Notebooks. Volume 1: The Thinking Eye
London, Lund Humphries, 1978 (fifth impression)/ 1961 (first English language edition)/ 1956 (first edition, in German).
Small square quarto, 541 pages with over 1000 'drawings which illustrate the notes, as well as 188 half-tone illustrations, eight of these reproduced in full colour'. Numerous drawings have added colour, the colour plates are tipped-in, there are an additional three-fold chart, folding glossary, and printed overlay (the latter two printed on transparent paper).
Papered boards; top and leading edges lightly foxed, with minimal light foxing elsewhere; light crease to the bottom corner area of seven consecutive leaves; commercial bookplate and related ownership details in ink on the front endpaper; trifling signs of handling; an excellent copy with the near-fine unclipped dustwrapper.
Translated by Ralph Manheim, and edited by Juerg Spiller. A second volume, 'The Nature of Nature', was published more than a decade after the first English edition of this one, but 'The Thinking Eye' is complete in itself. 'The writings which compose Paul Klee's theory of form production and pictorial form have the same importance and the same meaning for modern art as had Leonardo's writings which composed his theory of painting for Renaissance art' (dustwrapper blurb).
Item #144771
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