Abstract
From Benjamin to Merleau-Ponty and from Gadamer to Deleuze, Klee's work has been the focus of genuine philosophical commentary and has invariably been taken as something of an inspiration for philosophizing itself. Until the publication of his "Notes on Klee" and a few other recently published texts, it was not just clear how deeply Heidegger too had engaged Klee's work. We cannot be certain when Heidegger first discovered Klee's work, but these "Notes on Klee" make very clear that his encounter with Klee was a profound experience for Heidegger. Given Heidegger's previous remarks about modern art, which were few but nonetheless typically dismissive, this apparently sudden embrace of Klee is a bit surprising. There is not even a mention of Klee in the "Zusatz" (1956) to the "Origin of the Work of Art" so it seems as if we can date the turning point for Heidegger to his visit to Basel in 1957 to see the Beyeler collection of eighty-eight recently purchased paintings by Paul Klee. This event was a landmark event for Heidegger who would give evidence of the newfound importance of Klee's work when, shortly after seeing Klee's paintings and beginning to read his writings, he spoke to friends of the need to write a sort of supplement or appendix to "Origin of the Work of Art" that would take account of Klee's work.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3-6 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Philosophy Today |
Volume | 61 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976
- Klee, Paul, 1879-1940
- art and philosophy
- discourse analysis, literary
- hermeneutics