Untitled

Untitled

Fernand Léger

1913

ink

From the collection of Museum of Modern Art

About this work

This sketch shows two figures tangled together in quick, sharp lines. Their bodies are broken into jagged shapes—some look like blocks, others stretch like rubber. The hands cling tightly, and the background is a mess of scribbled marks, almost like scribbles on paper. The artist used lots of tiny parallel lines to fill in shadows, which makes the forms pop. It’s raw and sketchy, like a fast drawing instead of a polished painting. Try looking up cross-hatching to see how this technique works in other art.

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