''Senecio'' or ''Head of a Man Going Senile'' is an oil on canvas mounted on panel
Cubist
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture.
Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
painting by Swiss artist
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
, from 1922. It is held in the
Kunstmuseum Basel
The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Its lineage extends ba ...
.
Analysis
Klee's adaptation of the human head divides an elderly face into rectangles of orange, pink, yellow, and white.
The flat geometric squares within the circle resemble a mask or the patches of a
harlequin
Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan ...
, hence the title's reference to the artist-performer Senecio.
The triangle and curved line above the left and right eyes respectively give the illusion of a raised eyebrow.
The painting's use of lines, ambiguous shapes, and space all demonstrate the principles of Klee's artistry in which simple graphical elements are "set in motion by energy from the artist's mind."
See also
*
List of works by Paul Klee
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Senecio
Paintings by Paul Klee
1920s paintings
Portraits by Swiss artists
Cubist paintings
Paintings in the Kunstmuseum Basel
Heads in the arts
20th-century portraits
Oil on canvas paintings