The letter scale 1923

Gosta Adrian-Nilsson made ‘The Letter Scale’ with paint on canvas, and, well, it’s not just a picture of a scale, right? I'm thinking about the moment when he decided to make a picture with one of those old-timey scales. It's like the scale is a stage, a theater of shapes, with all those straight lines and curves play-acting. Adrian-Nilsson is putting on a show for us, using basic colors and simple shapes, kind of like Legos, or a theater set. The white swoosh on the right is so dynamic. It’s as if it’s trying to weigh the other shapes, or maybe weigh up the whole idea of balance itself. Painters are always having a conversation with each other, echoing ideas and pushing back at the same time. Think of artists like Léger and the Constructivists. They were all trying to find new ways of seeing, of measuring things, in a world that was changing fast.