Landscape with Bridge and Viaduct 1910

Albert Gleizes made this drawing, Landscape with Bridge and Viaduct, with ink and graphite in 1912, and I can just imagine him hunched over a table, really working it, trying to sort of build a landscape from scratch. It's all about these angular lines, right? Like, he's not trying to copy what he sees, but instead, he’s rebuilding it in his own way, almost like putting together a puzzle. I bet he was thinking about how we see things, how we make sense of the world. It’s like he’s saying, “Okay, here are some lines, some shapes, now you figure it out.” That one dark, angled line really cuts through the image, doesn't it? It's so decisive. And the way the ink bleeds a little, it gives it this raw, immediate feel, like it was made in a rush, but with real intention. You can feel the push and pull of ideas, the artist thinking through making. It's like he's in conversation with Cézanne, Braque, Picasso, all those folks who were messing with perspective and form. Painting is just one big conversation, you know?