Fire Full Moon by Paul Klee
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-paul-klee-making-visible
From this far vantage point of March 11, I look back with wonder that the year started with one of those “turning point” events that take on new layers of meaning as the days go by. I was
in London visiting the family at the end of 2013 and
had all of the 31st to myself. It was rainy most of the day with breaks of bright sun so all was silvery and celebratory. I decided to go to the Tate Modern in
the afternoon - what better setting for the last day of the year, where you can walk alone along the embankment on the Thames and yet feel a camaraderie with others.
What was on at the Tate:
an exhibit of Paul Klee paintings.
I had not known about the exhibit, nor did I guess that
this visit would touch me so deeply. Seeing the artist's paintings in person, many
galleries of paintings - well how to
describe it? You hear people say that
when a person dies she sees her whole life pass before her vision in an
instant. In the shimmering spaces of the
exhibit there was a visual sense of seeing the whole of a creative life on display with each canvas but a keepsake of a still living genius - so boundlessly joyful. At times I had to stop and
say “how did he think of that color? To put that color right there in that dark
area....what is that color?” The canvases floated on the walls, or seemed to, held up with light, not with hooks.
People drifted through the galleries - it was not crowded - gallery, paintings with the viewers in a slow dance.
Much later, coming out of the museum at twilight, the clouds had cleared and the pink sky
reflected in the puddles on the embankment
where visitors strolled along on their reflections…. a New Year's eve shift.
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