With the Setting Sun 1919

Paul Klee made this painting with watercolor and ink, it’s kind of hard to say exactly when. The greens and blues wash together with earthy browns, all disrupted by a kind of symbolic system of shapes. Imagine Klee, brush in hand, moving between control and chance, building up the layers, each decision a step into the unknown. There’s that big red circle, like a setting sun. I wonder, was he thinking about nature, or about the symbols we use to understand it? Klee was part of the Bauhaus, so he probably thought about how simple shapes, and how lines and colors can create a whole world. The paint is thin, almost transparent in places. That arrow pointing down? It gives a sense of direction in a dreamlike space. I feel like I am floating. Klee, like other modern painters, kept up a running conversation with all the painters who came before him, and all the ones who would follow. He probably saw himself as just another link in the chain. Painting lets us share what is not easily said. It’s mysterious. It stays open.