Léger's work put to the test of gravity
With his series of”objects in space“(1928-1932), Fernand Léger is fully in line with 20th century still life and its traditional patterns while introducing new themes. Household utensils, simple everyday objects or even gas lamps appear as so many representations of modernity.
These themes, influenced by the pictorial trends of the 20th century, tend towards the abstraction of forms and the variation of colors. While cubists sought to defy the laws of physics through the expression of three-dimensional space on a flat surface, Léger did not seek to represent the totality of the object but to distinguish it in volume and plane within an ideal space. It is more visual than intellectual cubism.
In the image of his contemporary Alexander Calder, it is inspired by the cinema of Jean Painlevé, who undertakes to broaden visual consciousness by examining the microscopic world of living beings. Biomorphism and metamorphosis thus appear as important elements in the work of Fernand Léger - but also of Vassily Kandinsky, Hans Arp or Joan Miró -, as they make the link between the real and the imaginary.
The artist abandoned the spectacle of modern life for a Slower approach to reality but maintains the neutral background where its shapes, which are mostly isolated, float. He is now continuing to experiment with the plastic possibilities of forms in order to transpose this poetic vision using pictorial effects alone.
Fernand Léger makes gouache Objects in space in 1932, based on this period of study of the subject and the techniques that allowed him to suggest movement and flutter in a remarkable way. Here he succeeds in establishing an impression of loss of gravity of the subject by simulating their rotation. His genius consists in maintaining an atmosphere - like an entity that persists - through the flat surface of bright colors, surrounded by black.
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