Bad band 1920

Paul Klee made this ‘Bad Band’ with watercolor and ink on paper, but the date is unknown. The way Klee layers washes of color with these quirky, almost scribbled lines, makes me think he's feeling out the image as he goes, trusting the process. I love how the edges of the piece are these warm oranges and yellows, like a sunset or a fading memory, and then the center is this pale blue, like the band is playing in a dream. You can almost see the texture of the paper coming through the thin washes of paint. The marks are so free, like Klee is just letting his hand dance across the page. Look at the little red blobs hovering above the musicians; they seem to float like notes or maybe the musician's heads are about to explode. Klee was a master of mixing playfulness with profound ideas, kinda like Miró or maybe even Philip Guston. It makes me think that art is just a big, ongoing conversation, full of jokes and secrets, open to endless interpretations.