Veil Dance 1920

Paul Klee made this watercolour, 'Veil Dance', with ink on paper. I love the way that Klee begins with a fairly traditional process, watercolour, and then adds something unexpected, like the dark ink line. Look at that upper form, it almost looks like a puppet or a costume, with its jaunty hands. You can see the texture of the paper, it's almost like he's inviting us to peek behind the curtain. It's all about how color soaks in and bleeds out – the kind of thing that happens when you’re not trying to control everything too much. The bands of color in the background remind me of Agnes Martin, but here, Klee uses them as a stage set. See how the line goes right through the color? It doesn't just describe the objects, it almost feels like the whole thing is breathing, or dancing if you will. Klee is always such a great reminder to embrace the unexpected and let the materials do their thing.