From Paul Klee’s “Creative Credo” (1920) *

Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.

Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar.

* Creative Credo [Schöpferische Konfession] (1920), Section I. See translation source below. **

Writings of Paul Klee (1879-1940)

The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918, edited, with an introduction by Felix Klee. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964. Translation of Tagebücher. (Reprinted 1968.)

** The Inward Vision: Watercolors, Drawings, Writings, translated from the German by Norbert Guterman. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1958. Translation of Im Zwischenreich.

On Modern Art, with an introduction by Herbert Read; translated by Paul Findlay. London: Faber and Faber, 1948. (Reprinted 1966.) Translation of Über die moderne Kunst.

Paul Klee Notebooks, translated by Ralph Manheim; edited by Jürg Spiller. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1992. Volume 1. The Thinking Eye (originally 1961). Volume 2: The Nature of Nature (originally 1973). Translation of Form- und Gestaltungslehre.

See also:

** Chipp, Herschel Browning, comp. Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics, with contributions by Peter Selz and Joshua C. Taylor. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. See Klee's Creative Credo (Guterman translation), pp. 182-186.

Quotations

Paul Klee - Wikiquote

Peintres: Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Exil (A Paul Delvaux)
par Paul Eluard

Max Beckmann on Painting, the Intellect, the Senses, Individuality, & the Abstract

René Magritte on the Revolutionary Artist vs. Folk Art & Stalinism

Explanation Explained by René Magritte

Surrealism: Selected Links

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