Instruments 1938

Paul Klee made this, Instruments, with paint on paper. Look at the washy ground and then these crisp dark graphic forms floating above. It looks like Klee started with a loose field of blended color, wet into wet. It makes me think of a sunset, or maybe the colors of music? Then he comes in with these bold, almost cartoon-like glyphs, and I start to wonder, what is the relationship of these two things? The ground is atmospheric, like feeling, and the black marks are more like knowing, maybe the instruments themselves? There is a dot dot dot that reads like a pause, or a question. I think Klee is asking us something about how we hear and see, and what it means to translate that into a painting. Anyway, it's nice to know we can keep talking to painters like Klee, even though they aren't around anymore.