The level crossing (final state) 1919

Fernand Léger made this painting, The Level Crossing, with oil on canvas, and you can see how he's laying down color in flat planes, one next to another. It feels very direct, and like the making of the work is right there on the surface. I love the square in the middle, a sort of a signpost with an arrow. It’s like Léger is pointing us somewhere, but where? The whole painting is built up of these geometric blocks of color and recognizable, yet abstract, shapes. There's a beautiful burgundy column, and some cool green bars going across the bottom, like a Mondrian in a funhouse mirror. Léger is playing with the idea of mechanical forms, but he keeps it painterly, you know? It reminds me a bit of Stuart Davis, another painter who was obsessed with signs and the urban environment. But where Davis is all jazzy and syncopated, Léger is more about the solid, grounded forms. It's a conversation, really, about how we see the world, and how we turn that seeing into painting.