Machine Shop

In 1906, Jacques Villon moved to Puteaux, a suburb of Paris, where he and his brother Raymond later hosted weekly meetings about Cubism with artists Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, Fernand Léger, and Robert Delaunay, among others. Discussions concerned their reaction to the Cubism of Braque and Picasso, considered by them as too pictorial in aim and too restricted in subject matter. The group exhibited at the 1911 Salon des Indepéndants and made contributions to the Maison Cubiste displayed at the Salon d’Automne in 1912, an attempt to extend the innovations of Cubism into the realm of architecture and the decorative arts. Also, in October 1912, they participated in Salon de la Section d’Or at Galerie la Boétie. With 180 works by 31 artists, it was the most expansive prewar exhibition devoted to Cubism, where, for many, the formula of the golden section and writings on proportion and harmonic structure served as inspiration.

The history of art, modern science, and the contemporary experience were all subjects that informed Villon’s work, perhaps informed by his short time working at a machine shop and the onset of World War I. This painting shows a dense crowding of machine parts that appear abstracted and compressed within the pictorial structure of the composition. Large in scale, its rich, expressively brushed surface suggests the drive and energy of the machinery it depicts.