This vibrant watercolor from 1928 not only resembles a musical score at first glance, but the title also leaves no doubt that Paul Klee was inspired by music. “Buntbewegtes an der Lage gemessen” (Colorful Movement Measured by Pitch) clearly draws on the vocabulary of musical notation: “bewegt” is a common term for a lively, restless tempo. “Lage” refers to the position or register of the note within the range of an instrument or voice. “Gemessen” implies meter and rhythm, while “bunt” can be interpreted less musically and more chromatically, as a colorful variety. Thus, the watercolor can be read as a visual score in which Klee translates musical expression into a spatial and coloristic form.
The parallels between pictorial and musical composition are no coincidence in Klee’s work. His father was a music teacher at the Bern State Seminar, his mother a singer, and so Klee himself learned to play the violin at an early age and performed with both the Bern Music Society and the City Orchestra.
But it is not the musical dimension alone that makes this watercolor so special. In 1928, Paul Klee was at the peak of his creative genius. As a central figure among the teaching staff at the Bauhaus, to which he belonged from 1920 to 1931, he experienced a dynamic and fruitful phase of extraordinary intellectual and creative intensity—a space of freedom that allowed him to question the foundations of his artistic thinking while simultaneously exploring new paths.
In addition, Klee embarked on a trip to Egypt in 1928–29 that would have a lasting impact on his work. He had not undertaken any major journeys since his trip to Tunis with August Macke in 1914. The landscape, light, and architecture would leave a lasting impression on him. His palette, in particular, gained a new, intense radiance, and he increasingly turned to rich, luminous colors—a shift already evident in our watercolor. Thus, swaths of sky blue, ochre, petrol blue, rose, and violet press against one another with a sense of tension and vitality. Angular passages, ellipses, and sweeping arcs create a rhythmic expression, charmingly framed by a defining yet not overpowering graphic line.
“Buntbewegtes an der Lage gemessen” can be viewed as the result of a visual-musical composition that impressively translates pitch, tempo, and harmony into color and form. In a panorama format, Paul Klee stages an exhilarating encounter between geometric and organic forms, with its horizontal sweep evoking both a musical score and a landscape. [AW]