ブックタイトルRILAS 早稲田大学総合人文科学研究センター研究誌

概要

RILAS 早稲田大学総合人文科学研究センター研究誌

WASEDA RILAS JOURNAL NO. 1 (2013. 10)利用されるクレーの逸話利用されるクレーの逸話──チュニジア旅行の言葉をめぐって──田中暁About Klee’s Quotation on His Trip to Tunisia (1914)Akira TANAKAAbstract“I and color became one. I am a painter.”Paul Klee (1879-1940) entered this phrase in his diary in 1914, makingit a frequently quoted one when referring to his career. Together with this quotation, the belief that Klee’s tripto Tunisia was at the core of his keen color sense is repeated in exhibitions, monographs, and theses. However,considering the fact that Klee actually wrote the phrase in 1921 and not in 1914, his account should not be takenliterally. Further, the phrase was not renowned during Klee’s lifetime, and it is not clear how it became a famousquotation.Between 1920 and 1921, two monographs published on Klee (one by Leopold Zahn and the other by WilhelmHausenstein) emphasized the Tunisian trip as the origin of his abstract painting style. Also, Klee’s first retrospectivein 1920 exhibited many paintings created during this trip. Under these circumstances, Klee revised his diaryentry to boost his self-image as an artist.In 1950, German art historian Werner Haftmann quoted Klee’s phrase for the first time; the quotation quicklygained popularity in Germany. After World War II, however, German art needed to recover from the backwardideology of“Entartete Kunst,”which had tried to erase modern art forms, including German Expressionism. Toreturn to the international art scene and break away from the legacy of fascist nationalism, an image of the“abstract art”as a stateless style was necessary in addition to a“non-national”branding. Therefore, this anecdoteabout the origin of Klee’s unique painting style occurring outside Europe made it possible to separate his workfrom“Deutschtum.”This thesis demonstrates that an anecdote or a quotation attributed to an artist is not always transparent andinnocent, but requires evaluation against a socio-historical background.はじめにそれはあまりに深く、そして優しく私の中に滲み込んでくる。私はそれを感じ、自ずと自信がわいてくる。色彩が私を捉える。それを追う必要はない。私にはわかる。それが永遠に私を捉えつづけるだろうと。これこそが至福の時である。色彩と私はひとつになった。私は画家なのだ。これは1914年パウル・クレーが北アフリカのチュニジアを旅行した際、日記に記した文章である?。特にその末尾「色彩と私はひとつになった。私は画家なのだ」の箇所はクレーを語る際に必ずといっていいほど引用され、同時に「異国の地チュニジアでクレーは線描画家から色彩画家になり、彼の画業における色彩表現の端緒はこのチュニジア旅行にある」という言説は展覧会、モノグラフ、研究論文とあらゆる媒体において幾度も反復されている?。しかしながら1914年の日記に記されたこの文がクレー存命中に公表されたことはなく、おそらく実際は1914年ではなく7年後の1921年に記された55