Movement of Vaulted Chambers

Paul Klee made Movement of Vaulted Chambers in 1915, the year after the trip to Tunisia with August Macke that transformed his understanding of color. Before Tunisia, Klee worked primarily in black and white. After it, he wrote in his diary: "Color and I are one. I am a painter." This watercolor is built from overlapping vertical forms in pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, blues, lavenders, and olive greens, with two curving arches meeting at the center. A blue-gray circle and a smaller purple oval float near the top. The shapes suggest architecture — vaulted ceilings, columns, doorways — but nothing is literal. The color is wet and translucent, the edges soft where the washes bleed into each other. Klee's signature is in the upper right corner.