Fernand Léger

Fernand Léger was born in Argentan, France, in 1881 and died in Grif-sur-Yvette, France in 1955.  One of the great masters of the 20^th century, Léger continues to exert a lasting influence on generations of younger artists.  After being apprenticed to an architect in Caen from 1897 to 1899, Léger worked as an architectural draftsman in Paris from 1900 to 1902.  Although he was refused regular admission to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he took classes there, as well as studying art in Jean-Lèon-Gérôme’s studio at the Académie Julian.  By 1910 he had met most of the Parisian avant-garde and had joined Robert Delaunay, Albert Gleizes, and others in the creation of La Section d’Or group of Cubist artists.  Léger’s version of Cubism emphasized bold designs of primary, tonal colors and streamlined forms suggestive of machines.  Along with members of De Stijl and the Purist movements, he envisioned a positive social function for art. In the 1930s he made two visits to the United States, and he lived in self-imposed exile in New York from 1940 to 1946.  Between 1930 and 1950 he exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, the San Francisco Museum of Art, California, and the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Following his return to France, he had exhibitions at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris and Tate Gallery, London.  Since his death, he has been the subject of numerous exhibitions worldwide.

*Excerpted from Tools as Art: the Hechinger Collection, published by International Arts & Artists