Since I’ve been writing a bit about artists who inspire me here (i.e. Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse), I thought I should post some works by Paul Klee. I’ve been thinking about his work a lot lately.  In fact, I was reading a book about his life the other night before going to bed, and then had strange and vivid dreams about the Bauhaus! Lesson learned: I should make a habit of reading about art before bed.

In my reading, I came across this lovely quote by Paul Klee, written in his diaries in 1901:

“Actually, the main thing now is not to paint precociously but to be or, at least, to become an individual. The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions. Not only to master life in practice, but to shape it meaningfully within me and to achieve as mature an attitude before it as possible. Obviously this isn’t accomplished with a few general precepts but grows like Nature.”

(The works above are: Monument in Fertile Country, 1929 and Monument on the Border of Fertile Country, 1928)