistic vision fulfilment. 22 According to Klee,
by using basic formal elements of art like lines, tone, and colour, the art can become less static and
becomes more vibrant with “movement and countermovement”. 23 The complex creation of “genesis”
within the artwork through these methods, enhanced the ability to engage more deeply with both the
thing it is making visible and the spectator. Geelhaar puts Klee’s methods another way, noting that
Klee uses underlying forms of ‘movement’ as a basic principle to develop the “construction of a
theory” within the artwork that “branches out: the artist, by analogy, moves in his work from the
19 Klee, 1961, pp. 76–77.

20 Klee, 1961, p. 78. Furthermore, as Klee states explicitly about the role of both the artist and the viewer, “does a picture come into
being all at once? No, it is built up piece by piece, the same as a house.” Klee, 1961, p. 78.
21 Franciscono, 1991, pp. 172–173.
22 Klee, 1961, p.79.
23 Klee, 1961, p.79.
40
simple to higher and more complex structures.” 24 Klee gives the example of a man sailing a boat; the
man on the boat is not static. There is more to the man’s experience when he moves across the boat
on the water, there is his own movement, the movement of the boat, the “direction and velocity” of
the current, “the rotation of the earth”. 25 For Klee, there is always a connection to the earth or an
interplay between the man on the boat and the earth that he is bound to. Klee expands from this
example to demonstrate how representational art forms only provide a simple view of what is seen.
As Klee notes, “Formerly, artists depicted things that were seen on earth, things they liked to see…” 26
Or to put another way, the artist only shows what they ‘like’, as if saying that there are deeper “truths”,
to use his word, or experience that art can communicate. 27 Here, again, we should consider Klee’s
own historical situation. He lived at a time when German propaganda and imagery conveyed an
illusion of being a heroic soldier; however, this heroic soldier is now shattered by the experience of
War. Effectively, young soldiers were misled and then led into battle – they were shown a heroic
view of the battle, while their experience of War shattered this heroic myth – the experience is never
one-dimensional.
Rather than just being stagnant, one-dimensional, and only what is seen by the eye, Klee
believes that abstract art can develop a more profound depiction of human existence. For Klee, if
meaning is considered only from the one simple “visible” standing point in the universe, there will
always be “more truths” that are unseen than seen. 28 Effectively, Klee wants to expand from the
simple experience of the day that art of the “here and now” limits itself. 29 Or, to put another way, to
expand art’s obligation to the present.
24 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 29.

