CRISPY CRITIQUES IN A MOMENT OF REPOSE: PAUL KLEE'S 'SENECIO'

from the Kunst Museum, Basil, Switzerland*


PAUL KLEE’S ‘SENECIO’

Senecio would be scary if:

1) he wasn’t orange

2) his nose wasn’t 4 squares put together

3) his eyebrows matched

4) his mouth existed

5) he wasn’t a painting

6) he wasn’t dead *



* not Paul Klee. Senecio. By that I mean, if he weren’t a painting, he would have been alive. If he were alive in the year he was painted (1922) and by that I mean a newborn baby in 1922, he would now be dead. Or he would be a very feeble 84 year old. (1) Besides all that, by now, he wouldn’t be so orange, and the eyelid–he has only one–would be fluttering. I for one am not going to spend a lot of time worrying about Senecio because

1) he sounds like a funny ancient Roman guy

2) or a zippy Japanese hatchback car

3) if he is either of the above he is either dead or a lot of fun to drive

4) I eat oranges for breakfast but fresh, ripe ones from Florida not old, depressing ones from 1922 because that would be

a) weird



(1) You know, I have always thought that ‘feeble’ and ‘84 year old’ go together really well.

* 'Kunst' is the Swiss German for 'peanut butter confection', although traditionalists tend to use a honeyed sesame paste and carry little derringers in their socks, or 'leiderhosen' *

* (leiderhosen: Swiss German for 'singing socks.')


all artwork, except likenesses of Lyndon B. Johnson, by Crispy Flotilla ® 2006