Paul Klee: Hand Puppets (Emanating) (Hardcover)

~ Christine Hopfengart (Author), Osamu Okuda (Author), Paul Klee (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Between 1916 and 1925 Paul Klee (1879-1940) made some 50 hand puppets for his son, Felix, of which 30 are still in existence. For the heads, he used materials from his own household: beef bones and electrical outlets, bristle brushes, leftover bits of fur and nutshells. Soon he began to sew costumes. These characters and small works, do not pretend to be great art, but at the same time, they are superbly imaginative, sweetly reminiscent of Klee’s relationships with his family, and beautifully illustrative of the artistic and social developments of the time. Readers will see the chronological proximity of Dada and Kurt Schwitters’s collages in Klee’s Matchbox Ghost; the German National caricatures one of the era’s more ominous political types. An introductory essay tracks the work’s links to other avant-garde puppetry and to Klee’s sculptural works, and notes his connections to the theater. For their part, Klee’s son Felix and his grandson Alexander tell the story of how the figures were created.

About the Author

Paul Klee was born in Munchenbuchsee near Bern in 1879. In the early 1910s, he met Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc in Munich, and together they founded the Blaue Reiter movement. Through his involvement with Cubism, Klee then began to move towards abstract representation and to add greater depth of differentiation to his palette by using watercolor painting. He taught at the Bauhaus under Walter Gropius and later at the Dusseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, leaving his post to escape the Nazis for Bern, where he died in 1940.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Hatje Cantz Publishers (October 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3775717404
• ISBN-13: 978-3775717403
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,943 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally amazing unseen puppet photos and info!, October 13, 2006

By	S. WATSON (Door County) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I just got this newly published book and it is simply wonderful. I have a huge puppet book library and having just skimmed through it, I am thrilled to see all photos/puppets are ones I've never seen anywhere else. The puppets of Klee are an absolute inspiration, and I am so glad there is a new book that introduces them to a new generation. The only other book about these puppets is in the range of $500.00 if you can even find one, so this is an absolute steal, and probably will become collectible as well. This is put out by the new Paul Klee museum and text and photos are all fascinating. You must have this for your puppet library!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paul Klee: Hand Puppets, January 11, 2007

By	Pat Irish "PJ" (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This is a great book for more "out there" puppeteers, artists and lovers of Paul Klee's art. His son, Felix, reminisces about his childhood with his artistic Papa, who built whimsical, sometimes scary and political, puppets for his young son's enjoyment. There are many photos of the restored puppets and Felix's stories about them and his father are charming.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!, December 13, 2008

By	Damon Rich (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are familiar with Klee's museum work, this book will knock your socks off! I was on an art holiday in SoCal, not having yet had a chance to look through the Norton-Simon Museum, and I discovered this book. I had to work at associating Klee's work that I knew with the material in this book. These puppets are insight to the mythology of his family and his ethnic and cultural history. These are raw and sweet. I was quite taken aback. I thought is this the doodle guy who occasionally draws happy faces? Okay. A gross characterization. But these very intimate pieces provide an insight into the personal world of Paul Klee and a sense of play and delight. Hard to believe these were never catalogued as a part of his oeuvre. With a grandmother of 92, with a rich history, I may work, her and I, on a few puppets. Inspiring.