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拍品專文
In Les Maisons, Fernand Léger presents a snapshot of urban life, transposed into a visual idiom of bold, simplified forms. Executed in 1922, the present work is representative of a key moment in the forging of the artist’s radically Modernist, protean style. While the influence of Cubism and its planar, geometric idiom is palpable in Léger’s earlier artistic output, the artist placed a particular emphasis on cylindrical forms, a personal visual syntax that the art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined ‘tubism.’ Léger’s volumetric approach reflected the increasing mechanisation and urbanisation of modern life, in this period of rapid technological advancement.
Léger’s early experience as an apprentice in an architect’s office, prior to moving to Paris in 1900, informed his adept precision at capturing Les Maisons’s networks of streets, passages and tunnels in modern agglomerations. A central tree trunk dominates the composition: a playful serpentine form whose sinuous branches fragment the street scene. Each smaller branch appears to twine towards the open windows, directing the viewer’s gaze towards the shadowy interiors. A figure stands at the balcony in the lower left of the scene, while two walking silhouettes can be glimpsed in the street below. Their tubular, tonally shaded forms contrast with the planar two-dimensionality of the architectural edifices. As Léger focuses on the formal values of his subject matter, he dissolves the expected spatial relationship between the compositional elements, imbuing the work with a surreal and labyrinthine quality.
Reminiscent of the technique of grisaille, Léger’s employment of a monochromatic scheme endows the composition with depth, lending it a sculptural quality - while the iron work of the balconies echoes the metallic infrastructure to be found in the modern metropolis.
Though more abstract in style, Léger’s 1925 painting, L’Arbre (Bauquier, no. 416; Sprengel Museum, Hannover) shares a compositional structure with the present work. Featured in several landmark international exhibitions in New York and Paris, including the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grand Palais, Les Maisons is a visionary exploration of form and space, its exhibition history a testament to its enduring quality.
Léger’s early experience as an apprentice in an architect’s office, prior to moving to Paris in 1900, informed his adept precision at capturing Les Maisons’s networks of streets, passages and tunnels in modern agglomerations. A central tree trunk dominates the composition: a playful serpentine form whose sinuous branches fragment the street scene. Each smaller branch appears to twine towards the open windows, directing the viewer’s gaze towards the shadowy interiors. A figure stands at the balcony in the lower left of the scene, while two walking silhouettes can be glimpsed in the street below. Their tubular, tonally shaded forms contrast with the planar two-dimensionality of the architectural edifices. As Léger focuses on the formal values of his subject matter, he dissolves the expected spatial relationship between the compositional elements, imbuing the work with a surreal and labyrinthine quality.
Reminiscent of the technique of grisaille, Léger’s employment of a monochromatic scheme endows the composition with depth, lending it a sculptural quality - while the iron work of the balconies echoes the metallic infrastructure to be found in the modern metropolis.
Though more abstract in style, Léger’s 1925 painting, L’Arbre (Bauquier, no. 416; Sprengel Museum, Hannover) shares a compositional structure with the present work. Featured in several landmark international exhibitions in New York and Paris, including the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grand Palais, Les Maisons is a visionary exploration of form and space, its exhibition history a testament to its enduring quality.