L’Avion dans les nuages 1939

Fernand Léger made "L'Avion dans les nuages" with oil paint, but when? The date is unknown. Look at how Léger isn’t trying to trick us. The colours are right there, really clear, not mixed up to make brown. It's like Léger’s painting with building blocks, or maybe machine parts. All these clear, flat shapes are stacked together, and outlined in black. The surface is smooth, but you can almost feel the edges of those shapes clicking into place. Léger's work is so direct, and that's what makes it so powerful. It's not hiding anything. You could compare Léger's way of working with someone like Stuart Davis, another artist who loved flat shapes and bold colours, but Léger has a simplicity that's all his own. It leaves room for your imagination to take flight!