Im Zeichen Der Teilung 1940

Curator: The stark simplicity of this work, almost childlike, is striking. Editor: Agreed. There's an unsettling quietness to it. Paul Klee executed this drawing, entitled "Im Zeichen Der Teilung," or "In the Sign of Division," in 1940, employing graphite on paper. Curator: Yes, the medium underscores the directness of Klee’s vision. The crude application, the elemental form; consider the stark semiotic contrast between the perfect circle of the head, with its primal “eyes” of internal symbols, and the crude legs. It speaks of something divided. Editor: The means of production also hint at its context. 1940 – Klee, already suffering from scleroderma, was also witnessing the rise of Nazism. This starkness, achieved with minimal material investment, points towards a potential scarcity, a rationing of resources mirrored perhaps in the emotional or spiritual landscape. Curator: A poignant reading. Look at how the line is deployed— economical, yet expressive. It’s abstraction striving to evoke a fractured whole. A totality rendered unstable. Editor: The paper itself—likely a commonplace stock – grounds the image. The graphite, a humble material, made this image. Was it an act of defiance, perhaps, finding a way to express the unspeakable through the most basic of means? There is no extravagance of materials. It is pure economy, in labor, in matter, in form. Curator: Perhaps. Though I would emphasize how even these simple lines build formal tension and a palpable anxiety in the viewer. It seems like something teetering, doesn’t it? Almost falling off the page into oblivion. Editor: Yes, an object lesson on using limited resources. A quiet testament to the capacity for creation amidst a climate of destruction, relying only on available resources. A visual reduction of terrible things. Curator: In considering how it succeeds in creating something so elemental, we recognize an image rife with starkly effective formal juxtapositions and expressions of turmoil. Editor: Right. Its visual austerity challenges the opulence of the rising political regime that sought to destroy such expressions. The drawing resists obliteration in its humble, tenacious way.