Still Life 1920

This painting, "Still Life," was made by Le Corbusier and is now at MoMA. I can imagine him thinking about cubism, thinking about what it means to flatten things out. But also trying to preserve a little bit of what it is to see things in real life. It’s so architectural but also really emotional in a weird way. The guitar, the plate, the bottles – they are like characters, aren't they? Each one carefully considered, placed just so, and rendered in these muted grays, browns, and blues. It's all about how these shapes and forms interact. Like the crisp edge of that blue box bumping up against the curve of that bottle. The painting feels like an invitation to look closer, to really see the structure beneath the surface. We’re all inspired by looking. We're all in this ongoing exchange of ideas, borrowing, riffing, and building upon what came before.