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Pedagogical Sketchbook
"One of the most famous of modern art documents – a poetic primer, prepared by the artist for his Bauhaus pupils, which has deeply affected modern thinking about art...This little handbook leads us into the mysterious world where science and imagination fuse." "The Observer"
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
About the author
Paul Klee
340 books98 followersPaul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a Swiss painter and a German painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually mastered color theory, and wrote extensively about it; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are considered so important for modern art that they are compared to the importance that Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting had for Renaissance. He and his colleague , the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the German Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. His works reflect his dry humour and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 29, 2024
One of the few books that actually made me 'see' things from a different perspective. Paul Klee is one of the forgotten masters of modern design. It is often the case that a book can give us a different perspective - I would strongly suggest this book to anyone who is interested in art and design.
February 4, 2015
I expected to zoom right through this book, given its short length. This is definitely not one of those types of books. This is one of those books that shifts in meaning as one becomes more experienced. Shortly after reading this I read The Tree of Life: Image for the Cosmos, by Roger Cook, and found that a brief passage in that book was especially helpful in shedding some light on Klee’s thoughts. It’s below (it appears on page 30 in the book), although it means less when taken out of context:
It was on the basis of inner necessity, as exemplified in plant growth, that both Kandinsky and his friend and fellow-teacher, Paul Klee, founded their famous ‘point-line to plane’ theories of form production. Thus, Klee told his students at the Bauhaus of ‘the irritated point as latent energy’:
‘At the slightest impetus, the point is about to emerge from a state in which its mobility is concealed, to move onwards, to take on one or more directions. It is about to become linear. In concrete pictorial terms: the seed strikes root. Initially the line is directed earthwards, though not to dwell there, only to draw energy thence for reaching up into the air.
‘The point of origin between soil and atmosphere stretches out, and the generalized plant image becomes tree, root, trunk, crown. The trunk is the medium for the rising of the sap from the soil to the lofty crown. The linear forces gather within it to form a powerful stream, and they radiate outwards, in order to pervade the airspace at free height. Hence forward articulation naturally becomes more and more ramified and open, to make the best of air and light. Leaves become flat lobes, the whole thing begins to resemble a lung, or gills, porous, subdivided, for a single purpose. Let this entire organism now become an example of us – a structure functioning from within to without or vice versa. Let us learn: The whole form results from a single base, the base of inner necessity. Need is at the bottom.’
It was on the basis of inner necessity, as exemplified in plant growth, that both Kandinsky and his friend and fellow-teacher, Paul Klee, founded their famous ‘point-line to plane’ theories of form production. Thus, Klee told his students at the Bauhaus of ‘the irritated point as latent energy’:
‘At the slightest impetus, the point is about to emerge from a state in which its mobility is concealed, to move onwards, to take on one or more directions. It is about to become linear. In concrete pictorial terms: the seed strikes root. Initially the line is directed earthwards, though not to dwell there, only to draw energy thence for reaching up into the air.
‘The point of origin between soil and atmosphere stretches out, and the generalized plant image becomes tree, root, trunk, crown. The trunk is the medium for the rising of the sap from the soil to the lofty crown. The linear forces gather within it to form a powerful stream, and they radiate outwards, in order to pervade the airspace at free height. Hence forward articulation naturally becomes more and more ramified and open, to make the best of air and light. Leaves become flat lobes, the whole thing begins to resemble a lung, or gills, porous, subdivided, for a single purpose. Let this entire organism now become an example of us – a structure functioning from within to without or vice versa. Let us learn: The whole form results from a single base, the base of inner necessity. Need is at the bottom.’
December 9, 2019
Having gone through classical training in architecture, I've long owned Paul Klee's Pedagogical Sketchbook, a relic of the German Bauhaus which defined so much of what is still taught today in architecture schools around the world. Sitting among my collection of textbooks and other recommended readings from school, Klee's slender treatise is the one book I was never able to dig into over the course of my university years, despite being by far the thinnest and many would say "fluffiest"of the lot.
After resolving to sit down and give the book a fair shot, with a (very) open mind, I've been pleasantly surprised at the insights I've been able to glean. Truth be told, the majority of the book still reads like a foreign language to me, a mess of lines with superimposed text sometimes so far divorced from the so-called "diagrams" neighbouring it that I glide through page after page completely lost. Every so often however, Klee will describe a simple idea or a concept in such great clarity and in such an original way that for a fleeting moment, the whole of the "sketchbook" makes sense to you. For those rare instances alone, this curious book is worth the time of any student of art, architecture, or philosophy.
