Strange Garden 1923

This ‘Strange Garden’ was planted by Paul Klee, sometime during his tenure at the Bauhaus school. It's tough to tell exactly what materials are at play here, but I'd guess a combination of watercolor, ink, and maybe some oil pastel. The whole thing’s like a fever dream, right? The surface is teeming with weird, almost mask-like faces and plant forms. Look at the way Klee builds up the texture, with lots of tiny lines and dots. It's kind of obsessive, but in a good way. There's one little owl face, about halfway down on the right side. It's staring right at you! Klee reminds me a lot of Miró, in the sense that they were both trying to tap into some kind of primal, subconscious place through their art. There are no fixed meanings here, just a lot of possibilities.