After annealing 1940

Paul Klee made this painting, After Annealing, with watercolour and ink. Look at the way he's built up these layers, almost like he's layering feelings. The colours are not quite harmonious, more like they are bumping up against each other, testing their boundaries. The black lines almost feel like they're holding the composition together, like sutures. Notice how Klee uses black lines to define shapes, but also to disrupt them. See the way they create a sense of depth, but also flatten the picture plane? There is something about that floating “8” at the top, that almost looks like a pair of eyes. This gives the whole piece a sense of looking back at you. Klee's work always feels like a conversation, an ongoing experiment. He reminds me a bit of Miró, but with a different kind of whimsy. Both artists weren't afraid to embrace the weird and the wonderful. Ultimately, this painting is an invitation to embrace ambiguity, and the magic of the unknown.