Lot Essay
"During the decade that began in 1918, Léger produced some of his most important and advanced works. At that time, his style, more than that of any other French artist of the period, came close to employing the new international language, known in Paris as Purism...Léger's incorporation of the human figure into the compositions during the years dating from 1919 to 1921 differs significantly from the radical departure of Abstract Composition, 1919 and returns to the example provided by The Typographer of 1917-18. The human figure is viewed as harmonious and integral, even subdued, in its surroundings and not in any way out of place...Léger was also able to convey this harmony in his observation of the new urban landscape" (R. Buck, exh. cat., Fernand Léger, Buffalo, 1982, p. 33).
Commenting on his use of the human figure in his work, Léger wrote "The human face and the human figure are no more important to me than keys or bicycles. They are valid three dimensional objects to be used according to my choice...The object has replaced the subject, abstract art has given me complete freedom and therefore one thinks of the human face not in terms of its sentimental value but purely in terms of its three dimensional value. That is why the human face remains voluntarily inexpressive in my work" (quoted in P. Descargues, Fernand Léger, Paris, 1955, p. 61).
In 1925 Léger described his goal as a state of organized intensity: "In order to find it, I apply the law of plastic contrasts, which I think has never been applied until today. I group contrary ideas together; flat surfaces opposed to modelled surfaces; volumetric figures opposed to the flat façades of houses; moulded volumes of plumes of smoke opposed to active surfaces of architecture; pure, flat forms opposed to grey, modulated forms or the reverse" (F. Léger, 'Notes on the Mechanical Element', 1925, see E. F. Fry, Functions of Painting, 1973).
"Léger was able to create, although depersonalized and subject to a mechanical order, human forms that are not reduced to robots, but that take on a universality, a hieratic majesty that recalls the greatest epochs of art" (J. Cassou and J. Leymarie, Fernand Léger, Drawings and Gouaches, New York, 1973, p. 48).
Commenting on his use of the human figure in his work, Léger wrote "The human face and the human figure are no more important to me than keys or bicycles. They are valid three dimensional objects to be used according to my choice...The object has replaced the subject, abstract art has given me complete freedom and therefore one thinks of the human face not in terms of its sentimental value but purely in terms of its three dimensional value. That is why the human face remains voluntarily inexpressive in my work" (quoted in P. Descargues, Fernand Léger, Paris, 1955, p. 61).
In 1925 Léger described his goal as a state of organized intensity: "In order to find it, I apply the law of plastic contrasts, which I think has never been applied until today. I group contrary ideas together; flat surfaces opposed to modelled surfaces; volumetric figures opposed to the flat façades of houses; moulded volumes of plumes of smoke opposed to active surfaces of architecture; pure, flat forms opposed to grey, modulated forms or the reverse" (F. Léger, 'Notes on the Mechanical Element', 1925, see E. F. Fry, Functions of Painting, 1973).
"Léger was able to create, although depersonalized and subject to a mechanical order, human forms that are not reduced to robots, but that take on a universality, a hieratic majesty that recalls the greatest epochs of art" (J. Cassou and J. Leymarie, Fernand Léger, Drawings and Gouaches, New York, 1973, p. 48).