Dream City 1921

Paul Klee made this Dream City sometime in his career, and its a watercolour, so you know it was made kinda fast. You can see how his process is very organic here, moving between shapes and colours that seem to emerge out of each other. There is such a lovely layering of different greens and blues, with just a touch of pink to make the buildings and the sky feel like they are breathing. The paint is applied in thin, transparent washes, so you can see the paper underneath. In the middle of the city you can see the way the dark shapes are almost pushing through the lighter colours, giving the whole image a sense of depth and movement. Like a thought that keeps coming back to you. Klee was a master of playful ambiguity; the composition feels both ordered and chaotic, like he is working with different ideas at the same time. It reminds me a little bit of Joan Miró, with its dreamlike atmosphere and playful sense of colour and form.