- Paul Klee
Paul Klee has always been a hero to me. He was an artist who first studied the violin, lived through a war, felt repression as an artistic "degenerate" in Europe after WWI, and who moved back to Switzerland to comment quietly against war. He painted in a dream-like state that defied any classification; he drew on satire and fantasy, and he used colors that were both discordant and harmonious. 
His image of a man entering Senility makes the state look almost enviable; it is soft, warm and gentle.
He painted a lot of landscapes in his years, most riddled with blocks of color and child-like lines that imply objects; he was a master of distillation. Different from most is one that is dark and moody, probably from his later years when marked by disease he saw the world slipping into the treacherous times just before WWII. To me it shows the world waiting earnestly for what is about to come. It is somber, un-remorseful and sad.
Unfortunately we don't seem to learn from the past; we are short-memoried when it comes to giving up liberties. It is far too easy to call something we don't understand "degenerate" and to chase it away while we wave a flag. Senility?
1 comment:
His sense of colour--experimental and intuitive--has always been an inspiration to me as well.
Very well said, thank you!
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