A gate 1938

Paul Klee made this watercolor, "A Gate", on paper at some point in his career. What hits you first is that it’s mostly gray, a real study in how much feeling you can get out of one understated colour. Looking closer, you see these thin, dark lines that kind of hold the gray washes in place, suggesting forms without fully defining them. It’s like Klee is inviting the image to emerge, rather than dictating what it should be. The shapes are simple but evocative: a circle, some upright rectangles, an arch – all hinting at the idea of a gate, but one that exists more in the imagination than in reality. That top left area, with the floating circle, is particularly nice. It’s like a moon, or maybe just a spot of light, but it gives the whole piece a dreamy, slightly off-kilter feel. You can see the influence of surrealism in Klee’s work, the way he lets these symbolic forms mingle and float in space. He reminds me a little of Joan Miró, actually, both playing with simple shapes and a sense of childlike wonder. The gate becomes a threshold to another world.