“Art does not reproduce what we see. It makes us see.”
Section I
(de) Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar.
1916 - 1920, Creative Credo (1920)
Variant: Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.
Original
Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar.
Schöpferische Konfession. In: Tribüne der Kunst und der Zeit. Eine Schriftensammlung, Band XIII, hgg. v. Kasimir Edschmid. Reiß, Berlin 1920. S. 28
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Paul Klee 104
German Swiss painter 1879–1940Related quotes

"Talks on the Appreciation of Art", The Delinator (Jan 1915)
Other

The She-Ancient, in Pt. V
Source: 1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
Context: Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls.

“Life is what we make of it. Travel is the traveler. What we see isn't what we see but what we are.”
Original: (pt) Viajar? Para viajar basta existir. [...] Para quê viajar? Em Madrid, em Berlim, na Pérsia, na China, nos Pólos ambos, onde estaria eu senão em mim mesmo, e no tipo e género das minhas sensações?
A vida é o que fazemos dela. As viagens são os viajantes. O que vemos não é o que vemos, senão o que somos.
Source: The Book of Disquiet, p. 360
Context: To travel? In order to travel it's enough to be. […] Why travel? In Madrid, in Berlin, in Persia, in China, at the Poles both, where would I be but in myself, and in the sort and kind of my sensations?
Life is what we make of it. Travels are travellers. What we see is not what we see but what we are.

Source: after 2000, Doubt and belief in painting' (2003), p. 51, note 60

“What is art but a way of seeing?”
Thomas Berger, in Being Invisible (1967)
Misattributed

“Design as a Principle in the Arts”, The Critical Path and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1963–1975, p. 232
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