Tropical Gardening 1923

Paul Klee's "Tropical Gardening" presents us with an intriguing landscape rendered in watercolor and ink. Klee made this work during a period when artists were grappling with themes of primitivism and the allure of exotic, non-Western cultures. This piece isn't just a depiction of a garden; it's an exploration of the self and other. The garden, with its stylized plants and geometric structures, feels both familiar and alien. It reflects a longing for an idealized, untouched world, a sentiment echoed in the works of many of his contemporaries. But who gets to decide what is ‘tropical’, or ‘exotic’, and what assumptions are embedded in that desire? Klee seems to ask us to consider the power dynamics inherent in the act of observation and representation. Klee once said, "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible." In "Tropical Gardening," Klee makes visible the complex relationship between the observer and the observed, revealing the subjective nature of perception and the subtle ways in which we project our desires and fears onto the world around us.