Static-Dynamic Gradation

A patchwork of small colored squares fills the composition, arranged in a loose grid across a muted brown ground, with reds, browns, yellows, greens, blues, and whites set side by side like tiles. Paul Klee made this piece in 1923, working in oil paint and gouache on paper, with a border added in gouache, watercolor, and ink, the whole mounted on paperboard. It is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, having entered the collection through the Berggruen Klee Collection. Klee, who lived from 1879 to 1940 and worked within the Bauhaus movement, also created the notable work Angelus Novus. Looking closely, the shifting sizes and tones of the squares create a sense of rhythm, as if some blocks press forward while others recede into the brown field.