Fourth state, church of Assy 1947

Fernand Léger made this fourth state Church of Assy, and you know, it’s less about the actual church and more about how he sees it. Léger reduces the church to a simple, almost childlike outline. The colors are flat, bold – mustard yellow, sky blue, and touches of brick red, all neatly bordered in black. It feels very graphic, like a poster, and you get the impression that he’s not trying to trick you into thinking this is three-dimensional. It’s all surface. And what a surface! Look at the repetitive patterns within the shapes, they're almost hypnotic. The central face reminds me of Picasso’s cubist portraits, but Léger makes it his own, harder somehow, more mechanical. You can tell how he liked machinery. This simplification and focus on basic forms is a hallmark of Léger’s work. He's like a machine himself, breaking things down to their bare essentials, reassembling them into something new. It's art that doesn't hide its process, and that’s what I love about it.