Cylindres 1918

Editor: So, this is Fernand Léger's "Cylindres" from 1918. It's an ink drawing on paper, and, well, it definitely screams "machine age" to me. I find it kind of austere, almost like looking at a blueprint of something that might build itself! What do you make of it? Curator: Austere is a great word. But maybe there’s also a peculiar… tenderness there? Léger, you see, was absolutely smitten with machines. He felt their sleek power in his bones, and in 1918, that was a powerful and unsettling feeling. So much lost, so much to rebuild, maybe the new world could be… well, cylinders, girders and bolts! But look how delicately the ink is applied. Does that softness change things for you? Editor: It's interesting you point that out. I was so caught up in the geometry that I almost missed the delicacy of the ink. So he saw beauty, and even hope, in the industrial world... through the lens of Cubism. Curator: Exactly! And that hope – remember the war had just ended - wasn't cold and mechanical. It was imbued with human touch, even vulnerability. Can you see it now, a world rising from the ashes, sketched with almost loving care? Editor: I think I'm starting to, yes. I was thinking in terms of cold hard steel but you’re making me think of possibility. Curator: It’s a fascinating dialogue, isn't it? Léger, machines, you, me. The painting keeps changing depending on who's looking and when. That’s the fun of it! Editor: Absolutely! Thanks to you, it's a whole different machine for me now.