Le Lecteur 1937

Louis Marcoussis made "Le Lecteur" in 1937, likely with oil on canvas, using a palette of muted browns, reds, and blues. It’s like a deconstructed scene – a reader, maybe a musician, but all in these angular shapes, playing with perception. I imagine Marcoussis piecing this together, not just representing a scene, but rethinking how we see. It's like he's asking, 'what does it mean to really look at something?' The way the colors are layered, and the forms intersect; it’s all about that push and pull of space, a dialogue that feels both intellectual and deeply intuitive. There's a kinship with the cubists but also something uniquely his own – maybe like Gris, but with a softer edge. It is about how artists riff off each other, borrowing, tweaking, and pushing ideas further. Painting is an ongoing conversation, full of questions and possibilities, not just answers.