Nature morte 1926

Louis Marcoussis made this still life, *Nature Morte*, in 1926, and it's a real puzzle of shapes and colors. The painting is all about process: how the artist builds up layers, shifting forms, and knocking them back again. Look at how Marcoussis handles the texture. The paint isn't trying to hide; it's thick in places, like the impasto of white in the lower centre, and thin in others, creating a kind of push-and-pull. The colors are a strange mix too - bold blues, oranges, and blacks set against muted browns, each shade buzzing with a different energy. See that black rectangle, slightly off centre? It has this round motif on it, and there is something about its starkness that holds the whole composition together. Marcoussis's work reminds me a little of Juan Gris, another Cubist who loved to play with fractured forms and ambiguous space. Like Gris, Marcoussis invites us to look closely, to question what we see, and to embrace the beautiful messiness of painting.