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Abstract
The artist understands his work as intimately connected with the life and symbolism of plants. Art, thus, demands an attunement to life's elemental operations, the thrust "into dimensions far removed from the conscious process." The first part of the present essay aims at recovering what is implied in the imagery of trees, delving into ancient archives of dormant collective memories and immemorial imaginai stratifications. The second and third parts, deploying the re-energized figure of the tree, explore the theme of the relation between art and life, indeed, what Klee calls the "art of life." By reference to Klee's 1924 Jena lecture and the artist's diaries, the discussion addresses the intersecting themes of artistic formation, mindful self-formation, the vital importance of worldly roots, and the transcendent fragrance of flowers and fruits.
Keywords
Paul Klee, tree symbolism, art of life, plant metabolism, self-cultivation
I
"Le noyer"
Arbre qui, de sa place,
fièrement arrondit
tout autour cet espace
de l'été accompli,
arbre dont le volume
rond et abondant
prouve et résume
ce que l'on attend longtemps:
j'ai pourtant vu rougir
tes feuilles en devenant vertes:
de cette pudeur offerte
ta magnificence, certes,
les veut à présent punir.
II
Arbre, toujours au milieu
de tout ce qui l'entoure -,
arbre qui savoure
la voûte entière des deux,
toi, comme aucun autre
tourné vers partout:
on dirait un apôtre
qui ne sait pas d'où
Dieu lui va apparaître...
Or, pour qu'il soit sûr,
il développe en rond son être
et lui tend des bras mûrs.
III
Arbre qui peut-être
pense au dedans:
antique Arbre-maître
parmi les arbres servant!
Arbre qui se domine,
se donnant lentement
la forme qui élimine
les hasards du vent:
plein de forces austères
ton ombre claire nous rend
une feuille qui désaltère
et des fruits persévants.
-R. M. Rilke
Allow me to use a simile, the simile of the tree. The artist has studied this manifold world and has, so we may suppose, somehow found his way in it, quietly. He is so well oriented that he can bring order to the flight of appearances and experiences. This orientation in the things of nature and of life, this multifarious ramified and branching order, I would liken to the root system of the...