L IV 1936

Here we have an image by László Moholy-Nagy, and it’s all about these flat geometric shapes floating across a simple grid. It’s like he's figured out a recipe, a framework, but what he’s really cooking up is pure visual jazz. The colors are muted, kinda industrial, but then you catch that red, and it just pops. Look how the shapes tilt and turn, catching light, casting shadows – even though it's all flat. It’s an illusion, and the surface, from what I can tell, is smooth, maybe even a little slick. I get the sense that he's after something precise, yet the overall effect is surprisingly airy. Moholy-Nagy was always experimenting, pushing the boundaries of what painting could be. You could see a similar idea kicking around in some of El Lissitzky's Proun paintings. It's about space, and how we see it, but also about the sheer joy of making something new. There's no right answer here, only the invitation to look and wonder.