Le bal Musette 1927

Georges Valmier made this painting, Le bal Musette, with what looks like oil on canvas, and I love the way it turns figures into abstract, architectural shapes. The colors, so bright and bold, feel like pure sensation. You get the feeling that Valmier wasn't trying to copy what he saw, but to reinvent it, to make it sing. It's interesting how the solid blocks of color create this sense of depth, with some shapes appearing to push forward while others recede. Take the dancer in the centre, for instance, all angular and geometric. The way she's divided up by the white triangle makes her seem like she's caught in a whirlwind of movement, a blur of energy rather than a solid form. Valmier reminds me of Stuart Davis, with his jazzy rhythms and love of flattened space, but it also makes me think of Léger, who also found ways of fusing the figure with machinery. And as with all great art, Valmier leaves plenty of room for questions, for doubts, for your own wild ideas.