Composition with the two parrots 1939

Fernand Léger made this painting with oil on canvas and its all about process; the figures almost feel constructed, like an engineer’s plan. Check out the paint itself - it's smooth, carefully applied. Léger isn’t hiding his brushwork here, it's all on the surface, just like in a diagram. What I love is how he uses these limited colours, almost like a machine-made palette. Look at the way he renders the skin tones, kind of sculptural, like he's building with clay. The shading is so precise, giving a real sense of volume without blending anything. There's a weird tension between representation and abstraction going on, like he's trying to build a new kind of visual language. It reminds me of Picabia, with that same fascination for machines and the human form, but Léger brings his own kind of cool, almost robotic sensibility to it. It's a reminder that art doesn't have to be one thing or the other. It can be both representational and abstract, all at the same time.