Jenseits des Gedichts. Paul Klee als Poet

The formula of the poet-painter is an integral part of Klee’s reception. If, however, the poetic is merely perceived metaphorically as a quality of his art, Klee’s ability to express himself through language is neglected. Conversely, attempts to inscribe Klee as a great undiscovered figure in lyrical history with reference to his posthumously published poems fail to grasp the interaction between the two arts in his work. Focusing on the specific nature of Klee’s treatment of language, the following text attempts to show that Klee’s most important and innovative contribution to literary history developed precisely out of his departure from poetry-as-form. By using genuinely poetic means, he raised the functional genre of the picture title to the level of his own, intermedial form of literary art.