Night Feast (1921)

Night Feast by Paul Klee is a painting that draws viewers into a dreamlike nocturnal scene. With its simple, childlike forms depicting buildings, trees, and a starry sky, the artwork exudes a warm, harmonious atmosphere through vibrant colors like red and green, accented by white dots for moonlight. This expressionistic work invites curiosity, blending reality and fantasy in a way that sparks wonder and personal interpretation.

Created in 1921, Night Feast emerged during Paul Klee’s early years at the Bauhaus, a pioneering German school of art, design, and architecture where he taught from 1921 to 1931. Klee, a Swiss-German artist, was deeply engaged in exploring color and form theories during this period, influenced by his interactions with contemporaries like Wassily Kandinsky. The painting reflects the Bauhaus emphasis on integrating art and design, as well as Klee’s evolving mastery of color, despite his earlier self-doubts about his ability to handle it. The year 1921 places the work in a vibrant moment of modernist experimentation, with Klee contributing to the broader movements of expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.

One intriguing detail about Night Feast is Klee’s initial uncertainty about his command of color. Early in his career, he admitted to struggling with color, even questioning whether he would ever master painting due to this challenge. Yet, Night Feast showcases his remarkable progress, with its harmonious interplay of red, green, and white creating a cohesive and emotive composition. Additionally, Klee’s playful, almost childlike approach to form—evident in the naive lines of the buildings and trees—reflects his dry humor and fascination with the simplicity of children’s art, a recurring theme in his work.

Night Feast holds a significant place within the expressionist movement, which prioritized conveying inner emotions and subjective experiences over realistic representation. The painting’s warm, dreamlike quality, achieved through opposing colors like red and green and the delicate suggestion of moonlight, embodies Klee’s belief that colors carry visual and emotional weight. The title Night Feast suggests a gathering or celebration, yet its abstract nature allows for diverse interpretations, possibly as a metaphor for the artist’s inner world or the mystique of the night. Within the Bauhaus context, the work exemplifies the school’s innovative approach to merging abstraction and representation, influencing modern art and design. 

Night Feast is executed in oil on paper, mounted on cardboard and then on board, a technique Klee often used for its delicate yet durable surface. The painting measures 36.9 x 49.8 cm (14.5 x 19.6 inches), a modest size that enhances its intimate, almost miniature-like quality. The composition features simple, childlike lines forming structures like a house, barn, and a church, alongside trees and a starry sky. A horizontal line across the canvas connects foreground and background, creating depth. 

Since its creation in 1921, Night Feast has become part of the prestigious collection at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, a leading institution for modern and contemporary art.