“Many call Paul Klee a magician. He was no such thing; he did not conjure up anything. He was an inventor who discovered magical things,” wrote one Bauhaus student about his famous teacher. For Klee (1879–1940), both as an artist and as a teacher, nature was an inexhaustible source of inspiration; a large part of his oeuvre depicts gardens and parks—from real locations such as the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz or Hammamet in Tunisia to imaginary, sometimes dreamlike and sometimes exotic, products of his imagination portraying ominous plant worlds. Klee also paid special attention to plant structure and growth; during walks he would often collect flowers, evergreens, and leaves, expertly identifying and storing them in a herbarium.
With an abundance of color illustrations, this publication reveals the multifaceted temperament of Klee’s lifelong “dialogue with nature.” His complex approach, on the one hand analytically objective and on the other radically subjective, is also explored, as is his understanding of art as a process of creation similar to nature itself. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2100-4)
 
Exhibition schedule: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, May 17–August 31, 2008 · Henie Onstad Art Centre, Oslo, October 2–December 7, 2008 · Bergen Art Museum, January 8–March 15, 2009