The Village 1918

Jean Metzinger made this painting, The Village, with oil on canvas sometime in the early 20th century. It’s a really interesting piece, especially how Metzinger builds up a scene using small blocks of tone that almost look like tiles or mosaic. It's not about trying to capture what you see, but more about how you see, which is a process. The brushwork here is quite controlled, the paint thinly applied to build up these semi-transparent shapes. I like the muted colors he uses, all these greens, blues and browns, which gives it an atmospheric quality. Look at how he renders the roofs, a checkered pattern of light and dark, that gives the forms a real sense of depth. It makes you wonder what tools he used to make such intricate patterns and how they relate to the painting’s other elements. Metzinger's interest in geometric abstraction reminds me of some of the early work of Picasso and Braque. But where they really broke down form into total abstraction, Metzinger always maintained a connection to the real world. His work embraces ambiguity, and invites us to look beyond the surface.