Visual Pop Songs

Paul Klee, Fire in the Evening

People often chuckle when I tell them that I really like Paul Klee, but I think that he is a very underappreciated painter. Maybe I just relate to him because he was also a fairly serious musician throughout his life and was influenced heavily by musical ideas like rhythm, harmony and structure, especially in his abstract work. I love the playfulness and whimsy of his geometric abstractions, and have been especially loving the structure of paintings like the ones here. I love how he was able to take a structure that is so simple and dry -- start with a block and keep dividing it into two -- and turn it into paintings that are full of life and charm. Sometimes all you need is a good verse and a good chorus to make magic.

Paul Klee, Monument in a Fertile Country