25 Klee, 1961, p.79.
26 Klee, 1961, p.78.
27 Klee, 1961, p. 77–78. For Klee, there are more “truths” than what are just “visible” in the world. Speaking about the simple
depiction of what is “seen on earth”, Klee writes how what is “visible” is “only an isolated case taken from the universe and that
there are more truths unseen than seen.”
28 Klee, 1961, p.78.
29 The term “here and now” is a term Klee uses four times in his Diaries, most notably in entries 951 and 952, Klee, 1991, pp. 313–
315.
41
Returning to Klee’s Diaries, the term “here and now” is one that Klee uses to mean everyday
life existence. Interestingly, the term “here and now” is also part of a quote used on Klee’s epitaph
above his urn in the Schosshalden cemetery, Bern, Switzerland, “I cannot be grasped in the here and
now…” 30 The first time he notes the “here and now” in the Diaries, is earlier in his life discussing
“existence in the here and now” where matters like “eating food” are simply required. 31 Later in 1909,
it refers to “a joyful existence here and now.” 32 Finally, Klee uses the term “here and now” twice in
the same entry in 1915 at the onset of War, a point when he realises the power and purpose of abstract
art. The 1915 entry, that I will detail further below, is one that Geelhaar in Paul Klee and the Bauhaus
describes as key to understand “Klee’s philosophy and artistic urge.” 33 To phrase it another way, this
1915 entry, when Klee was in the throngs of War, makes it possible to understand not just Klee’s
attitudes to life but also the importance of abstraction in his art and the philosophy behind his
approach. Klee writes:
One deserts the here and now to transfer one’s activity into a realm of the yonder where total affirmation
is possible.
Abstraction.
The cool Romanticism of this style without pathos is unheard of. The more horrible this world (as today,
for instance), the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the here and now…
But then: the whole crystal cluster once bled. I thought I was dying, war and death. But how can I die, I
who am crystal?
I, crystal.
I have long had this war inside me. This is why, interiorly, it means nothing to me. And to work my way
out of my ruins, I had to fly. And I flew. I remain in this ruined world only in memory, as one
occasionally does in retrospect. Thus I am “abstract with memories.” 34
The desertion from the “here and now” that Klee mentions in this quote above is necessary for Klee
to become clearer or “crystal” in his ways or thinking. 35 Effectively, abstract art is key to the clarity
associated with leaving behind the “here and now”. Klee’s parallel of good and evil, the horrible, that
30 Klee, 1991, pp. 418–419. As Klee’s son, Felix Klee, writes in the final ‘Reflections’ section of the Diaries “Yellow and white
asters, begonias, and roses are planted around my father’s urn. And we decipher the epitaph on the big stone slab: Here rests the
painter, Paul Klee. Born on December 18, 1879, died on June 29, 1940. “I cannot be grasped in the here and now, for I live just as
well with the dead as with the unborn, somewhat closer to the heart of creation than usual, but far from close enough.”“
31 Klee, 1991, p. 51. Entry 149.
32 Klee, 1991, p. 239. Entry 862.
33 Geelhaar, Paul Klee and the Bauhaus, 1973, p. 24.
34 Klee, 1991, pp. 313–315. Entries 951 and 952.
35 According to Watson in Crescent Moon over the Rational, 2009, Klee complicates the concept of what the ‘crystal’ or ‘crystalline’
is with the use of the term in his Diaries (pp. 46–48). Watson discusses Gadamer’s interpretation of the ‘crystal’ and the association
with German aesthetics, but how Klee contradicts this because he does not seem to refer to a work of art’s timelessness or beauty
(pp.40–41).
42
lies within abstract art are also ideas that remain constant in Klee’s Creative Credo. In Creative Credo
the dissection of formal elements allows the inclusion of ideas such as good and evil previously not
visible. 36 The binary of ideas like good and evil is paramount for Klee’s art to make the invisible
visible.
When Klee discusses the ideas vital to his understanding of the creative processes, he admits
the importance of the necessary synthesis of a duality of ideas, their interdependence, such as good
and evil or masculine and feminine, saying that they produce a “state of ethical stability”. 37 For Klee,
one cannot exist without the other. Essentially, the chaos and confusion of the times that he was living
in could be ignored or made invisible, yet they can be brought out through art. Neglecting one concept
over the other would be unfaithful to his ‘credo’ that uses art as an example to provide “secrets behind
all our shifting views”. 38 For Klee, he recognises the strengths of art to communicate at a deeper level
and he brings this aspect of art in his text, to rationally consider it. Klee concentrates on the creative
processes because, in his own words, he believes art “conjures up states of being that are somehow
more inspiring than those we know on earth in our conscious dreams.” 39 Even though, in this text,
Klee continues to rationally consider what art is, he also acknowledges the unknown origins and
ability of art to communicate.
For Klee, the formal elements of the creation of art are necessary, but they are not sufficient.
For art to speak to the viewers, to disclose what is hidden, it is also important to acknowledge the
unknown that art can create. Klee points out that creativity needs grounding by formal elements as
well as it needs to connect to ‘stability’ that is related to ‘earthly’ experiences. Klee writes,
“imagination comes from stimuli”,40 so there is an ‘imagination’ in the creative process, but the
‘imagination’ is still tied to the ‘visual stimuli of earth’. Or, to put it another way, imagination is
connected to what is seen and can be touched. Klee creates and, at the same time, recognises the
36 Klee, 1961, p.79.

