An allegory of propaganda 1939

Paul Klee made this strangely arresting image, An Allegory of Propaganda, with watercolor and ink. I love that Klee's art seems simple, but it's also full of subtle choices about how we see. Look at the mouth, for instance. It's like a little table! The eyes are donuts. And that nose? It's just hanging out, not really attached. But somehow, these simple shapes come together to make a face that's both funny and a bit unsettling. The color palette is very limited, just a few shades of red and brown. Klee lays the colors down thinly, letting the paper peek through, so the image has this airy, dreamlike quality. His work always reminds me of Miro, who also made art that looks simple but is also totally out there. You just feel like Klee and Miro had a lot of fun experimenting with the language of abstraction. Neither cared much about realism, both artists focused on an ongoing conversation, not a fixed message.