Paul Klee
Unstable Signpost, 1937
Watercolour on paper on cardboard, 43,8 x 20,9/19,8 cm
Privately owned in Switzerland, on deposit at the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
You may have already noticed the sculpture at the main entrance to the Zentrum Paul Klee. The huge signpost is visible from the museum as well as the highway. It is based on the 1937 watercolour exhibited here called “Unstable Signpost.” What does it mean when a signpost is unstable? It points in different directions all at once. This does not correspond to the way signposts function in our everyday lives. Signposts must be stable and always point in the same direction. But Klee saw things differently: everything is always in constant flux. Movement and change are the norm.
“Forming is good. Form is bad; form is the end; it is death. Forming is movement; it is action. Forming is life.”
Paul Klee, 1924