G. Oeri - Review of 'Das Bildnerische Denken. Schriften Zur Form by Paul Klee' (1957)

7/23/2019 G. Oeri - Review of 'Das Bildnerische Denken. Schriften Zur Form by Paul Klee' (1957)

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Das bildnerische Denken. Schriften zur Form- und Gestaltungslehre by Paul Klee

Review by: Georgine OeriThe Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Sep., 1957), pp. 140-141Published by: Wileyon behalf of The American Society for AestheticsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/427143.

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140

REVIEWS

First, Gauguin proceeds

to

Tahiti

already

in

possession

of the

image

of

the

tropics

from

a

journey

to

Martinique,

Baird

says;

but the

journey

to

Panama

and

Martinique

is

not

the

first

station,

nor

is it the decisive station

before

Gauguin's

Pacific

journey.

Second,

his moral view is already formulated by a tradition of his predecessorsin Oceania, Baird

says;

but the

point

is

how he

accepted

or

criticized these

predecessors.

He

disliked

Loti's

moral

attitude,

he read

Leconte de

Lisle's

poems,

but

especially

he used Moerenhout's

more

than

fifty-year-old

books on the

Pacific. This

last source

is

of

great

importance

for

the

understanding

of

Gauguin's

primitivism.

His

manuscript

on the Catholic

religion

shows

his

particular

ambition to reconcile modern

science, religion,

and

primitivism.

Now it

may

be said

that

Baird does not

have

to be a

specialist

on

Gauguin.

But

I think

he has

to

be

if

his

comparisons

between

Melville

and

Gauguin

are to be taken

seriously.

Melville's

art . . .

merges

with

the

symbolic

elements

of

Gauguin's

art rather

than

with

the

representational

matter

of

William

Sidney

Mount's

paintings

of the American

frontier.

A

statement

of

this sort

I

cannot

discuss

until

I

know if Baird can show

what Melville

and

Gauguin

had

in

common.

A

discussion

of

this sort is not

performed

in

Baird's

book;

because of such a lack I think that there is something wrong in his method.

TEDDY BRUNIUS

KLEE,

PAUL.

Das

bildnerische Denken.

Schriften

zur Form- und

Gestaltungslehre.

Heraus-

gegeben

und bearbeitet

von

Jiirg

Spiller.

Basel,

1956,

Benno

Schwabe

& Co.

Verlag,

pp.

572,

more

than

1200

ills., many

in

color,

76.00 S. Frs.

I

would like to stress from

the outset that

my

willingness

[to

teach]

is based

on

the

realization

that

in

the

long

run

I

can

not,

in

good conscience,

avoid

assuming

a

serious

teaching activity.

It

seems to me

most

important

for

you

to

emphasize

the fact that

you

want

an

artist

for an

instructor who

is alive and

contemporary

enough

in

spirit

to

direct

young

people.

This was how

Paul

Klee stated-in the summer

of

1919,

at the

age

of

forty,

his reputation as an artist firmly established-his role as a teacher, which was to absorb

and

fulfill him thereafter

for

more

than a

decade

during

his

years

of

maturity.

As

it turned

out,

he did

not

join

the

faculty

of the

Stuttgart Academy

of

Art-Oskar

Schlemmer,

to whom

the cited

letter was

addressed,

could

not

secure his

appointment

against

the

opposition

of

conservative

faculty

members-but

a

year later,

in

the

fall of

1920,

he

accepted

the unanimous call from

Gropius

and six other

Bauhaus

instructors to

become

a

master

at

the

Bauhaus

in

Weimar.

Shortly

after

he

had

established

himself,

Klee

wrote to

his

wife: Here

in

the studio I

am

working

at

a

half a dozen

paintings,

I

draw

and

I

keep

thinking

about

my course, every-

thing simultaneously,

for it

has

to

work

together

or

else

it will

not

work at all. The

organic

unity

of

it

preserves my

strength.

It is

this

coincidence

that

Klee

the

artist

and

Klee the

teacher

functioned

harmoniously

and in mutual stimulation-that he not

only

was able but felt the need to

operate

in both

areas

at

once

in

order

to

come to

the

realization

of

his

potential-which

has resulted

in

his

writings

on

pictorial thinking,

presented

here

for

the first time.

The

presentation

is excellent.

It

appears

to be an

accomplishment

of

cooperation

be-

tween

editor and

publisher

which makes itself

felt

throughout,

affecting

seemingly

minor

details

of

layout

and

typography.

The

arrangement

between

text and

illustration follows

as

closely

as

possible plans

which

Klee

himself had worked on.

It is

not

only

a

matter

of

reproducing

all

the

charts

and

illustrations

Klee

had

invented to

explain

and

amplify

his

ideas

on

pictorial

organization

in

his classes. The

theoretical

part

is

broadened and

eluci-

dated-in

a

score-like

orchestration of

simultaneous

presence-with

reproductions

of the

free,

creative

work

by

the artist.

Jiirg Spiller accomplished this editorial job with faithful and discerning devotion.

Beyond

it

he

indefatigably

annotated

the main text of

Klee's

classroom notebooks

with

marginal

additions the artist

himself

made later

on,

as

his

experience

and

insight

increased.

