La Gare de Verdun 1915 - 1916

Fernand Léger's La Gare de Verdun is a drawing of marks, a space built of thin, black lines on a pale ground. It's all process here; Léger isn't trying to fool us with illusion, it's a game of seeing how little it takes to suggest the energy of a place. The texture of the marks is fascinating. Look how some are quick and scratchy, filling in shapes, while others are confident outlines. I love the way he suggests depth with just a few angled strokes, like those hatching marks under the roofs. They are a kind of emotional code, a shorthand for experience, not information. It all adds up to a feeling of bustling activity, a bit like a diagram of the memory of a train station. It reminds me of those early Picassos, where he's breaking everything down into simple forms. But Léger has a different kind of optimism, a belief in the beauty of the machine. It's this that makes this drawing so alive, still fresh, a conversation about seeing that continues to this day.