Kwela Africa

PAUL KLEE

MY INTERPRETATION OF KLEE’S PAINTING:

‘FUGUE IN RED’ 1921

This painting of Paul Klee caught my attention and I kept going back to it so I guess this was the one I felt I wanted to put my own interpretation onto.  I liked the colours and the shapes but decided I wanted to put an African twist into my piece.  Klee loved music and painting in equal parts and was in fact an accomplished violinist and when creating a lot of his work he interpreted pieces of music into his work.  He is quoted as saying, that “It’s terrible to marry when you are wildly in love with someone else.  That’s the truth.  My mistress is and was music, and I embrace the goddess of the paintbrush, smelling of oil, who is also my wife.’

I have called my piece:

KWELA AFRICA

I wanted the shapes to dance, in homage to his love of music, and therefore have called this piece as above.  For those of you who don’t know what Kwela is I suggest you go onto Youtube and listen to some of Africa’s greatest musicians who play this and where this music originated, back in the day.  When listening to African music you can hear this theme running through some of their modern music even today.  In the shaded areas above the tiangles I used masking tape and oil paint sticks and I also used the paint sticks to give the 'shadows' on the left of the shapes.