37 Klee, 1961, p.79.
38 Klee, 1961, p.79.
39 Klee, 1961, p.80.
40 Klee, 1961, p.79.
43
boundaries in creative methods that are tied up in the physical ‘visual’ world, acknowledging that
creativity comes from an unknown and imagination. According to Klee, there is always something
more than “the earthly and possible intensifications” that artwork is able to illuminate. 41 Here, I
suggest that the ‘earthly intensifications’ that Klee writes about are the horrors of war. Geelhaar too
notes how Klee sought refuge from such horrors of the time “by looking towards a purer world”. 42
Klee hoped that through his art he “would console the mind by showing… that there is something
more”. 43 Therefore, Klee’s theories have this underlying ability to “console the mind”. 44 Klee’s friend,
artist, and fellow member of both the Blue Rider and the Bauhaus, Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944),
wrote of a similar ability of art to express ‘something more’ and give hope to the future: “abstract art
breaks from the burden of the modern world”, it “crosses the frontiers of time and expresses the
content of the future.” 45 Klee realises how using symbols and lines in an abstract way can intensify
reality or unearth what is invisible.
Klee’s Creative Credo is essential to understand the artistic motivation of Klee because it
provides fundamental aspects of Klee’s creative views and his recognition of the ability of art to bring
forward the ‘invisible’. I suggest it is possible to view the ‘invisible’ as a way to console the mind to
understand the horrors of the time, breaking free from the burdens of the modern world to have a
deeper understanding of human existence. Klee is definitive about the power of art to make visible
what we normally overlook. As he says, “art plays in the dark with the ultimate things…” 46 Art opens
up a way to think about more than just our present situation.
For Klee, art can provide a different viewpoint when one’s view is distracted by one’s place
in the world. In his text, Klee seeks to think conceptually about art and the creative processes. Klee’s
41 Klee, 1961, p.79.

42 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 162.
43 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 162.
44 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 162.
45 Kandinsky’s analogy ins taken from his book Point the Line to Plane, 1926. This quote is used by Geelhaar as a footnote when
noting Klee’s motive for his art to “console the mind”. Geelhaar, 1973, p. 162.
46 Klee, 1961, p. 80.
44
underlying theme in this text is how art’s creative, formal processes are import, he also speaks about
its access to the ‘invisible’ aspects of life.
ART’S CONNECTION TO EXPERIENCE & WHY IS IT THAT KLEE

