Description

A source of inspiration for Pop Art

Like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Férnand Léger ranks among the foremost protagonists of classical modernism. In his artistic oeuvre, Léger developed a highly original vocabulary of color and form, one that is explored in this booklet on the basis of selected works from the Fondation Beyeler collection. Fernand Léger is an artist’s artist: strongly influenced by Cubism, his painting also took account of the work of Paul Cézanne and Henri Rousseau. The billboard-style characteristics of his handling of space and color are probably the reason why he exerted a particular stimulus upon American artists of the Pop Art generation. Fernand Léger was undoubtedly an important pathfinder. He thereby prepared the ground for subsequent generations of artists, enabling them to create with courage and freedom.

Léger ‘constructed’ his pictures using an additive compositional technique. Certain motifs are thus reassembled, in series of works spanning large periods of time, like individual modules into new combinations. From the 1940s onwards, Léger disengaged color from drawing, employing it instead in large, sharp-edged fields that seem to float above the pictorial surface. He thereby created within his paintings a new, irritating equilibrium of color, colored form, and drawing.

ANSICHTEN no. 11 takes an in-depth look at the work of Férnand Léger. Detailed descriptions, technical data, special features, background information, and questions of interpretation all fall within the scope of this booklet.

ANSICHTEN is aimed at art lovers and teachers looking to engage in greater depth with the works of the Fondation Beyeler.

The journal also features a practical section, which presents ideas, tasks and experiments that may be carried out at the museum, at school or at home.

ANSICHTEN playfully provides readers with thorough knowledge of the works of the Beyeler Collection.