Devendra Banhart and Paul Klee Art Exhibit at SFMOMA

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is presenting an exhibition entitled “Abstract Rhythms: Paul Klee and Devendra Banhart,” which pairs the artwork of Paul Klee with the drawings and music of freak folkster Devendra Banhart. Exploring the relationship between music and visual art, the exhibit features more than a dozen of Klee’s works on paper along with thirteen of Banhart’s drawings he created alongside his latest album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. According to the SFMOMA:

“Music was a consistent source of inspiration for Klee (1879–1940),…[who] came from a family of musicians and, prior to turning his attention to painting, drawing, and printmaking, was an accomplished violinist who often performed in concerts. [Banhart's] relationship to music, like Klee’s, is interdependent on his visual art practice: “I sing what I can’t draw and draw what I can’t sing,” he explains.”

Though Klee and Banhart were born a century apart, looking at Klee’s “Angelus Novus” (above image on left) and Banhart’s piece (above right) one gets the sense that the two really are kindred spirits.

MP3: Devendra Banhart - “So Long Old Bean”