Printer: Mourlot (1 of 750 Editions) 

Dimensions: 67 x 49 cm

Condition: Very good 

Frame: Framed in oak

Description: Fernand Léger believed that modern art should reflect modern life. After serving in the trenches during the First World War, he turned away from traditional historical and mythological subjects, finding inspiration instead in ordinary people, industry and the changing rhythm of the twentieth century.

This original exhibition poster was published in 1954 for Œuvres Récentes at the Maison de la Pensée Française in Paris, just a year before Léger’s death. By then, his bold black outlines, flat areas of colour and simplified figures had become instantly recognisable, giving his work a strength and clarity unlike that of any other modern artist.

The Maison de la Pensée Française was an important cultural institution rather than a commercial gallery, making it a fitting venue for an exhibition celebrating Léger’s contribution to French art. Created towards the end of his life, this poster reflects the optimism that runs through so much of his work and the belief that great art could be found in the people and places of everyday life.

Artist: Fernand Léger (1881-1955) was a French painter, sculptor, ceramicist and filmmaker. After initial rejection, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris. His early inspiration came from Cézanne, and in 1909, he lived in Montparnasse and met artists including Chagall and Delaunay. He was also inspired by the early cubism of Picasso and Braque. By 1911, he was one of the first painters, along with Metzinger, Gleizes, Le Fauconnier and Delaunay to bring cubism to the public’s attention at an exhibition organised by the Salon des Indépendants. He developed his own form of cubism that his critics termed ‘Tubism’ because of its focus on cylindrical forms. Regarded as a forerunner of pop art, his work changed from cubist-derived abstraction which covered his ‘mechanical’ period inspired from active service at the front in the First World War; designing sets and costumes for ballet; filmmaking and series’ of routine human activities, to distinctive realist imagery. In the last years of his life, he illustrated books, painted murals, designed stained-glass windows, mosaics, ceramic sculptures and set and costume designs.