Les deux acrobates 1918

Fernand Léger, around the time of World War One, made this painting with oils, layering up shapes. You can see how he applied the paint, sometimes thick, sometimes thin, building up the image like a construction. The acrobats feel like they're built from machine parts, all cylinders and cones, yet there's this softness in the gradations of color that makes the hard edges less harsh. Look at the way the purple shading curves around the forms, giving them volume, but also a kind of playful ambiguity. Is it a face? Is it a building? Is it both? I'm drawn to the small patch of text, a snippet of language nestled amongst the geometric forms. It reminds me that even in abstraction, there's always a connection to the world, a trace of something real. Léger was clearly looking at Cubism, but also forging his own path, a bit like Picabia who was also playing with the figure and machine age. It feels like a really brave new world.