In

addition

there

is

an

appendix

which

furnishes notes for

comparison,

drawn

from Klee's

diaries

and

correspondence,

and

gives

a

vast

amount of

cross reference

to

publications

on Klee

as well as

reference

to

works

by

him

reproduced

elsewhere.

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3/3

REVIEWS

141

What

emerges

is

an

intimate

picture

of

the creative

personality

Paul

Klee,

if

not, indeed,

of the

creative

personality.

One

participates

in

the

creative

process

in

a

way

that seems

to

be

unprecedented.

Singular

circumstances

had

to

converge

for its

recording.

The

artist

who

was

engaged

in

not

merely rendering

the

seen,

but

revealing

the

invisible was

en-

dowed with

poetic

powers

which enabled

him to

seize the

abundance

of his

imagination

also

in

word

images.

GEORGINEOERI

WINGLER,

HANS MARIA. Oskar Kokoschka.

Das

Werk

des Malers.

Salzburg, 1956,

Verlag

Galerie

Welz,

pp.

401

including

131

full-page

ills.

in

black and

white,

35

full-page plates

in

color,

and 39 ills.

in

the text.

(Price

not

quoted.)

This

is

an

imposing opus,

an

indispensable

source-book destined

to

play

as

important

a

role

in

the

literature on

Kokoschka

as

did

Lionello Venturi's

catalogue

raisonng

of

C6-

zanne's work

in

the

literature

on

Cezanne.

In Mr.

Wingler's volume,

the

oeuvreof

Kokoschka

the

painter

is

reproduced

in its

entirety,

partly

on

full-size

plates

and

partly

in

reduced

size in the oeuvre catalogue. As the author himself states, in the literature of art criticism,

subjectivity

has

so

far stood in

the

way

of

any

all-embracing,

objective

examination

of

Kokoschka's work

and

the time

is not

yet

ripe

for

a

full

and

comprehensive interpretation,

which would

have

to

include a consideration of the

psychological

aspect.

The

complete

enumeration

of

the

total

work of

Kokoschka,

in

the first

place

that

of

his

paintings,

is

the

object

of

this

publication,

which is

to

be

followed

at some

interval

by

a

similar

book

dealing

with his

graphic

work. In ten

years

of

conscientious

work

the author has com-

pleted

this

task with

great

patience

and devotion.

In

the

introductory essay

to this

large-

size

volume

(23

x

30

cm)

he

now

adds

his own to

the

existing subjective

views. On

74

pages,

the character

and

history

of

Kokoschka's art are discussed and well

documented;

the

prob-

lems

of color

and

composition

in

relation

to

the

subject

matter are

analyzed-a very

im-

portant problem especially in the case of this master. In the last chapter of his essay the

author deals

with the function of the

picture,

at the same time

demonstrating

the

artist's

philosophy

of

life and his

views

on

aesthetics.

Two

contributions

by

Kokoschka

supple-

ment the

essay:

the

lecture

On the Nature

of

Visions,

written in

1912,

and

the hitherto

unprinted study,

The

Essentials

of

the Visual

Arts,

especially

written

for

this

volume.

In

the two sections of

the latter

contribution, Non-Objective

Art and

The

Eye

of

Darius,

Kokoschka defends

his

world view and discusses

current abstract

tendencies in

art.

The

introductory part

of

the book

contains

44

illustrations. Of these

5

are

full-page

color

reproductions (watercolors

and one

poster)

and

4

small-size colored

reproductions

of

pastels.

The

full-page

plates

(131

black and white and

30

color

reproductions)

make

up

the

main

part

of

the

volume. Of excellent

quality, they bring

Kokoschka's

work

as

close

to

the reader as is

possible

with

a

great

colorist

in

this

form.

The oeuvre catalogue of

paintings

(394 titles), of

plastic

and other works

(17

titles)

which

follows,

is

accompanied by

several Classified Indices. Most

important

of

these

is

the Index

according

to

Subject

Matter. The

Bibliography

is

an

heroic

attempt

at com-

pleteness

and the

author

probably

comes close to

achieving

this

objective.

In

its first

sec-

tion,

it

comprises

a list

of

publications by Kokoschka,

in

the second

section a list

of

publica-

tions

on

Kokoschka

as

well as an Index

of

Catalogues.

An

Alphabetical

List

of

Publications

provides

a

key

to this

documentary

part comprising

700

titles.

The

art

historian and the

future

biographer

of

Kokoschka will

find

the

concluding

sec-

tion

of

the

book,

entitled

Synchronized

Summary,

especially

helpful.

In

chronological

order it

gives

the

most

important

data

from

the life and work

of

the

artist-events,

jour-

neys,

meetings,

the

work

itself,

publications,

performances

of

plays,

and

exhibitions

and

catalogues-from 1886 to June 1956.

J.

P.

HODIN

LAMPSON,

DOMINIQUE.

Les

Effigies

des Peintres

Celkbres

des

Pays-Bas.

Edition

critique

par

Jean

Puraye.

Brussels and

Paris, 1956,

Desclee de

Brouwer,

pp.

71.

The reasons

which

lead

us to

grant

a

particular

welcome

to

modern editions of

some of

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G. Oeri - Review of 'Das Bildnerische Denken. Schriften Zur Form by Paul Klee' (1957)

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