Les Hommes dans la ville 1919

Fernand Léger made this painting of men in the city, probably with oil on canvas, and judging by the signature, in 1953. The first thing that strikes me is the palette: it's bold, primary—red, yellow, blue—but then there's also this grey, almost like a metallic element that gives the whole composition a mechanical feel. I imagine Léger layering these colors, adjusting the shapes, figuring out how they lock together. It looks like hard work. The shapes are simplified, almost like machine parts or architectural elements, but they're arranged in a way that suggests human figures in an urban environment. I wonder what Léger was thinking about as he made this. Were these men friends, or strangers? Were they happy, or lost? Léger's really dealing with the relationship between humans and the industrialized world here, a theme you also see in the work of other artists like the Dadaists and the Futurists. These artists are all inspiring each other, whether they know it or not. Painting's like that, you know? It’s an ongoing conversation across time.