SPEAKS TO THE VIEWERS OF TODAY
Already, in the opening of Notebooks, Volume 2, Klee writes that “The artist cannot be without
his dialogue with nature, for he is a man, himself of nature, for a piece of nature and within the space
of nature.” 47 For Klee, humans are a part of nature. The artist does not stand outside of his
environment. In Klee’s text On Modern Art, Klee links the artist, nature (and experience) and the
artwork together with an analogy of a tree. 48 The artist being the trunk of the tree, nature and
experience being the roots and the artwork being the fruit (or crown).
May I use a simile, the simile of the tree? The artist has studied this world of variety and has, we may
suppose, unobtrusively found his way in it. His sense of direction brought order into the passing stream of
image and experience. This sense of direction in nature and life, this branching and spreading array, I
shall compare with the root of a tree.
From the root the sap flows to the artist, flows through him, flows to his eye.
Thus he stands as the trunk of the tree.
Battered and stirred by the strength of the flow, he moulds his vision into his work.
As, in full view of the world, the crown of the tree unfolds and spreads in time and in space, so with his
work.
Nobody would affirm that the tree grows its crown in the image of its root. Between above and below can
be no mirrored reflection. It is obvious that different functions expanding in different elements must
produce vital divergences.
But it is just the artist who at times is denied those departures from nature which his art demands. He has
even been charged with incompetence and deliberate distortion.
And yet, standing at his appointed place, the trunk of the tree, he does nothing other than gather and pass
on what comes to him from the depths. 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. 49
Ultimately, Klee recognises that the artist, their experience or existence, and the artwork are
inseparable, but they do not just reflect each other. As Klee argues, each have separate structures. He
acknowledges he is part of nature but he experiences nature as being part of it.. It is a double
47 Klee, 1973.
48 Klee, 1969, pp. 13–15. Paul Klee on Modern Art (1969) is Klee’s treatise on modern art as prepared for a museum opening in
1924, a point at which he had been teaching at the Bauhaus for nearly five years. The lecture covered the problems that teaching had
brought to his mind. Klee expresses art as a language through form, colour, and complex intuitions. Klee attempts to give words to
the nameless processes involved with the creation of art. Like the Notebooks, condensation of Klee’s lectures was also produced in
the Pedagogical Sketchbook (1972), where he again formalised his abstract methods.
49 Klee, Paul. Paul Klee on Modern Art, 1969, pp. 13–15.
45
movement. He always stands in the midst of it while a dialogue is always with nature. Experience is
never apart from it.
Klee’s creation of art is anchored by his experiences of the time. Klee is responding to the
conflicts of his time, being in War and in accelerated forms of industrialisation. Klee himself admits
this intertwined nature and experience, the artist and the artwork created.
As I have discussed, the importance of Klee and his ability of his art to still speak to
contemporary viewers as much today as it did in his time, comes not just from his art but also from
his writings and theories about art. Klee was interested in the underlying elements surrounding the
creation of art and was willing to investigate these as seen in his Bauhaus lectures and associated
texts. Through philosophical investigation, Klee was able to look further beyond just the creation of
his artwork. Klee writes in his Diaries that he was ‘awakened’ to the possibility of art to reach beyond
what is given:
We investigate the formal for the sake of expression and of the insights into our soul which thereby
provided. Philosophy, so they say, has a taste for art; at the beginning I was amazed at how much they
saw. For I had only been thinking about form, the rest of it had followed by itself. An awakened
awareness of “the rest of it” has helped me greatly since then and provided me with greater variability in
creation. I was able to become an illustrator of ideas again, now that I had fought my way through formal
problems. And now I no longer saw any abstract art. Only abstraction from the transitory remained. The
world was my subject, even though it was not the visible world. 50
Klee’s reference to the visible and the invisible continues through his theories. Klee admits that while
art is connected to lived experiences, even by abstraction, art is also able to see past the visible aspects
to grasp a deeper element. According to Geelhaar, Klee embraced the theory of art historian Wilhelm
Worringer (1881–1965): “The more tormented man becomes by the entangled interrelationship of
phenomena of the outer world, the more powerful his urge to wrest the ultimate abstract beauty from
it.” 51
Klee’s deeper elements used in the creation of art have meant that his work has been
consistently interrogated since its creation. In Watson’s text, he introduces analyses of philosophers
50 Klee, 1991, p. 374. Entry 1081, stress added.

51 Geelhaar, 1973, p. 162.
46
that have engaged with the work of Klee. 52 According to Watson, it is only through investigating the
different interpretations of Klee that we can “outline an encounter and a relationship of ‘thicker’
identity.” 53 In other words, a clearer understanding of what the artist was striving to achieve. Watson
points to the multiplicity and plurality of the interpretations of the work of Klee by considering
Heidegger, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault and Walter Benjamin, to name a few, and their
engagement with Klee’s art. According to Watson, it is not possible to view and limit Klee to one
single interpretation because “any one perspective would be insufficient.” 54 Perhaps Watson’s
singling out of Heidegger’s observation can stand for the plurality of views concerning Klee’s work:
“in Klee something has happened that none of us grasps as yet.” 55
Watson also writes about philosopher Benjamin’s engagement with Klee: “close to Klee’s
account of abstraction” is Klee’s 1920 artwork Angelous Novus. 56 Watson suggests, following Otto
Werckmeister, that “Benjamin was able to gather Klee’s fundamental idea solely from his picture, as
he related the picture to his own thinking.” 57

