The two women in blue vase 1935

Fernand Léger made “The two women in blue vase”, a painted canvas, sometime in the 20th century, and look at the surface, how matte and chalky it is, the opposite of an old master glaze. Léger's colors are flat and bold, aren’t they? Brown bodies and a green skirt sit strangely against the cool plant and blue pot. The paint application is straightforward; it’s not hiding anything. Look at the fingers of the outstretched hand, their squared-off bluntness. You get a sense that he’s almost building these figures, like Lego or something. I'm reminded of Stuart Davis, another painter with a graphic sensibility. I think with both of them there is a conversation about geometry and how to represent the world around us without trickery. Ultimately, art is an embrace of the unknown, isn’t it? A space where things don’t need to make sense in a conventional way.