Bildnis eines Asiaten 1924

Paul Klee made this image of an Asian man, ‘Bildnis eines Asiaten’ using a mixed media technique. Look at the blue background, it’s quite solid, really flat and opaque, against the very delicate, almost ghostly lines of the face. I love how Klee combines these very different visual languages in a single image. It's like he's not trying to hide the process. The texture is smooth where the colour is solid and layered, yet scratchy where the lines of the face hover on the surface. Take the eye on the left, it's a simple circle with a dark dot, but it feels so knowing, so alive. Klee's work reminds me a little of Picasso, always experimenting, always pushing the boundaries of what art can be. You can really see how Klee paved the way for artists to embrace experimentation and ambiguity in their work, favoring process over product.