In Benjamin’s published collection of essays,
Illuminations, 1969, 58 Benjamin briefly outlines the composition of Klee’s piece with its ‘angel’ at
the centre. His reading of this painting is to see the angel as a representation of history, caught in a
storm of progress. Though the angel would like to “make whole” what is being destroyed, the angel
faces towards the past as the “storm of progress” continues to propel him forward to the future,
heaping the wreckage of the past at his feet. 59 Benjamin, equates the violence of War with the
relentless “progress” of the time, the industrialisation, the mechanisation of the world that Klee is
responding to.
52 Watson, 2009, pp. 1–8.

53 Watson, 2009, p.8.
54 Watson, 2009, p.5.
55 Watson, 2009, p.3.
56 Watson, 2009, p.3.
57 Watson, 2009, p.3.
58 Benjamin, Walter, 1969.
59 Benjamin, Walter, 1969, pp.257–258.
47
Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920.
What an artist is responding to and the motives of an artist, according to art critic, Berger, can
be misplaced or mystified with multiple interpretations of their work. 60 According to Berger, the
viewer’s understanding of an artist is never total. Art constitutes a relationship with “his fellow
man”. 61 Therefore, the spectator can interpret what they think the art represents because they can only
comprehend the art through their relationship with others, as the artist does in creation of their art. 62
In another text by Berger, Ways of Seeing (1987) 63, Berger continues with this consideration of the
spectator of art. Berger discusses the reciprocal nature of seeing that he views as more fundamental
than that of spoken language. 64 Fundamentally, Berger engages with our interaction between what
we see and what we believe. It is in this interaction with the art that it is possible to see that what Klee
was responding to in his time is still an issue today, it is not just Klee’s battle, it is todays’ too.
Klee’s art today is still recognised as speaking to the contemporary viewer as much as it did
in the time of Klee. I argue that this is because the viewer of today is still battling against the
accelerated “progress”, the mechanisation of arts and society that is not conducive to human life.
60 Berger, Permanent Red, 1960, p. 183. Berger is writing about the work of Goya in this particular essay in the book.
61 Berger, Permanent Red, 1960, p. 183.
62 Berger, Permanent Red, 1960, p. 183.
63 Berger, John. Ways of Seeing, 1987.
64 Berger, John. Ways of Seeing, 1987, p. 9.
48
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I have presented the theories of Klee from Creative Credo, considering the
impacts of War and industrialisation on his approach to conceptually tackle formal and artistic
elements that constitute art. As I pointed out, Klee utilised the ability of art to say something more
and to make visible what was not visible. While the Creative Credo defined formal elements, Klee
maintained that art still had an undefinable ability or power. As I discussed, Klee believed that by
abstraction, or abstract art, a more profound depiction of the time or “more truths” were possible.
Effectively, Klee understood art as leaving the “here and now” to clarify not only what art is but also
how to conceptually grasp his own artistic creation. While Klee is bound to ‘visual’ interpretation of
the world, he acknowledges how the experience, the artist and their artwork all exist separately.
Finally, I have introduced the multiplicity of interpretations and scholarly engagement with the work
of Klee using the work of Watson to consider the various investigations of Klee’s work that is best
summed up by Heidegger’s remark that Klee was unable to be “grasped”. These sentiments are also
reinforced by the theories of Berger whose extensive work as an art critic lands on the importance to
consider the both the artists interaction with the world and the viewer themselves. After all, Klee
himself realised the importance of philosophical investigation of his work, thereby being able to see
beyond just formal aspects of the artistic works to provide “an awakened awareness” of art is.
49
CONCLUSION
In this thesis, I have set out to examine the life and work of Paul Klee, focusing on his
experience during the Great War and its impact on society. As Klee realised, art enabled him to
understand and interpret the situation in Germany in more complex ways, facing up to its devastation.
I have considered his writings and artwork, to show how both the War and systems of industrialisation
affected his theories and art. I have also argued that the impact of War was not just his personal
experience, but it was the situation of German society, that Klee questioned, reflecting on War’s
devastation: how was it possible that this could even occur?
As I discussed, the time at the end of the War was a turning point for Klee, recognising not
just his artistic motivations but also his desire to teach the youth of the day. Klee wanted to guide the
students and provide them not just with technical skills but also show them the power of art that
exceed technical prowess, letting them to confront the situation around them. Following the initial
hope of the post-war era, beginning with his employment at the Bauhaus, Klee sought to extend not
just his creative understanding but also show a path to his students (apprentices) so they could do the
same. Klee writes as a summary:
Apprenticeship is everywhere an enquiry into the smallest, most hidden things

