Les Hommes dans la ville 1919

Fernand Léger made "Les Hommes dans la ville," in 1931, and it's oil on canvas, of course. What strikes me is the hard-edged geometry, the way he’s simplified figures and urban space into these bold, almost architectural forms. Look at how Léger builds up his picture plane, not with blending or shading, but with flat planes of color. The texture is smooth, almost machine-like, with very little visible brushwork, which is quite a feat. There's a kind of coolness to the touch here, a deliberate flatness that keeps you at a distance, but somehow it’s still so engaging. Notice the letters – or parts of letters – floating within the composition, maybe hinting at signage. Léger, like Picasso, was obsessed with representing the modern world, but he did so with a kind of optimism. You might see some echoes of early Mondrian in Léger’s approach. Both artists challenge us to see the world not as it is, but as it could be – a world of pure form, color, and structure.