Embrace

Embrace is a painting by Paul Klee that features a few predominantly curved lines which is more symbolic than realist in construction.

It is a semicircular head with two black eyeholes set on the narrow column of the neck. Visible is the right half of the torso, the left half confined to the propped-up arm. The right side is a seal representing a mark of approval or of an exclamation point.

Paul Klee is a Swiss-born painter, printmaker and draughtsman of German nationality. He produced diverse body of work, thus cannot be categorized into any single artistic movement. His paintings characterized as at times witty, fantastic, or otherwise childlike serve an inspiration to many.

On the top left is a black heavenly body, going downwards a smaller sized one. The bar strokes were painted in black with a dry brush in such a manner that differentiations appeared in the thick lines, creating movement in themselves.

Embrace is a fearful figure. One wonders why the title Embrace. Who is being embraced? Some viewers interpreted it as a goddess of death from the archaic Greek, some sort of Persephone, the wife of Hades.

Klee’s academic tenure focused mostly on his drawing skills. After studying privately in studio for two years, he joined the German symbolist Franz von Stuck in 1900.

Around the head are pale, whitish blue and pale brown colors. The cloud is more intense brown around the head and heavenly body. At the bottom of the image is fervent, grandiose, wholly matching with this symbol of death.

Klee’s artistic legacy is intense, even though his successors have not openly appreciated his work as an apparent source of influence in the world of artistic painting.

Paul Klee’s work is described as random juxtaposition of abstract signs, text, and reduced symbols in a manner the mind is in dream state.

As can be seen in the Embrace, Paul Klee artwork made use of disparate objects of everyday, bringing forth new dimensions and insights into how the unconscious wields power even over waking reality.

Embrace is an abstract expressionist, making use of signs and symbols. This has interested the modern era artists, for example, the artists of the New York School, more so those interested in mythology.

Paul Klee created several such ultimate works, which to some viewers is quite disquieting.