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拍品专文
Je ne te demande pas si ta grand-mère fait du vélo (I don't ask you if your grandmother rides a bicycle) is one of the 63 compositions executed by Léger for the masterpiece of his graphic oeuvre Cirque, a compendium of 34 colour lithographs and 29 in black and white, published in 1950 by Tériade. Cirque can be considered Léger's testament, notably in its celebration of the life of common people (the cyclist in the countryside) and the simple extravagance of the circus.
Léger's oeuvre, aside from the bucolic excursions towards the end of his life, is centred around his main fascination for the machine and the universe around it - the world of working people. Léger's social conscience took shape in 1914, at the same time as his discovery of the plastic beauty of the mechanical elements of reality. The artist pointed out the exact moment of this epiphany: in the trenches, during the First World War, when he ended up amongst workers, artisans and miners. Their daily use of metal and wood, their ability to forge, cut, shape the matter, completely mesmerised him. The sight of the breech of a canon, in full sunlight, triggered Léger's reflection on the relationship between man and machine, amplified by the terrible violence of the first conflict of the twentieth century.
The present work does not belong to the artist's proper 'mechanic period' (before 1930), when he cast his still lives and figures against machine-dominated landscapes. Still, it is perfectly in line with his imaginaire populiste. In the 1930s, reacting to the uprise of Fascism and the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, Léger affirmed more lucidly his political position. His sense of belonging to the 'masses' surfaced in the trenches, became a mature social conviction and found immediate counterpart in his work.
This gouache is stylistically linked to the Cirque and Grande Parade of the early 1950s, but thematically connected to the social themes of the mid-1930s. The impressive grandmother riding the bicycle evokes the social conquests of the Front Populaire - particularly the first congés payés (paid holidays), granted by law in 1936. From 1936, French families invaded all the streets of the country, travelling in overcrowded cars or bicycles, and popularising beach holidays.
Je ne te demande pas... conveys, under a joyously innocent facade, Léger's committed political ideology, which found its most direct expression in his series of the Constructeurs.
Léger's oeuvre, aside from the bucolic excursions towards the end of his life, is centred around his main fascination for the machine and the universe around it - the world of working people. Léger's social conscience took shape in 1914, at the same time as his discovery of the plastic beauty of the mechanical elements of reality. The artist pointed out the exact moment of this epiphany: in the trenches, during the First World War, when he ended up amongst workers, artisans and miners. Their daily use of metal and wood, their ability to forge, cut, shape the matter, completely mesmerised him. The sight of the breech of a canon, in full sunlight, triggered Léger's reflection on the relationship between man and machine, amplified by the terrible violence of the first conflict of the twentieth century.
The present work does not belong to the artist's proper 'mechanic period' (before 1930), when he cast his still lives and figures against machine-dominated landscapes. Still, it is perfectly in line with his imaginaire populiste. In the 1930s, reacting to the uprise of Fascism and the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, Léger affirmed more lucidly his political position. His sense of belonging to the 'masses' surfaced in the trenches, became a mature social conviction and found immediate counterpart in his work.
This gouache is stylistically linked to the Cirque and Grande Parade of the early 1950s, but thematically connected to the social themes of the mid-1930s. The impressive grandmother riding the bicycle evokes the social conquests of the Front Populaire - particularly the first congés payés (paid holidays), granted by law in 1936. From 1936, French families invaded all the streets of the country, travelling in overcrowded cars or bicycles, and popularising beach holidays.
Je ne te demande pas... conveys, under a joyously innocent facade, Léger's committed political ideology, which found its most direct expression in his series of the Constructeurs.