La Danseuse bleue 1er état 1928

Fernand Léger made this painting, "La Danseuse bleue 1er état," using oil paint in a very physical, hands-on way. You can see it in the brushstrokes, thick and full of life. It’s like Léger was sculpting the paint as much as he was applying it. There is a dominant blue figure, like an apparition, surrounded by sharp lines and blocks of color. You can almost imagine him thinking about how machines and bodies could coexist and how to synthesize these elements. What does the red slash communicate, and the series of lines that follow it? Léger seems to be in conversation with other modernists of his time, like Picasso and Braque, but he takes the language of cubism and makes it his own, infusing it with an energetic, optimistic spirit, and a very contemporary sensibility. It’s a reminder that art-making is never a solitary act but a continuous dialogue, artists responding to each other across time, inspiring each other to see and create anew.