Skip to main content

Léger – Laurens. Tête-à-Tête


Fernand Léger and Henri Laurens:Tête-à-Tête at the Museum Frieder Burda
Extraordinary works from the Centre Pompidou in Paris directly to Baden-Baden

Also see Fernand Léger


Under the title “Léger – Laurens. Tête-à-Tête“, a total of about 80 works by these two renowned artists were presented from 23 June to 4 November, 2012. The works by Fernand Léger (1881 - 1955) and Henri Laurens (1885 - 1954) are defining for modernism. The artists were dedicated to two different fields: Léger brought out the main points in paintings, and Laurens created sculptures that still serve as role models nowadays. The works by the two contemporaries Léger and Laurens are contrasted for the first time at the Museum Frieder Burda. Similar themes, common interests as well as the friendship between the two artists are worked out in the presentation. This exceptional exhibition provides an opportunity for discovering two iconic figures of classical modernism from a completely new angle.

More than 20 significant works came from the Centre Pompidou in Paris for the Tête-à-Tête between Léger and Laurens in Baden-Baden. Some of them will be exhibited in Germany for the first time. Among them the monumental work by Fernand Léger ”Composition aux deux perroquets – Composition with two Parrots“ (1935–39), created in a completely new style. The impressive, four meters by nearly five meters painting is one of the most significant works of modernism.

The selection was completed by additional works from large European museums and private collections, among them the Art Museum Basel, the Museum of Modern Art Trust Ludwig Wien and the Art Collection Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf.


Fernand Léger: Bright colors that break loose from shapes

Fernand Léger, born in 1881 in Argentan in the Normandy region, is one of the extraordinary modernist artists of the early 20th century. After having worked as an architectural draftsman for several years, Léger went to Paris around 1900 and took numerous classes at the École des Art Décoratifs. Like his friends Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, in his works he deals with his times and during his cubistic phase he creates pictures with intense colors (blue, white, yellow, green) that he calls ”form contrastings“ . At the same time as Henri Laurens (whom he met in 1910), Marc Chagall, the author Guillaume Apollinaire and others, Léger had a studio in the well known Paris artist neighborhood ”La Ruche“.

Machines play an important roll in his world. Under the influence of war machines, his “période mécanique“ (mechanical period) begins in which the experimental movie ”Le ballet mécanique“ is created. Léger himself nearly dies during World War I. From then on, the human being is included in his subjects in a rather formulistic manner, it is presented as an anonymous object. After his “période mécanique“ Fernand Léger’s works are dominated by monumentality. The artist paints large format pictures like



“Composition aux deux perroquets – Composition with two Parrots“ (1935–39), a masterpiece from this period. During World War II Fernand Léger works in New York where he exerts great influence on American art. He now uses intense and clear colors that soon break free from forms they actually belong to. A new world comes into appearance. The artist designs a dynamic space in which the human being – as an acrobat, cyclist or scuba diver – now moves closer to the focus of the picture.



A comprehensive catalog (publisher Hatje Cantz) with color pictures of all exhibited works as well as numerous texts, biographies and explanations was published.

Nice review

More images from the exhibition:


Fernand Léger, Composition I, 1930, 141 x 291 cm, oil on canvas, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Photo: Cantz Medienmanagement, Ostfildern, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012.




Fernand Léger, Composition aux trois figures, fond bleu, (Composition with three figures, blue background), 1932, 71 x 89 cm, oil on canvas. Private Collection, France, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012.



Fernand Léger, Composition aux trois soeurs, Etat définitif, (Composition with three sisters, last condition), 1952, 162 x 130 cm, oil on canvas, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012.




Fernand Léger, Contraste de formes (Contrast of forms), 1914, 80,7 x 65,2 cm, oil on canvas, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf , © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012.



Fernand Léger, L'homme à la pipe (Man with the pipe), 1920, 91 x 65 cm, oil on canvas, Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012, Musée d'Art Moderne / Roger-Viollet.



Fernand Léger, Femme tenant un vase (Woman with vase), 1924-27, 130,6 x 89,5 cm, oil on canvas. Kunstmuseum Basel. Donation Dr. h.c. Raoul La Roche 1963. Kunstmuseum Basel, Martin P. Bühler. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012.



Fernand Léger, La Baigneuse (Bathing woman), 1932, 98 x 130 cm, oil on canvas, Musée National Fernand Léger, Biot, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012, bpk / Gérard Blot



Fernand Léger, Le pont du remorqueur 1er état (The bridge of the tug 1st condition)
1920/21 73 x 92 cm 93 x 112 cm (framed) oil on canvas Private Collection Switzerland
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(Sức khỏe mỗi ngày) Top 5 loại hoa quả giúp phát triển trí não cho trẻ, cha mẹ nên nhớ

Cam Cam là loại trái cây chứa nhiều vitamin C nhất cùng với hàm lượng vitamin A, B1, khoáng chất tốt cho trí não. Mỗi ngày uống một cốc nước cam ép hoặc 1 quả cam sẽ giú cơ thể minh mẫn, tăng cường sức đề kháng để giảm căng thẳng và mệt mỏi, ăn trực tiếp rất tốt bởi trong xác cam chứa nhiều chất xơ tốt cho hệ tiêu hóa. Chuối Quả chuối quen thuộc và bổ dưỡng đối với tất cả chúng ta. Các nhà khoa học đã chỉ ra chuối có chứa nhiều serotonin có khả năng truyền tín hiệu nhanh đến não giúp phản ứng kịp thời và nhanh nhậy trước mọi tình huống. Trong quả chuối chứa vitamin C, E,… giúp não bộ sản sinh ra các chất điều hòa làm điều hòa giấc ngủ sâu và ngon hơn. Mỗi ngày bạn chỉ nên ăn 1 quả là đủ cho não bộ và cơ thể, nhưng ăn quá nhiều dễ bị tiêu chảy không tốt cho sức khỏe. Ảnh minh họa Táo Táo là trái cây của sức khỏe không chỉ tốt cho tim mạch, đường ruột,… nó còn đáp ứng được nhu cầu dinh dưỡng cần thiết cho não bộ. Với hàm lượng chất chống oxy hóa cao giúp tăng acetycholine chất ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Degas/Cassatt at the National Gallery of Art

Mary Cassatt , Little Girl in a Blue Armchair , 1878 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon Edgar Degas's (1834–1917) influence on fellow impressionist Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) is widely known, but her role in shaping his work and introducing him to American audiences is fully examined for the first time in Degas/Cassatt . On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington—the sole venue worldwide—from May 11 through October 5, 2014, the exhibition includes some 70 works in a variety of media. Groundbreaking technical analysis is presented by conservators and scientists who examined key works by both artists. "Despite differences of gender and nationality, Degas and Cassatt forged a deep friendship founded on respect and admiration, and we are delighted to share the results of this relationship with our visitors. The Gallery is particularly well suited to the exploration of this subject because of the exceptional ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings

All works: The Morgan Library & Museum, New York All works, unless noted, photography: Graham S. Haber Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum January 17–May 11, 2014 explores the shifting roles and attitudes toward the art of drawing in Spain, as well as the impact of the Catholic Church and the nightmare of the Inquisition on Spanish artists and their work. It is the first exhibition of Spanish drawings ever to be held at the Morgan Library & Museum, whose holdings in this area are relatively small but strong. The exhibition features more than twenty drawings spanning the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Works by well-known artists such as José de Ribera, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Francisco Goya are presented alongside sheets by equally talented but less familiar artists, including Vicente Carducho, Alonso Cano, and Eugenio Lucas. Complementing the drawings is a display of contemporary Spanish letters and...
Post a Comment
Read more