Colorful Architecture 1917

Paul Klee made this geometric watercolor of an imagined architecture; its patchwork of jewel-tone colors evokes a child's blocks alongside a Bauhaus design sensibility. I can imagine Klee carefully laying down each plane of color, maybe thinking about how they nudge and jostle against each other. What did he want us to feel as we look at this ramshackle building? Is it a real place, or some kind of utopian dreamscape? That teal circle sitting on the pink wall makes me think of an otherworldly window, promising some kind of portal to an unseen realm, or a nod to the formal innovations of Cubism. I guess, like all the great painters, Klee was always in dialogue with his peers, with the history of painting, constantly reinventing the language of art, but here it's like he's creating his own alphabet.