Le magazin de nouveautes 1902

Alexandre Lunois made this print, Le magazin de nouveautes, using lithography; you can see how the marks almost resemble soft chalk. It’s not about blending so much as juxtaposing colours, layering them like memories. Look at the woman in the centre, with the bright red coat. Her presence isn’t just about the figure itself, but the way that block of colour interacts with everything around it. It's like Lunois is asking, how does colour make us feel, how does it structure our seeing? The little girl in a matching coat is so sweet. The way she's placed lower down and on the right makes her coat pop out from the rest. I think of Bonnard, who loved to play with colour in similar ways, not to represent the world, but to evoke a feeling, a mood, a memory. Ultimately, art is never about fixed answers, but about embracing the questions.