The album "Circus" 1950

Fernand Léger made this, one of the plates from the album "Circus", using lithography. The litho crayon probably danced over that stone to map out this suspended reality. I imagine Léger delighting in the circus's vibrant energy. I see him thinking through the interplay between figures and forms, and pushing for a playful disruption of space. He layers the performers in such a way that we lose any sense of perspective. The bold outlines and flat planes of colour – the pinks, blues, yellows, and greens – create an immediate, graphic impact, right? And in its simplification, the work evokes the streamlined aesthetic of the Machine Age, which Léger was so invested in. It reminds me of some of those early 20th-century modernists playing with the figure and space and how we relate to them. Ultimately, it is one artist's response to another. They show us how painting continues as a form of expression, embracing ambiguity.