The Way to the Citadel

Colour again comes to the fore in Klee's The Way to the Citadel

The Way to the Citadel was created in 1937, by the artist Paul Klee. It was created using oil and gouache on cloth, which was then mounted onto canvas.

Klee often demonstrated his ability to challenge the way artists typically created pieces, he did this by spraying and stamping paint onto his canvas.

He also admired the work of children and the simplicity of geometric shapes; these views are evident when viewing The Way to the Citadel. His use of squares, rectangles and triangles highlight his love of Cubism and Expressionism, however, this particular piece is hard to classify as any one type. Klee continued this style in Red Balloon, Ancient Harmony, New Harmony, Flora on Sand and Castle and Sun.

Several other famous artists have used a similar approach in their work, such as Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and cubist paintings by Juan Gris and Georges Braque.

The use of arrows to highlight a path through the art show Klee's love of Abstract work. The child-like quality of mismatched shapes is evident; Klee often loved to include arrows, shapes, animals and numbers within his work.

The overall tone of The Way to the Citadel is quite bright, with light pink and blue pastels making up most of the shapes. Uneven and often jagged lines of black make up the outline of the shapes, however this darkness is not overwhelming.

Paul Klee was influenced mainly by Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism movements, all three can be seen in most of his works. Klee was also a fan of using multiple medias to create his work, using items such as canvas, burlap, fabric, metals and various other materials.

His works, including The Way to the Citadel, use a wide variety of colour palettes and many of his pieces have been described as being a 'transcription of music'. Klee was a fascinating artist whose works will be cherished.