Komischer Reiter (Comic Rider) 1921

Paul Klee made this drawing, Comic Rider, with pen and ink on paper. Look how Klee approaches mark-making here; it’s almost like a child’s drawing, but with the sophistication of someone who really knows what they’re doing. It’s all about process, about letting the line wander and find its way. There’s something so charming about the simplicity of the lines. The texture of the paper is visible, giving the drawing a raw, immediate feel. The rider’s tiny eye and beak-like nose gives him this bird-like quality. I love how Klee suggests form and movement with so little information. The horse’s legs are like these delicate stilts, and the rider sits so straight up on the horses back, he seems terribly uncomfortable. Klee reminds me a little bit of Miró, in that he understood that art could be fun and serious at the same time. It's like art can embrace ambiguity and leave us to interpret it in our own way.