September 07, 2004

Paul Klee on abstraction

In his Bauhaus period, Klee defined abstraction in his pedagogical writings as follows: Abstract? Being abstract as a painter is not the same as abstracting natural objective ways of comparison but, independent of these possible forms of comparison, is based on the extraction of pictorially pure relations…Pictorially pure relations: light to dark, colour to light and dark, colour to colour, long to short, broad to narrow, sharp to blunt, left right – up down – behind before, circle to square to triangle.

Susanna Partsch, Klee, Taschen 2003, p.27

Link this to Deleuze on analogy in Leibniz, The Fold.


Robert O'Toole : 07 Sep 2004 08:19 |  Tags:    |  Comments (4) |  Report a problem

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  1. Mmm, I always found abstract art to be almost interactive in it's form. I mean look at Monet's work and what do you see? Waterlillies, it's not too difficult to work that one out. But abstract paintings are more like clouds in the sky, what shapes can be seen must surely vary depending on the viewer. Is that art or is the artist leaving us with so much work to do that we deserve some of the credit for enjoying the piece(s).

    On the other hand I got a D in my art A level so I could be talking bollocks…

    07 Sep 2004, 14:38

  2. Steven Carpenter

    Informed bollocks; there's a subtle difference.

    07 Sep 2004, 15:31

  3. Robert O'Toole

    I'm sure that there are artists who consider themselves 'abstract' and who aim for this kind of aesthetic relativism, for creating something that can be interpreted in many different ways. Klee, along with Cezanne, Bacon and Van Gogh (the artists that i'm studying) rejected that. In the case of Van Gogh and Bacon, the rejection was quite extreme. Their works were representational, but not relative to any 'true' objective relation, but rather entirely subjective. The question that they pose is, how can this subjective element in representation be explored. The philosopher Gilles Deleuze took a particular interest in their results, and this informs many of his works.

    See: link

    And: link

    And: link

    07 Sep 2004, 15:46

  4. Robert O'Toole

    The camera drove them to it! Its imediacy.

    07 Sep 2004, 17:26

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