Everything passes, and what remains of former times, what remains of life, is the spiritual. In everything we do, the claim of the Absolute is unchanging.
Paul KleeRead
To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that focusing solely on beauty is incomplete, similar to how a mathematical system that ignores negative numbers lacks depth.
Paul Klee's quote reflects on the idea that an appreciation for art or beauty is enriched by acknowledging the full spectrum of experience, including the negative or difficult aspects. Just as a mathematical system is limited if it only deals with positive numbers, an understanding of beauty that excludes the ugly or challenging does not offer a complete perspective on life and creativity.
Themes
BeautyArtExperienceNegativityPerspective
In practice
Example use cases
In an art class when discussing the importance of all aspects of creativity.
More from Paul Klee
All quotes βThe painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.
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You adapt yourself to the contents of the paintbox.
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It is a great difficulty and a great necessity to have to start with the smallest.
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All art is a memory of age-old things, dark things, whose fragments live on in the artist.
Paul KleeRead
The more horrible this world (as today, for instance), the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the here and now.
Paul KleeRead
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