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simplified heavy arrow appeared in typographical layouts and display works already in the early 20's, and has never disappeared since. 

But, the applications of the "motives" are not the real effect of Klee. You know by knowing his work that he never trusted his easy talents, that in search and with purpose he went down and back to zero point, that he succeeded in arranging the various facets of his life and work into one throughly genuine integral composition. Again and again he went back to this zero point. Even in his later years, as a successful and recognized artist, he examined and re-examined what he had—the zero point of his departure. The courage to experiment at his own risk was a major force of his influence, especially of course in the Bauhaus, where he lived and worked from 1920 to '32.

This present exhibition at the Museum shows the process very well. We see now the signs of his talent and search, also in his early work. Not many discovered those values in his days. He must have had his crises and desperations. His career was given up by his critics for he was already in his middle thirties, and a painter should have produced something outstanding by then, if he is any good, they thought. The family lived from the piano lessons of Mrs. Klee. In the crowded and noisy apartment, so I have been told, Klee worked in a closet with a window cut in the door. This may have had something to do with the small scale of his pictures, which he later, very gradually, enlarged somewhat. 

One knows by his work, and it was confirmed by knowing the man, that he had the strength and the methods to stand it. 

MARCEL BREUER

[[image]]
# 11, 1909, pen and brush drawing, 6 3/4 x 12 3/8".

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