Pocket Guide -> Categories -> European Modernism -> The Punching Machine
The Punching Machine
by Ferdinand Léger · French, 1881 - 1955
| Creation Date: | 1918 |
| Media & Support: | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions: | 15 ¾ x 1018 inches |
| Credit: | Gift of Ferdinand Howald |
Ferdinand Léger, who was a munitions expert in World War I, was fascinated by mechanical devices and their influences on society, for better or worse. His painted machines are pure fantasy—they depict types of imaginary mechanical action rather than functioning mechanisms. This kind of Cubist painting is composed of a variety of apparently solid geometric shapes—such as cylinders and cones—and is fundamentally different from the multiple surfaces of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso.
