Oriental Garden 1939

Curator: What catches your eye about this painting? Editor: It has a curious tension. The textured surface gives it a sort of naive, almost folk-arty feel, while the geometry screams of a modernist sensibility. It's compelling. Curator: Precisely! This is Paul Klee's "Oriental Garden," painted in 1939. Note the patchwork of forms—houses, vegetation—all rendered as simple geometric shapes, and all under this rather enigmatic dark blue "sky". What can these abstracted forms and simple building blocks be expressing? Editor: For me, it speaks of constructed environments, like the prefabrication of landscapes under industrial production—the mechanization of nature reduced to raw components for reassembly. The title seems almost ironic. Is this orientalism viewed through the lens of the industrial revolution? Curator: Possibly. The shapes, though abstract, are imbued with associative power. Notice the almost hieroglyphic quality to some, evoking ancient architectural renderings alongside something more playful, modern. I find a beautiful nostalgia woven through these simplified shapes, reflecting perhaps on lost worlds. Editor: Yes, but how much does the medium dictate the message? Klee’s use of oil, usually associated with high art, and the visibly laboured application; those cross-hatched lines…they almost undermine any attempt at classical notions of "the Orient." This speaks to a very modern way of deconstructing and re-presenting established symbols. Curator: A potent tension, certainly. Klee masterfully employs color and form to evoke layered historical narratives, inviting reflection on the relationship between humanity and its cultivated spaces. He captures an imaginative idea of 'Orientalism,' less about a literal place and more about its memory. Editor: Absolutely, and maybe the materials chosen—oil on canvas versus say, watercolor—reinforce the way Klee seeks to build, deconstruct and preserve that idea itself as a cultural artefact. Food for thought!