Composition 1930

Fernand Léger made this painting, Composition, applying a palette that vibrates with bold, confident strokes of colour. There's something both tough and tender about the geometry in this piece. It’s like Léger is trying to build a body, a world, from shapes. Look at how the yellow and black collide, not blending, but asserting themselves. Then there is the red, like guts, or maybe passion, trying to burst out of the figure. The gray background makes the other colors pop, but it also flattens the space. Léger's got something in common with Stuart Davis, but where Davis is jazzy, Léger feels more like a machine in search of a soul. It is this tension that really makes it work for me. Art is like that, it’s not about answers, but the questions we ask while we’re making it.