Les Plongeurs noirs 1943

Fernand Léger made this painting in 1943, building his composition with graphic swathes of colour and bold linear elements. Looking at it, I can imagine Léger in his studio, maybe with jazz music playing, spontaneously brushing these shapes onto paper. The combination of flat colour and confident black lines creates a dynamic tension. It looks like he’s trying to capture a sense of movement. I’m drawn to the black figures, rendered with simple, almost cartoonish outlines. The colours are applied with varying degrees of opacity, some areas thinly washed, others thickly layered, which makes you aware of the material qualities of the paint itself. Those graphic strokes must have been so liberating to make! Gestural abstraction like this has so much to do with touch and immediate sensation. In that sense, this work seems to be in conversation with a lot of work made at this time, by artists interested in a more direct, expressive language. It shows how artists respond to each other, building on ideas and techniques, and expanding the possibilities of what painting can be.