La chaise sous la tente 1950

Fernand Léger made this gouache and ink work on paper, "La chaise sous la tente," and you can see how he’s pushing and pulling between line and block color, and playing with pattern. It’s like he’s thinking through the shapes as he’s making them. Look at the green circles floating on that pale, fleshy column – are they buttons, or just decorative accents? And the way he's outlined everything in ink gives it this playful, almost cartoonish quality. There's something kind of funny about it; like he's not trying to be too serious, but is really relishing in the act of painting. Léger’s work reminds me a bit of Stuart Davis, actually. Both were interested in how art could engage with everyday life, and also interested in modern advertising, and design. But in Léger, there's a kind of looseness that keeps things open for interpretation. Art is never about finding one right answer.