Variations (Progressive Motif)

Paul Klee

1927 · Oil and watercolor on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

Klee gridded this small canvas in such a way that the design looks like slightly irregular graph paper or a pattern of parquetry boards. Due to a variation in the same motif—horizontally striped, light blue squares on the outside versus ivory-shaded ones with diagonal and crisscross lines toward the center—there emerges a subtly patterned image that anticipates Minimalist painting by about forty years.

Artist

Paul Klee

Date

1927

Medium

Oil and watercolor on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984