Eléments mécaniques 1918

Curator: Fernand Léger's "Éléments mécaniques," from 1918, rendered in watercolor. It’s quite an interesting piece from his Tubist period. Editor: Oh, this makes me think of factory floors and machines buzzing during the first world war. Cold blues and yellows against stark whites. It feels restless and unsettling. Curator: Exactly! Léger served in World War I, and the experience profoundly shaped his art. He became fascinated by the beauty and the raw power of machinery, viewing it as a symbol of progress and modernity despite, or perhaps because of, its connection to warfare. Editor: It’s amazing to think that something created with such delicate watercolors could capture something so brutal and industrial. Look how he abstracts these shapes – cylinders, cones – into their essential forms. What materials would he have considered “high art” during a time like that? Curator: This abstract simplification reveals Léger's cubist influences. He was keen to deconstruct reality and rebuild it on canvas in new ways. But not with oil, and not in ways typically deemed important. This seems so exploratory... more like sketching something out before committing to a larger scale and material. It begs the question of where exactly craft ends and fine art begins. Editor: I think Léger, having seen the chaos and innovation of war, maybe he blurred that boundary deliberately. What looks unfinished might be its strength – it feels raw and in process. It represents, you could argue, the making of a new kind of world. Curator: It does indeed present that visual paradox. Léger balances this industrial, mechanical aesthetic with an airy, almost dreamlike quality. Even those floating orbs on the left side of the artwork add to the surreal feeling... perhaps symbolic of possibilities, futures? Editor: Or perhaps even more simply, seeing industrial production as no less sublime or important than conventional "beauty" that usually found its way into artistic interpretation. These cogs, pistons and the laborers who built them – their efforts define progress. It would be interesting to look into Léger's direct relationship with production methods and how that might reflect art history... Curator: Looking at the geometric relationships of elements to each other – it strikes me how radically and boldly Léger invites us to challenge conventions and norms. This makes us appreciate the visual world surrounding us so differently. Editor: And understanding how and from what this visual world emerges makes our role as consumers ever more conscious!