After resolving to sit down and give the book a fair shot, with a (very) open mind, I've been pleasantly surprised at the insights I've been able to glean. Truth be told, the majority of the book still reads like a foreign language to me, a mess of lines with superimposed text sometimes so far divorced from the so-called "diagrams" neighbouring it that I glide through page after page completely lost. Every so often however, Klee will describe a simple idea or a concept in such great clarity and in such an original way that for a fleeting moment, the whole of the "sketchbook" makes sense to you. For those rare instances alone, this curious book is worth the time of any student of art, architecture, or philosophy.
August 25, 2012
So.. I was expecting a book similar to Alber's 'Interaction of Color', but this one is even more abstract, if that's possible. I wanted to read some of his diaries and classroom notes because I watched a documentary that showed glimpses of the sheer amount that he wrote, and I'd like to hear WHY he did what he did with his art. Of all of the early expressionists he seemed to have the most theories to work from, and his art grows on you the longer you sit with it, you keep feeling there's something more you haven't figured out yet in them. So this is his class notes on line and motion. What you decide to do next with his 'taking a line for a walk', or the abstract diagrams in this book, is up to you.
April 7, 2008
Ok. Let's talk about Pedagogical Sketchbook. Here Klee does for the line wht Kundera tries to do for the novel in The Art of the Novel. Pedagogical Sketchbook is the place where Klee gives a drawing lesson, and defines the meanings and implications of different lines. He also gives lessons in perspective drawing, and on how to think about images. He does this through drawings which are scattered throughout the text. Though this is a picture book, it's an extremely challenging one. Please talk to me about Pedagogical sketchbook if you have read it. I have a copy, and I know it is hard to find. If you own it, and understand more about it, let's communicate.
September 7, 2016
a book that can never be finished as it opens the door for endless exploration and thinking
February 3, 2017
Interesting sketches, especially mathematical renderings of art and physics. The only thing is, however, that they are too sketchy and brief to the Klee layman. Nevertheless, I have noted few quick commonalities in his examples: closure; when do time and space matter and when do they not? - e.g. the linear and planar effects of a line and the non-directional, infinite circular movement (more to follow).
June 28, 2007
I learnt that everything is best approached from first principles.
October 12, 2007
I wonder how his lines relate to lines of 3 dimensional movement
February 18, 2010
what a strange little book. originally intended as a course in design theory at the Bauhaus.
August 21, 2012
Thinking about it this book has shaped everything I have done since
July 29, 2014
Wonderful. Eye-opening.
December 31, 2016
Solid 3.5. Had this on my bookshelf for a few years after picking up a used copy. Finally read it and did find some interesting points.
January 20, 2017
To stand despite all possibilities to fall
December 11, 2022
Marking this as "read" because I have taken in all the pages, but I have not yet worked through the last few and I already know that I will immediately return to the first page and begin again. So, this will be perennially on the actual shelf beside my drafting table. Whether you are an advanced artist or, like me, a sketcher who likes to think with a pencil, I think you will find it worthwhile to spend time with this slim volume, each page of which offers opportunities for both play and reflection.
April 20, 2023
Art nature physics math myth magic
October 15, 2020
Interesting, but a bit overwhelming on first read.
January 24, 2015
lines are more interesting than planes, i kept thinking. sometimes, too logical for me; other times, too woo woo. also, i could tell the whole active-medial-passive thing was gonna culminate in masculine-active, feminine-passive zzzzs. but! some nice concepts, like: "one bone alone achieves nothing", "the eye travels the path the work cuts out for it" (but does it want to?), "the vertical describes the logical direction of the plane", "horizontality is either actuality or supposition".
line theory, check. color theory: gonna go real deep. josef alders & beyond!
line theory, check. color theory: gonna go real deep. josef alders & beyond!
February 8, 2015
Methodological conceptualization of Klee's artistic process supplemented with practical illustrations. The book begins with the most primary elements and progresses through successively more complex forms.
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September 16, 2012it's a picture book, with words. Lecture notes. I need to listed to it to understand notes better...
June 30, 2014
Not what i was looking for but interesting. looking for more about his progression of shapes.
November 23, 2015
Taken aback by its purity and layers of meaning so simply illustrated. Really brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews