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拍品專文
'Later people are going to see that this modern art of ours is not so revolutionary as it seems, that it is linked to those old traditions against which it was obliged to struggle in a lonely battle before breaking free.' (Léger, quoted in Peter de Francia, Fernand Léger, New York & London, 1983, p.220.)
The bright colours and joyous shapes of Des lettres dans un paysage ('Letters in a Landscape') seem a far cry from the academic traditions prevalent in French art at the beginning of Léger's career. Yet, at the heart of this painting lies the same raw, unabashed appreciation of beauty prevalent in the paintings of Courbet or even Bouguereau. Executed in 1953, only two years before his death and one year after he had moved to Gif-sur-Yvette, this paean to the modern world buzzes with vitality. The colours and shifting shapes, the contrast between the hard geometry of the letters and the sensuous volume of the verdure provide the viewer with a visual feast, a sensory explosion of beauty. Despite the lack of figures in this work, Des lettres dans un paysage is packed with life. This humble cityscape has been elevated to its rightful status as a source of great beauty.
Léger considered the role of the artist to be a social one. During the 1920s, he had emerged from a period of Cubism with his own individual style, representing the world in terms of mechanical order. Even in a simple still-life pots and pans would be reduced to geometrical forms verging on abstraction. At that time he was almost a propagandist, trying to communicate a utopian vision of order to the world, especially the working class. Later, although he retained the influence of this geometry and his distinctive palette, Léger communicated the beauty of the everyday world by upsetting the same order he had formerly cherished. In Des lettres dans un paysage, the stark, architectural shapes of the buildings are disrupted by the curves and colours around them, and so brought into a new, humanised light. The radiant yellow, greens and blues of Des lettres dans un paysage are the colours of posters and propaganda. As such, they form the most perfect artistic device enabling him to deliver his message to as wide a section of the populace as possible in a visual language which they would more easily understand. There is no hidden agenda, no reliance on arcane symbols or intellectual processes, just an unadulterated celebration of life and the world. Léger has utilised the cultural language of his modern audience, discarding and disregarding academic artistic methods. It is no coincidence that the letters in the painting's title seem to form a logo - a potent reminder of Léger's unique ability to act as a bridge between early and later 20th Century art, notably paving the way for Pop Art. Des lettres dans un paysage, with its combination of the industrial, domestic and natural, perfectly demonstrates Léger's mission to give as many people as possible awareness of the beauty inherent in even the harshest modern surroundings. As he himself said:
'It is quite useless to make an attempt to force people to be aware of reality by simply showing them a replica of the reality surrounding them since... they are aware of it already. And it is no use claiming that in doing so one is revealing something that they have either failed to notice or remained insensitive to. Painters aren't conjurors. But what is important is to make them aware, through the unexpected things they discover in a painting, which may at first appear new and strange, of the newness of a reality they would like to know - something that could add enormously to their lives.' (Léger, quoted in de Francia, op. cit., p.210.)
The bright colours and joyous shapes of Des lettres dans un paysage ('Letters in a Landscape') seem a far cry from the academic traditions prevalent in French art at the beginning of Léger's career. Yet, at the heart of this painting lies the same raw, unabashed appreciation of beauty prevalent in the paintings of Courbet or even Bouguereau. Executed in 1953, only two years before his death and one year after he had moved to Gif-sur-Yvette, this paean to the modern world buzzes with vitality. The colours and shifting shapes, the contrast between the hard geometry of the letters and the sensuous volume of the verdure provide the viewer with a visual feast, a sensory explosion of beauty. Despite the lack of figures in this work, Des lettres dans un paysage is packed with life. This humble cityscape has been elevated to its rightful status as a source of great beauty.
Léger considered the role of the artist to be a social one. During the 1920s, he had emerged from a period of Cubism with his own individual style, representing the world in terms of mechanical order. Even in a simple still-life pots and pans would be reduced to geometrical forms verging on abstraction. At that time he was almost a propagandist, trying to communicate a utopian vision of order to the world, especially the working class. Later, although he retained the influence of this geometry and his distinctive palette, Léger communicated the beauty of the everyday world by upsetting the same order he had formerly cherished. In Des lettres dans un paysage, the stark, architectural shapes of the buildings are disrupted by the curves and colours around them, and so brought into a new, humanised light. The radiant yellow, greens and blues of Des lettres dans un paysage are the colours of posters and propaganda. As such, they form the most perfect artistic device enabling him to deliver his message to as wide a section of the populace as possible in a visual language which they would more easily understand. There is no hidden agenda, no reliance on arcane symbols or intellectual processes, just an unadulterated celebration of life and the world. Léger has utilised the cultural language of his modern audience, discarding and disregarding academic artistic methods. It is no coincidence that the letters in the painting's title seem to form a logo - a potent reminder of Léger's unique ability to act as a bridge between early and later 20th Century art, notably paving the way for Pop Art. Des lettres dans un paysage, with its combination of the industrial, domestic and natural, perfectly demonstrates Léger's mission to give as many people as possible awareness of the beauty inherent in even the harshest modern surroundings. As he himself said:
'It is quite useless to make an attempt to force people to be aware of reality by simply showing them a replica of the reality surrounding them since... they are aware of it already. And it is no use claiming that in doing so one is revealing something that they have either failed to notice or remained insensitive to. Painters aren't conjurors. But what is important is to make them aware, through the unexpected things they discover in a painting, which may at first appear new and strange, of the newness of a reality they would like to know - something that could add enormously to their lives.' (Léger, quoted in de Francia, op. cit., p.210.)