Die Heilige Vom Innern Licht (The Sacred Person With Inner Light)

1921
Original color lithograph on smooth buff velin paper with narrow margins

With date, work number and signature in pencil lower center: "1921/122/Klee." An impression of the second and final state (in colors with signature and date) from the Edition of 100. Published by Staatliches Bauhaus, Weimar. Printed by Staatliches Bauhaus, Weimar. Catalogue reference: Kornfeld 81.

Paul Klee was one of the most important figures in the development of European abstract art in the first quarter of the 20th century.  His imagery, sometimes totally abstract and sometimes full of half-recognizable forms and figures, communicates with the subconscious mind.  It often seems to have an almost child-like simplicity yet it is deeply complex in its associations and allusions.  "Within the will to abstraction something appears that has nothing to do with objective reality.  Free association supplies a key to the fantasy and formal significance of a picture.  Yet this world of illusion is credible.  It is situated in the realm of the human" (The Thinking Eye, p.262).  Klee’s inspiration reflects the ideas of Surrealism, of Dada, of Freudian psychology, but is at the same time totally unique in its character and style.