Lot Essay
Léger had his first major exhibition in New York at the Museum of Modern Art in the winter of 1935. Léger was greatly inspired by the success of the exhibition, by the energy of New York and by revived friendships with Le Corbusier, James J. Sweeney and the circle of architects, artists and writers to whom he was introduced.
The energy of New York infused his paintings with a new vigour and optimism, which undoubtedly strengthened his works at this time. The present painting Nature Morte aux Trois Fruites was executed in this atmosphere of creativity. Léger, at this period, was intrigued by the compositional juxtaposition of opposing forms, flat geometric shapes and rounded, organic ones. Speaking of the work Léger did at this time, he stated, "I dispersed my objects in space and kept them all together while at the same time making them radiate out from the surface of the picture. A tricky interplay of harmonies and rhythms made up of background and surface colours, guidelines, distances and oppositions". (W. Schmalenbach, Fernand Léger, New York, 1976, p. 132.)
"Léger's paintings of the late 1930s", wrote Peter de Francia, "are imbued with an exuberant lyricism and sense of freedom, and if they have a certain affinity with the concepts of any other artist of the period it is with the work of the American sculptor Alexander Calder." (Fernand Léger, London, 1983, p. 125.) In most of the pictures of this period, paint is applied very flatly and they are often conceived as having a mural function.
"The American period was a time of great liberation in Léger's work - liberation of colour from the boundaries of design, liberation of elements within the explosive compositions, and liberation in the selection of new themes. It was also a time of exploration and hard work, in response to the power and harshness of a new land. The resulting style was not destined to continue on its initial level of high-pitched intensity but, as Léger absorbed and assimilated the experience of these years, it was to become a permanent presence in his subsequent work." (C. Kolik, Léger and America in Exhibition Catalogue, Fernand Léger, New York, 1982, p. 59.)
The present painting was chosen to represent Léger's white ground still-lives of the mid '30s at the major retrospective of his work held in Paris in 1956.
The energy of New York infused his paintings with a new vigour and optimism, which undoubtedly strengthened his works at this time. The present painting Nature Morte aux Trois Fruites was executed in this atmosphere of creativity. Léger, at this period, was intrigued by the compositional juxtaposition of opposing forms, flat geometric shapes and rounded, organic ones. Speaking of the work Léger did at this time, he stated, "I dispersed my objects in space and kept them all together while at the same time making them radiate out from the surface of the picture. A tricky interplay of harmonies and rhythms made up of background and surface colours, guidelines, distances and oppositions". (W. Schmalenbach, Fernand Léger, New York, 1976, p. 132.)
"Léger's paintings of the late 1930s", wrote Peter de Francia, "are imbued with an exuberant lyricism and sense of freedom, and if they have a certain affinity with the concepts of any other artist of the period it is with the work of the American sculptor Alexander Calder." (Fernand Léger, London, 1983, p. 125.) In most of the pictures of this period, paint is applied very flatly and they are often conceived as having a mural function.
"The American period was a time of great liberation in Léger's work - liberation of colour from the boundaries of design, liberation of elements within the explosive compositions, and liberation in the selection of new themes. It was also a time of exploration and hard work, in response to the power and harshness of a new land. The resulting style was not destined to continue on its initial level of high-pitched intensity but, as Léger absorbed and assimilated the experience of these years, it was to become a permanent presence in his subsequent work." (C. Kolik, Léger and America in Exhibition Catalogue, Fernand Léger, New York, 1982, p. 59.)
The present painting was chosen to represent Léger's white ground still-lives of the mid '30s at the major retrospective of his work held in Paris in 1956.