Flower Myth

Flower Myth is a true mixed media piece, bright and truly abstract

Paul Klee's 1918 expressionist work, Blumenmythos, also known as Flower Myth, is an inspiring piece of three-dimensional multimedia work.

Watercolour on canvas with mashed chalk on newspaper on cardboard painting, this piece was created during Klee's early mystical-abstract period, and contains so much more than one might ascertain at first glance.

The lone blue blossom grows in the expanse of red wilderness under the celestial symbols of the sun, moon, and stars as a bird descends upon the blooming flower.

For the first time in Klee's work, we see birds. While this imagery is reminiscent of plummeting aircraft witnessed by Klee during his military service in Gersthofen, in Flower Myth, it creates an interesting contrast with the feminine figure of the landscape.

The central image of the delicately multi-hued blossom opening on an otherworldly red background populated with familiar natural symbols such as trees and heavenly bodies combined with the female representation portray a cycle of life that is recognizable, yet also surreal.

Other paintings created by Paul Klee during this early mystical-abstract period when he painted Flower Myth include the abstract work titled Colored Circles Tied Through Inked Ribbons, the 1915 watercolour Foehn at Marc's Garden, Acrobats, and Velvetbells, painted in 1917.

The themes and symbols depicted in Flower Myth are eternal. The marriage of terrestrial and celestial imagery in this dream scape do not portray a specific time, place, or season.

In this way, the entirety of creation, of life and growth is represented. The lone blue flower with its roots deep in the ground of the warm red background speak to the relationship between art and nature; between earth and the heavens.