Deep Pathos 1915

I wonder about the making of Deep Pathos by Paul Klee. What’s so interesting about it is the relationship between control and improvisation. I can imagine Klee standing at his easel. What did he think and feel as he painstakingly painted this pattern of colors? You can see it as a field of geometric forms in red, blue, green, and yellow. Each of those squares, triangles, and rectangles is like a note in a musical composition. Each a part of something bigger than itself. Then there are these blots of black ink dropped on top, as if to ruin it all. I think he liked to work on different grounds with different materials. He loved this kind of stuff – the combination of mediums, the layering of the forms, and the juxtaposition of the planned and the accidental. Klee’s paintings suggest that art can be a conversation, an ongoing process of discovery and reinvention, where new voices and perspectives are always welcome.