The nimble movement of the contemplating ornamental fish through the picture-space of the aquarium could correspond with the eye movement of the human observer. Thus they stand for the metaphor of the gaze of the beholder. 

As a young painter, Paul Klee visited the aquarium in Naples in 1902, and deeply impressed by the expressive physiognomy of the sea dwellers, he recorded these impressions in his diary (Paul Klee Diaries No. 390). Their physiognomic expressions, mimics and gestures as well as their mutual relationships became interesting objects of observation for Klee, since according to the diary entry they are comparable to those of humans. Throughout his life, Klee created numerous fish pictures. It is to be understood as an expression of his admiration for creatures living under water, which are released from the bondage of gravity and are freer than creatures living on land. His fascination with this subject apparently did not diminish during his lifetime, as can be seen from the present work Mast= und Zier-Fische (Fattened and Ornamental Fishes), which was created in the last years of his life. The picture support, made of jute, was primed with plaster and painted over its entire surface with light green watercolour, which is supposed to represent the liquid world inside the aquarium in which two types of fish float: the largest part of the surface is occupied by light orangebrown forms, some of which remind us of bloated fish, the so-called “fattened fish”. In comparison, the small red and blue “ornamental fish” in oil are clearly recognisable as fish shapes. What does the contrast between the distorted, bulky, lethargic-looking “fattened fish” and the “ornamental fish” mean, whose brilliant colours and sharp shapes give them an agile presence, who live symbiotically in the same aquarium? They seem to have completely different forms of life, yet here they are placed in relation to each other. Klee often suggested the fish shape as an eye in his works (e.g. Fisch Zauber, 1925; Fisch-physiognomisch, 1926; Fisch-blick, 1940). In this respect, in the work here the passive role usually assigned to fish in an aquarium, an existence to be observed, is reversed and the fish themselves become the observers. 

The nimble movement of the contemplating ornamental fish through the picture-space of the aquarium could correspond with the eye movement of the human observer. Thus they stand for the metaphor of the gaze of the beholder. The symbiosis of the farmed fish and the ornamental fish could bear witness to two sides of Klee’s spirit; on the one hand, the farmed fish embody a light-hearted side of the artist, producing an absurd sense of humour from the distortion of the forms. On the other hand, the ornamental fish embody the intellectual side of the artist, selfaware, regarding both the artwork and the observer as a process he controls. 

Marie Kakinuma 

Purchased in 1970, the work was among the first to enter the Cerruti Collection, just a few months after the Untitled watercolour dated February 1918 by Wassily Kandinsky (cat. p. 682) [Ed.].