Abstraction 1936

Fernand Léger made this painting, Abstraction, in 1936. It’s a stacked composition of hard-edged shapes in primary colors, contained by a heavy black outline, on an off-white background. Looking at this painting, I try to imagine Léger making it. He carefully fills each shape with flat, even color. A blue megaphone shape topped with what looks like a red building block, maybe? I love the yellow circle within the square, offset by the blue rectangle. But what if these shapes are parts of a body? Or maybe machines? Léger’s clean lines remind me of Stuart Davis and the way he turned urban life into jazzy geometries. Léger and Davis were part of an ongoing conversation, translating the chaos of the modern world into a bold new visual language. Even now, they challenge me to find new ways of seeing.