Southern Gardens 1919

Paul Klee’s "Southern Gardens" is made up of a grid of watercolor washes, probably applied with a brush so wet, it was like he was painting with light. It’s easy to imagine him outside in a sunny garden. I can see how the squares relate to color field painting, but the plants give it away. Two of them have little green shoots, and the color palette is incredible, like a dream. Klee worked in a Bauhaus environment, absorbing ideas and letting them simmer in his subconscious. The marks are deliberate, but they also have a dreamy quality. He’s definitely in conversation with other artists, but it is his unique language of form and color that makes him so special. It is kind of miraculous that he took all these modernist ideas and made them into something so deeply personal. I admire his courage and his conviction.