Composition architecturale ‘fond bleu’ 1952

Fernand Léger made this painting sometime in his career, using oil paint, to create this interesting composition of stacked shapes. I find myself thinking about the hand of the artist here – the sensitivity and sureness of touch needed to apply these colours. There’s a lot of confidence in the way Léger uses black lines to divide blocks of red, white, yellow, and green. It must have been satisfying to make! Imagine the feeling of pushing these different shapes around, of knowing what to cover and what to reveal, as the composition emerges through intuition. The colours are singing, like instruments in a band! Léger must have enjoyed the material qualities of paint. He's having a conversation with all of us through the colour and form of his paintings. It's an ongoing exchange, inspiring creativity across time. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed readings.