in good and evil… Then suddenly one begins to see one's way and the specific direction one must take. 1
Klee experienced the political and industrial pressures firsthand at the School when the curriculum
and direction of the Bauhaus gradually changed over the years. As I have suggested, when we look
through the artworks of Klee, it is possible to see his reaction to the ideas of War, and his growing
opposition against the industrial, or ‘formalistic’, changes at the Bauhaus.
As I posited, through thinking about art and formulating his theories, Klee recognised the
connection of the artist to human experience, which he formulated as a connection to the ‘earth’. Yet,
he notes that there are deeper “truths” then what is given, and it is through art that we can convey the
everyday. As I discussed the case of Klee’s artwork the Twittering Machine, 1922, he was aware of
1 Klee, 1961, p. 22.
50
a disconnect between human experience and mechanical transformation of nature. He points to the
inability of machines to replicate the beauty of nature, tragically mechanising everything around us.
As I suggested, Klee was frustrated by the “pit of damnation” that industry lured society into, leaving
little room for human life. 2 As I noted throughout this thesis, it is through art that Klee believes it is
possible to transgress the experience of the “here and now” to unearth matters that are more complex,
in order to find new possibilities for the future. For Klee, art gives the opportunity to open more
complex understandings of meaning of human life than just our present situation. I have examined
Klee’s approach to art in several steps.
In the Chapter One, I provided the historical setting of the life of Klee and what he was
responding to, utilising his Diaries, and discussing the changes in his artwork before and after his
experiences at the War and the associated accelerated industrialisation of the time. The chapter
provided context to the time that Klee lived in and prior to teaching at the Bauhaus.
In Chapter Two, the exploration of Klee’s time at the Bauhaus supported my claim that Klee
was not only reacting to experiences of War, but also industrialisation and mechanisation of society
and arts. The Bauhaus, that gave him opportunity to both influence youth of his day and theorise his
practice. However, as I noted, the Bauhaus was gradually changed from its initial intensions of
expressionism to a more controlled industrialised functionalist phase. I mapped his struggle against
this industrialised form, which Klee recognised. The War was no longer the fundamental cause that
Klee struggled against.
In the final Chapter Three, I have examined Klee’s theory contained in the Creative Credo. I
suggested how Klee discovered the power of art to engage with the darker and invisible aspects of
life. Klee was not just battling against accelerated industrialisation; he was part of it as well, as he
found at the Bauhaus. Klee’s abstract work communicated and illustrated these aspects that were not
‘visible’ in the “here and now”. Through the theories and artwork, Klee seeks to think conceptually
2 Seymour, 2019, p. 19.
51
about art and the creative processes, while speaking of the ‘invisible’ aspects of life. As I have pointed
to, the theories of Klee suggest the underlying ability of art uncover aspects of life that we are often
not able to see.
In conclusion, the issue of industrialisation that Klee encountered, the stifled life by
mechanisation, is something that we still struggle with today. Therefore, the interrogation of the
artwork of Klee is still relevant to the viewer of today like it was then. The abstract notions and
complex underlining Klee constructs in his artwork uncover aspects we are grappling with still today.
Klee’s art encourages us to uncover more complex associations than what is clearly visible in the
everyday.
Paul Klee, Departures of the Adventurer (Abfahrt des Abenteurers), 1939.
Paul Klee, Death and Fire (Tod und Feuer), 1940.
52
REFERENCES
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Translated by Harry Zohn. Edited by Hannah Arendt. New York:
Schocken Books, 1969.
