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The works of Léger are among the most forceful and diverse modernist offerings of twentieth century painting. This French painter and designer of fabrics, mosaics, and other media is generally known as a cubist painter who worked in bright colors and incorporated industrial and mechanical images into his work. His vibrant and unique art still attracts and delights viewers to this day.
Fernand Léger was born in Normandy (France) in 1881. His father was a cattle farmer who had dreams of his son becoming an architect. Respecting these wishes, Fernand studied at the school in Argentan and then spent three years as an architect's apprentice in Caen. But Fernand found no satisfaction in this career and eventually decided that he wanted to become a painter, much to his family's dismay.
So in 1900 Léger left for Paris, where, to support himself and pay for his art classes, he took a job working for a local architect, a profession he could not seem to distance himself from. Léger's early works were influenced heavily by Impressionism, but that changed soon enough. Upon returning from a period of many months in Corsica, he decided to break away from Impressionism and made it final by destroying most of his works. Few of his paintings from this early period have survived.
Renewed, Léger returned to Paris to begin rethinking the direction he wanted his art to take. Returning to basics, he began to focus on drawing and the precise handling of color. As the Cubism movement started to gain popularity, Léger became inspired by the possibilities of pure form and color. By 1910, he created his first significant work in his new style entitled "Les Nus dan la forêt." This piece is distinctive in that it displays a sense of space and perspective in a notably cubist tone.
Léger's form of Cubism was radically different from that of Braque, Picasso, and Juan Gris. His approach was more elementary and less intellectual than his peers, as he explored clear-cut and simple forms upon which he projected clear, transparent light. His work entitled "La Femme en bleu" (1912, oil on canvas) created quite a stir when exhibited at the Paris Salon d' Automne of 1912.
In 1914, Léger was mobilized and sent to the front to fight in World War I. This experience profoundly affected his concept of art as he became fascinated with mechanization and the working man, his comrades in arms. These influences were about to instill a more uniform and scientific aspect to his works while maintaining geometrical simplicity and starkness. After the war, Léger's works evolved, and structure and architectural perspective began to reappear.
Léger's paintings of the early 1920's began to transcend the boundaries of Cubism and evolve more into abstract form, consisting mostly of human and geometric shapes. During this time, Léger further developed his use of color and kept diffusing form with subtle shading. This helped create a visual paradox where stark forms are offset by soft, rounded edges.
By the 1930's and 1940's, Léger started to produce larger figure compositions. The works of this period are among some of his most energetic and dynamic. Ever experimental, Léger went on to explore stylized and powerful compositions that focused on natural motifs, such as landscapes. He also created abstract sculptures in an extension of his current style.
By the late 1940's, Léger designed scenery for various international ballet companies and created a series of circus scenes as large landscape compositions. As a continuation of large canvas works, he also created murals, stained glass windows, and even a vast mosaic facade of a church in Savoy.
Fernand Léger worked actively until he died in 1955 in Gifsur-Yvette, his country retreat near Paris. His works are currently displayed in the finest international art museums; and the Léger museum at Biot--designed to show the works in a clean, uniform light--contains many of Léger's paintings and large sculptural pieces, which play an integral role in the architecture.
The first comprehensive U.S. retrospective of Fernand Léger in more than forty years is on view through May 12 at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Included are representative works from all important periods of Léger's mature career with more than 60 paintings and some 20 related drawings. A fully illustrated 304-page catalogue is available, as well as an audio tour. (212) 708-9400; www.moma.org.
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Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 8 No. 6 -- April 1998