Narretei 1922

Paul Klee made this drawing, Narretei, probably with ink, and it’s all about line, how the artist finds a form through a wandering, searching mark. I love how Klee coaxes the figure into being, almost like it’s emerging from a dream. Look how the lines vary: thick and thin, confident and hesitant, building up the image bit by bit, implying shadow and depth. There's something so playful and improvisational about the drawing. It feels like he's making it up as he goes along, and that’s the beauty of process, right? My eye keeps returning to the figure within a figure – that little, bespectacled guy riding on the torso. It’s like a detail from another world, offering a little window into the artist’s mind. You could say that Klee is in conversation with other surrealist artists, like Miro, who were interested in automatism, but who can really say? Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what it all means.