The Bineau Bridge 1884

Georges Seurat made "The Bineau Bridge" with oil paints, likely en plein air. The materiality of paint, its capacity for layering and optical mixing, is central to the work's effect. Seurat was interested in how small dabs of color could create a shimmering effect on the canvas, this is a process-intensive, almost scientific approach to making art. Consider the labor involved in meticulously applying each stroke, and how this painstaking process mimics the repetitive, fragmented labor of industrial production. Seurat’s pointillist technique can be seen as a reflection of the social and economic transformations of his time, where mass production and consumption were becoming increasingly prevalent. By elevating the act of painting to a quasi-industrial process, Seurat challenges the traditional notion of the artist as a solitary genius, instead, he highlights the relationship between artistic creation and the broader socio-economic context.