The rider acrobat juggler 1921

Fernand Léger made this painting, titled "The Rider Acrobat Juggler" with what seems like gouache on paper, and it’s the simplicity of his color choices that really get me. The blue, yellow, and red are laid down flat, almost like a kid’s painting, but that’s the brilliance, right? This isn't about showing off technique; it’s about getting down to the basic shapes that make up a figure, a story. Look at how the yellow kind of bleeds into the background, it's not precious! This feels almost like a sketch, and that rectangle of red hanging down feels like it’s floating, not really attached, but it works. I think Léger understood that sometimes the most direct approach is the most powerful. The painting style of someone like Alex Katz comes to mind here, an American painter that also wanted to flatten forms, but I'm seeing something ancient in Léger’s shapes here - a kind of folk rawness that just grabs you. Art isn’t always about perfection; it's about finding the core of what you want to say, and saying it plainly.