Berger, John. Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing. London: Methuen, 1960.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing, Based on the BBC television series with John Berger.
Harmondsworth: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, 1987.
Di San Lazzaro, Gualtieri. Klee: A Study of His Life and Work. Translated by Stuart Hood. London:
Thames and Hudson, 1957.
Doschka, Roland, ed. Paul Klee: Selected by Genius, 1917-1933. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2007.
Doschka, Roland. “A Lyric Poet in Paradise and a Dramatist in Arcadia”. Paul Klee: Selected by
Genius, 1917-1933. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2007, pp. 15–20.
Forgács, Éva. The Bauhaus Idea and Bauhaus Politics. Translated by John Bátki. Budapest: Central
European University Press, 1995.
Franciscono, Marcel. Walter Gropius and the Creation of the Bauhaus in Weimar: The Ideals and
Artistic Theories of its Founding Years. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971.
Franciscono, Marcel. Paul Klee: His Work and Thought. Chicago and London: The University of
Chicago Press, 1991.
Friedewald, Boris. Paul Klee: Life and Work. Munich: Prestel, 2011.
Fuchs, Walther. “‘Paul und Fritz’ – Zur Freundschaft von Paul Klee mit dem Nervenarzt Fritz
Lotmar. Zwitscher – Maschine”. Journal on Paul Klee / Zeitschrift Für Internationale Klee
– Studien. 2(Summer), 2016, pp. 55–78.
Geelhaar, Christian. Paul Klee and the Bauhaus. Bath: Adams and Dart, 1973.
Giedion-Welcker, Carola. Paul Klee. Translated by Alexander Gode. London: Faber and Faber
Limited, 1952.
Hopfengart, Christine & Baumgartner, Michael. Paul Klee Life and Work. Bern: Zentrum Paul
Klee, 2012.
Kase, Oliver. “The Human Spirit or Technology, the Individual or Collective: Paul Klee and the
Debate on Painting at the Bauhaus”. Paul Klee: Construction of Mystery. Edited by Oliver
Kase and Régine Bonnefoit. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2018.
Klee, Paul. Paul Klee Notebooks Volume 1: The Thinking Eye. Translated by Ralph Manheim.
Edited by Jürg Spiller. London: Lund, Humphries, 1961.
Klee, Paul. “Creative Credo”. Paul Klee Notebooks Volume 1: The Thinking Eye. Translated by
Ralph Manheim. Edited by Jürg Spiller. London: Lund, Humphries, 1961, pp. 75–81.
Klee, Paul. Paul Klee Notebooks Volume 2: The Nature of Nature. translated by Heinz Norden.
Edited by Jürg Spiller. London: Lund, Humphries, 1973.
Klee, Paul. Paul Klee on Modern Art. Translated by Paul Findlay. London: Faber and Faber Ltd,
1969.
Klee, Paul. Pedagogical Sketchbook. Translated by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. New York: Praege
Publishers, 1972.
Klee, Paul. The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898–1918. Translated by Pierre B. Schneider, R. Y. Zachary
and Max Knight. Edited by Felix Klee. California: University of California Press, 1992.
Oswalt, Philipp. Bauhaus Conflicts, 1919–2009 : Controversies and Counterparts. Ostfildern,
Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2009.
53
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Translated by A. W. Wheen. London:
Unwin Brothers Limited, 1930.
Salley, Victoria. “The Master Years: 1917–1933”. Paul Klee: Selected by Genius, 1917-1933.
Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2007, pp. 9–14.
Seymour, Richard. The Twittering Machine. London: The Indigo Press, 2019
Shapiro, Maurice L. “Klee’s Twittering Machine”. The Art Bulletin. 50:1. 1968, pp. 67–69.
Siebenbrodt, Michael, and Lutz Schöbe. Bauhaus. New York: Parkstone International, 2009.
Temkin, Ann. “Klee, Paul”. The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner, in thirty-four volumes.
Volume 18. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1996, pp. 108–113.
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Volume 3. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1996, pp. 399–404.
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Dialogues and Bridges. Edited by Ronald Bruzina and Bruce Wilshire. Albany: University
of New York Press, 1967, pp. 353–361.
Watson, Stephen, H. Crescent Moon over the Rational: Philosophical Interpretations of Paul Klee.
Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2009.
54

