Paul Klee: “One Eye Sees…The Other Feels”

Paul Klee - Senecio - 1922. Oil on gauze - 40.5 x 38 cm. - Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland (click photo for larger image)Swiss painter Paul Klee (1879-1940) was one of the foremost artists of the twentieth century. Although he never belonged to any particular movement, he’s often associated with Expressionism. 

“Using both representational and abstract approaches, he produced an immense oeuvre of some 9,000 paintings, drawings, and watercolors in a great variety of styles. His works tend to be small in scale and are remarkable for their delicate nuances of line, color, and tonality. In Klee’s highly sophisticated art, irony and a sense of the absurd are joined to an intense evocation of the mystery and beauty of nature.”

The work featured here, Senecio, embodies Klee’s interest in African art, such as masks—and also embodies the artist’s sense of humor. The painting is actually a portrait of an artist performer, and “can be seen as a symbol of the shifting relationship between art, illusion and the world of drama.”