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| | Refuge, 1930
Paul Klee
Swiss, 1879-1940
Oil, tempera and watercolor on plaster grounded gauze mounted on cardboard
21-1/2 x 13-3/4 in. (54.6 x 34.9 cm)
Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
P.1953.065
© 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Not on view
Although known for its wit and buoyancy, Klee's work shows a wide and complex range of emotions. Here a "figure," consisting of a head with an arm and a leg, is frozen in space, swimming through an opaque and heavy atmosphere. An amorphous black shape is floating on the left; is this the reason for the figure's terrified expression? Overhead hovers a form that may be a mountain or a tent, either the sought haven that is the refuge or the threat from which the figure flees. In contrast to the scene's ominous overtones, the dominant colors are soft pinks, mauves, and gray-blues; the principal components are defined with a delicate brush-stroked hatching in brown watercolor, which belies the terrified (or terrifying) expression of the main figure.
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