Old town (overview)
1928
Paul Klee transforms a bird's-eye view of a city into a rhythmic, colorful mosaic of geometric shapes. Created in 1928 during his time teaching at the Bauhaus, this piece uses horizontal bands of blue, yellow, red, and purple washes to suggest different districts of an old town. The white negative space forms tiny arches, triangles, and grids that look almost like a musical score or a child's playful doodle, yet they are meticulously structured. Klee believed art should make the invisible visible, and here he captures the bustling, organized chaos of urban life through pure abstraction.