Fernand Leger
Fernand Leger Beyeler Lithograph
This Fernand Leger Beyeler Galerie lithograph is very unusual in this square format an original lithographic poster printed by Mourlot, Paris for an exhibition of Léger’s work at Galerie Beyeler, Basel.
Dimensions: 64.5 x 64 cm
Year: 1964
Printed: Mourlot, Paris
Condition: A
Comes with a certificate of provenance signed and dated
Born in Argentan, 1881, Léger began his career as an artist by serving an apprenticeship in architecture in Caen and then working as an architectural draughtsman. In 1900 he travelled to Paris and was admitted to the École des Arts Décoratifs, also attending the Académie Julian. The first profound influence on Léger’s work came from Cézanne and from 1909 Léger developed a Cubist style.
As a painter Fernand Léger exerted an enormous influence on the development of Cubism, Constructivism and the modern advertising poster as well as various forms of applied art. He also taught at Yale University and at Mills College in California from 1940 until 1945. Léger died near Paris in 1955.
THE ARTIST
FERNAND LÉGER
b. 1881, Argentan, France
Fernand Léger was a French painter, sculptor and print maker. Considered a foundational figure in the development of Cubism alongside contemporaries Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, painter Fernand Léger pioneered an abstract style all of his own: His aesthetic, which features bold primary colours and disjointed, conical forms, has been informally called “Tubism.” Léger’s graphic, flattened scenes of contemporary city life, circuses, and common objects offered an accessible approach to Cubist styles. His bold simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art. His mature work underwent many changes, from his Cubist-derived abstraction in the 1910s to distinctive realist imagery in the 1950s. His service during World War I sparked an interest in the machines and elements of industry that appear across his later canvases.
In the decade before his death, Léger’s wide-ranging projects included book illustrations, monumental figure paintings and murals, stained-glass windows, mosaics, polychrome ceramic sculptures, and set and costume designs. In 1955 he won the Grand Prize at the São Paulo Bienal. Léger died on August 17 of that year at his home in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. The Musée Fernand Léger was inaugurated in 1960 in Biot, France.