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Paul Klee and War:

‘Art does not reproduce the visible, but

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for an

Harley Bell, B.A., Murdoch University

Full Name of Degree: Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy

Author: Harley Bell

1 Wilshire, 1967. pp. 353-361.

Finally, to Morgan Bell-Macdonald, for who you are.

COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ___________________________________________________________________ I

overlooked in the scholarship on Klee and as such is the focus of my thesis.

aspects of life that we overlook amidst everyday life.

illuminate questions that, at the time, may be overlooked.

2 Seymour, 2019, p. 19.

meaning that could not previously be expressed or considered.

and what art can make visible.

4 Wilshire, 1967. pp. 353-361.

with post-war situation as well as the industrialised ways of the time.

ART ILLUMINATING THE HORRORS OF WAR

KLEE’S DIARIES & THE DEATH OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES

7 Klee, 1992, preface, ix.

The reason for this change in style remains to be investigated. 16

14 Temkin, 1996, pp. 108-113.

already organised a second show this winter.”

disabilities have a profound impact on Klee.

22 Franciscono, 1991, p. 206.

that was influenced by the mechanical brutality of War.

DESPONDENCY CREATED BY THE WAR & INDUSTRIALISATION

when the War commenced.

impact of the War on Klee becomes explicit in his writing.

scientific explanations of human behaviour. Lotmar was a comprehensively trained neurologist. 39 In

industrialised and formularised mechanised world.

COMPARISONS OF ARTWORKS BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE

impacted by the War and its industrialised, mechanical nature.

Paul Klee, In the Quarry, 1913.

Paul Klee, Untitled, 1914.

Paul Klee, Death on the Battlefield, 1914.

Paul Klee, Death for the Idea, 1915.

Paul Klee, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine), 1922.

43 Hopfengart & Baumgarter, 2012, p. 107.

abstract.” Franciscono, 1991, p.207.

48 Shapiro, 1968, pp. 67-69.

had no room for human life.

KLEE’S WORK FOLLOWING THE WAR & LEADING TO THE BAUHAUS

and principles of order.

49 Franciscono, 1995, p. 210.

life and, by extension, the accelerated industrialisation of the time.

55 Klee, 1992, pp. 410-411.

had on Klee’s artistic development.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE BAUHAUS

5 Salley, 2007, p. 10.

(Giedion-Welcker, 1952, p. 50).

WHAT THE BAUHAUS STOOD FOR

systematically devoting himself to theorising and developing fundamental principles of composition

vision for the future. 25

To understand the importance of the School to Klee’s artistic development, it is important to

25 Giedion-Welcker, 1952, p. 50.

31 Franciscono, 1971, pp. 16-17.

Gropius’ vision for the creation of the Bauhaus.

society, it was also a view of many of his contemporaries. 43

38 Siebenbrodt, Michael, and Lutz Schöbe, 2009, p. 13.

44 Wick, 1996, p. 400.

from a subjective perspective), 56 Constructivist (learning by experience to ‘master’ a process of

construction) and Functionalist (whereby function was prioritised over aesthetics). 57