Chosen Site 1940

Curator: Paul Klee’s 1940 watercolor, "Chosen Site," presents us with a compelling interplay of geometric forms. What strikes you first about it? Editor: An unusual palette. The ochres and muted greens meet bolder yellows and reds. The arrangement gives a feeling of stratification. It's orderly, but still organic. Curator: Yes, there’s an order and inherent structure to his visual language. We know Klee deeply explored symbols – and the circles especially, they seem talismanic, like suns or perhaps eyes gazing back at the viewer. Editor: Interesting – talismanic – it carries that emotional significance. But structurally, it reads as color blocking, simple shapes rendered in translucent washes that don't quite connect; Klee reveals the skeletal armature holding the image together. Curator: And the deliberate gaps, perhaps, suggesting pathways? In Klee’s body of work, recurring motifs can evoke childhood memories, the theater, perhaps even architectural spaces, reflecting personal experiences distilled into universal forms. One remembers the artist spent his life as a professional musician, in his early years, then also the mark is in alignment to cubism that shows visual rhythm to abstract storytelling. Editor: Precisely. It's almost cartographic, wouldn't you say? As if he’s plotting a location – each colored rectangle a plot of land on his "Chosen Site." Curator: Indeed! It brings to mind not just physical places, but locations within the self – almost like the layers within memory that reveal certain aspects of identity at various times. The colors themselves evoke that, don't they? Editor: Most definitely! It feels almost like an invitation. A beautifully coded one. Curator: So, considering all of this, what would you say this location represents for Klee? Editor: A distillation...a chosen inner world transformed into visual language. A lovely rendering of geometric poetry. Curator: Exactly, something deeply human yet expressed with such exquisite economy and visual resonance.