Wagon Bar 1932

Cassandre made this advertisement for Wagon Bar in 1932, and it's like a love letter to the materials of modern life! The geometric shapes create a kind of mechanical ballet between food, drink, and train parts. The surface is smooth and clean, like something machine-made, but there’s also a sensuality in the way the colors and forms interact. See how the cool blue of the seltzer bottle plays against the warm reds of the wine? And the bread is just sitting there looking delicious, like it could be a still life by Cezanne. The whole image is anchored by the solid black mass of the train wheel which seems ready to roll forward into the future. It’s a celebration of travel, food, and design, all rolled into one. It puts me in mind of Leger, celebrating the modern world with his very own geometric language.