Lot Essay
From 1920 onwards Léger began to suspend the frenetic quality of much of his earlier work in pursuit of a calmer, more balanced style that echoed the art of classical tradition. This move towards a calmer, more refined classicism by Léger necessitated, however, the finding of an accommodation with modern life. Even if the structure of the painting was altering, Léger remained resolutely modernist in his subject matter. In fact after the restrictions of the war years his range expanded to include many aspects of urban industrial life: Bastillle Day, Armistice Day, city streets, factory workers, acrobats and airmen.
In the 1920s many French artists welcomed the revival of classical themes and motifs as the human figure once more came to dominate in paintings. In Léger we find arguably the most successful fusion of a resolutely modernistic attitude towards urban life and a profound respect for the classical dignity of antiquity. Works such as the present L'Aviateur show clearly how Léger has developed from the purely non-human "éléments mécaniques" towards the blending of the human form into the industrial machine landscape. The whole of Léger's new realism, however, still involves man being dominated by the machine world which he has created and from which he cannot escape. "The crux of Léger's new realism was dynamic tension; tension between the dramatic three-dimensional definition of the objects and the fact that they describe or copy nothing; between the suspicion of figure of still life and the profound defiance of genres; between realism and the non-objective" (D. Kosinski, Fernand Léger 1911-1924; The Rhythm of Modern Life, Munich and New York, 1994, p. 24).
The year 1920 was in fact the vital year of transition as Léger moved away from the purely mechanical to a gentler and more figurative form of expression. In the present work the airman is still dominated by his surroundings but by 1921 the figures have come to take a more prominent role and they, in their turn, dominate their surroundings. L'Aviateur shows Léger on the threshold of a whole new way of painting. In his essay on Le Grand Déjeuner, one of the major masterpieces of the 1920s, Robert Herbert stated "Léger's new humanism was a response to his growing feeling that the frenetic pace of modern life needed the discipline of calmness and order, a feeling he shared with Ozenfant, Le Corbusier and other artists in Paris" (Léger's Le Grand Déjeuner, Minneapolis, 1980, p. 27).
In the 1920s many French artists welcomed the revival of classical themes and motifs as the human figure once more came to dominate in paintings. In Léger we find arguably the most successful fusion of a resolutely modernistic attitude towards urban life and a profound respect for the classical dignity of antiquity. Works such as the present L'Aviateur show clearly how Léger has developed from the purely non-human "éléments mécaniques" towards the blending of the human form into the industrial machine landscape. The whole of Léger's new realism, however, still involves man being dominated by the machine world which he has created and from which he cannot escape. "The crux of Léger's new realism was dynamic tension; tension between the dramatic three-dimensional definition of the objects and the fact that they describe or copy nothing; between the suspicion of figure of still life and the profound defiance of genres; between realism and the non-objective" (D. Kosinski, Fernand Léger 1911-1924; The Rhythm of Modern Life, Munich and New York, 1994, p. 24).
The year 1920 was in fact the vital year of transition as Léger moved away from the purely mechanical to a gentler and more figurative form of expression. In the present work the airman is still dominated by his surroundings but by 1921 the figures have come to take a more prominent role and they, in their turn, dominate their surroundings. L'Aviateur shows Léger on the threshold of a whole new way of painting. In his essay on Le Grand Déjeuner, one of the major masterpieces of the 1920s, Robert Herbert stated "Léger's new humanism was a response to his growing feeling that the frenetic pace of modern life needed the discipline of calmness and order, a feeling he shared with Ozenfant, Le Corbusier and other artists in Paris" (Léger's Le Grand Déjeuner, Minneapolis, 1980, p. 27).