Paul Klee at Tate Modern

Just returned from seeing the Paul Klee exhibition at the Tate Modern, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I never realised Klee's oeuvre was so wide ranging, having always imagined his work as being mainly geometric abstractions, or that his output was so prolific, [the exhibition filled seventeen rooms at the TM!]. I found his use of line absolutely fascinating, and although his style is completely different to my own, it was educating to see the works of such a master of form and line. The sense I got from looking at Klee's work, was of an artist completely at ease with his artistic freedom, and expressing himself daily as a matter of pleasure and meditation.

Rotating Sun With Arrow

Current Six Thresholds

Looking at Klee's work has given me ideas for potential backgrounds in my own pieces, to adapt some of his ideas on geometric forms for use in my own work, to widen my pieces out beyond using monotone backgrounds in which my figures are held. Just through the use of some very simple lines, colour fields & shapes, I believe that some of my works could be transformed. Looking at some of Klee's pieces, especially Rotating Black Sun With Arrow [1919], Greeting [1922], and Current Six Thresholds [1929], I cannot help but wonder how much Klee influenced Francis Bacon in the forms he created for his backgrounds.

Greeting



This is a test sentence Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."

--Kurt Vonnegut