The polychrome Fleur 1936

Fernand Léger made this painting, The polychrome Fleur, with what looks like gouache – or maybe tempera – a sort of chalky paint. The colors are bold, but also feel muted and humble. Everything is outlined, like a coloring book, but the shapes are so odd! The way he uses those strong outlines gives the painting a feeling of both clarity and mystery, as if he’s trying to define something that resists definition. Look at that big yellow shape in the center – is it a flower? Is it a machine part? Or, like, both at once? Léger was really interested in the way that modern life was changing how we see the world. His work has some shared visual concerns with Picabia. He wants to show us that things can be hard and soft at the same time, that art doesn’t have to be one thing or another, and that’s okay.