The work of art that I seemed most interested in is called “Fire in the Evening”1929 by Paul Klee. Paul Klee was born in Switzerland in 1879 and died in 1940. Klee came up with the idea for this painting during his winter Egypt trip in 1928-29;inspired by striated compositions, cliffs of the Nile Valley and long strips of tilled fields. Klee created this piece by oil colors on cardboard. A red rectangle which is on the middle right of the piece stands out most because of its bright color as opposed to the other colors and shapes of the other figures. The other colors are these band like figures which consist of colors between brown, green, violet, blues, grays etc. Klee says that these works “moved far from Nature. And found their way back to reality.”

Not only did this piece stand out to me because of its contrast in colors but because it reminds me of the average lifestyle of a busy New Yorker. Sometimes it’s good to just sit and really take in what surrounds you, specifically living in New York. People here are wrapped in and caught up in their own busy lives and they never observe and really reflect about whats around them. We live in such a busy fast paced environment that we don’t ever snap out of that idea of “reality” and just stare at our surroundings. The darker tiles in the art work that are moving horiztonatlly represent society, people moving quickly from place to place to try to get to their destination. The dark colors represent the seriousness, depression, and tiredness that I notice many people in New York tend to have. You barely ever see someone walking down the street with a natural smile on their face. People are usually walking and smoking a cigarette or have their headphones in, ignoring the world, or looking down and are speed walking across the street with a cup of coffee in their hands. That red rectangle in the middle of the piece represents that awakening that people should do, that “eye-opener”. I think everyone should sit down at a park in Manhattan and just watch the world go by for a little while and really observe the world. That red triangle could signify the observer sitting in that park. Similar to hat Klee said about his own piece, “moved far from nature”, New York nature is a busy productive life, so being that red rectangle sitting in the park could be your move away from nature, because eventually you will find your way back into the New York reality.