Theater-Mountain-Construction 1920

This is Paul Klee’s Theater-Mountain-Construction. He made it at some point, with who knows what! Watercolour on paper maybe? The way Klee lays down colour is so casual, almost like he's doodling with watercolour. But look closer, and you see this crazy scaffolding of lines holding it all together. It’s like he's mapping out a whole world, one tiny stroke at a time. The colours are light and washy, those pinks, yellows, and greens, bleeding into each other, but then he comes in with these dark, hard lines that create all this angularity. Those lines aren't just decorative, they're literally building the form, like the bones of the mountain. There’s this little patch of orangey-red near the center, it’s a bit darker, a bit more intense than the rest. It’s like a hidden clue, or a secret chamber within the mountain. Klee always reminded me of Miro, both creating these imaginary landscapes out of the simplest marks. In this piece, he shows us that art is a process of construction, and that even the most fantastical visions are built on a solid foundation.