The Fourteenth of July 1914

Roger de La Fresnaye made "The Fourteenth of July" with oil on canvas, layering color to create this cool, constructed scene. You know, the real juice of painting is in the materiality. Check out the way Fresnaye uses these rectangular blocks of color, it’s not about making things look real, but about building an image. The paint is laid on with a kind of straightforward directness, you can tell by the edges of the forms. Like, look at the way that big black oval seems to sit on top of the orange rectangle, it’s so bold, you know? It's like he's saying, "Here's a shape, here's another, deal with it." And, honestly, that’s what painting is. It's a conversation across time, all these artists playing off each other, trying to figure out how to make something new. It reminds me a bit of Leger, or maybe even some early Hockney, that same interest in flattened space, and everyday life. Ultimately, art is about asking questions, not giving answers, and Fresnaye sure knew how to ask them.