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Howling Dog

Paul Klee1928

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, United States

Klee's playful depiction of a solitary dog baying at a radiant moon exemplifies the artist's reliance on a linear style of representation. Using a series of sinuous lines, Klee creates a harmonious arrangement of three distinct forms: a dog, the moon, and in an unusual but charming visualization of sound, the dog's extended howl. Placed at the center of an amorphous ground of swirling colors, the dog's howl assumes a dominant pictorial role, winding, bending on itself, hanging in the night air like a wisp of smoke, while representing a visual as well as temporal record of the emanating sound. Klee's two-dimensional composition effectively supplants traditional spatial illusion, revealing a simple, yet elegant ideogram for the painting's whimsical subject.

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  • Title: Howling Dog
  • Creator Lifespan: 1879/1940
  • Creator Nationality: Swiss
  • Creator Gender: male
  • Date Created: 1928
  • origin: Switzerland
  • Physical Dimensions: w22.375 x h17.5 in (canvas)
  • Measurements: 17 1/2 x 22 3/8 in. (44.45 x 56.83 cm) (canvas) 25 1/4 x 30 1/4 x 2 3/4 in. (64.14 x 76.84 x 6.99 cm) (outer frame)
  • Artist: Paul Klee
  • Type: Painting
  • Rights: Gift of F. C. Schang, http://www.artsmia.org/index.php?section_id=7
  • External Link: Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis, MN, USA)
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
Minneapolis Institute of Art

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