Composition A XI 1923

László Moholy-Nagy made this painting, Composition A XI, with a flat palette and clean lines. I can see Moholy-Nagy making his marks, probably with a steady hand, and maybe even a T-square. This isn't a painting about the messiness of being human. Instead, it embraces the aesthetics of industrial design. You can see the influence of Bauhaus, where Moholy-Nagy taught, in the way geometric forms float in space. It's like he’s designing a new world on the canvas. The dark rectangle, the blue line, and even that little X down in the corner—they feel like instructions for how to live. I bet he was thinking about the future when he made this; painting is always about making a world. The way he overlaps shapes reminds me of Malevich, another artist who thought painting could be a blueprint for a better society. Painting is an ongoing conversation, and these artists have given us a lot to talk about. They remind us that art isn't just about what you see, but what you imagine.