Seventy years after the death of renowned French painter Fernand Léger on August 17, 1955, France Culture presents a comprehensive 1981 documentary that celebrates the artist's remarkable legacy and his passionate embrace of the modern era. The program features insights from prominent figures including architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, offering a deep dive into Léger's multifaceted artistic contributions that spanned painting, sculpture, murals, stained glass, ceramics, tapestry, and cinema.
Born in 1881, Léger emerged as one of the most significant artists of the early 20th century, though many believe his work was not fully recognized during his lifetime. The documentary, originally produced by Paule Chavasse for the centennial of Léger's birth, covers the entirety of his artistic journey while highlighting his diverse creative pursuits, including his influential work as a teacher. Léger was captivated by his era's speed and rhythm, becoming a passionate observer of modern life with its cities, objects, machines, industry, and social dynamics.
The artist's fascination with contemporary life manifested in his iconic depictions of construction workers, divers, acrobats, cyclists, and his famous "Mona Lisa with Keys." The documentary features testimonies from painter Georges Bauquier, art historian André Fermigier, architect Charlotte Perriand, art critic Dora Vallier, and principal dancer Françoise Adret, who collectively illuminate the work of this major artistic figure. Their insights are complemented by archival recordings and readings featuring the voices of Blaise Cendrars, Le Corbusier, Marcel L'Herbier, André Malraux, and Léger himself.
Critics have described Léger as "the most visual of contemporary painters," noting that despite touching on multiple styles and artistic forms, his work maintains a distinctive unity through his pictorial language. As an observer of his time, Léger became the painter of contemporary society's backdrop, particularly its mechanistic and industrial elements, as well as its social imagery. His painting represents a kind of mythology of modern life, capturing the essence of an era in transformation.
Léger's artistic evolution began with impressionist-inspired early works before he discovered cubism in 1910 through his association with Robert Delaunay, developing a passion for form. He interpreted cubism in a highly personal manner, needing to deconstruct objects by reducing forms to simple geometric elements. This approach led critics to coin the term "tubism" rather than cubism to describe his unique style. The painter introduced colored planes into his canvases, carefully separating color from form, as demonstrated in his 1912 work "Woman in Blue."
To escape Paul Cézanne's strong influence, Léger turned to abstract art, which he considered a liberation. However, as he later reflected, "everything was thrown into disarray by the war." When World War I erupted in 1914, Léger was mobilized and joined the Corps of Engineers. Surrounded by miners, construction workers, and bargemen, he lived alongside these men and became aware of a France very different from the Parisian intellectual milieu he had left behind.
This revelation was accompanied by another element that would profoundly mark his work: the discovery of machines and metal. "My mechanical period comes from there," he revealed. The war experience transformed Léger's artistic vision, introducing him to the industrial world that would become central to his artistic expression. This encounter with mechanical elements and working-class reality would fundamentally reshape his approach to art and subject matter.
Léger was an optimist regarding the urban world, loving the reality of the city and the fraternity of crowds. Throughout his life, he magnified the machine – what was most despised by others. He discovered the beauty and poetry of machines, making them his unique domain while other cubists focused on nudes and still lifes. The modern world, progress, industrialization, noise, and speed fascinated the artist, permeating his landscapes and urban views. Contemplating high-voltage power lines filled him with admiration, seeing in them "a gesture of man in the sky."
Léger drew inspiration from scenes of daily life, working-class occupations, and leisure activities. He created few portraits, preferring the spatial arrangement of objects to facial expression. He approached everyday life closely without making concessions to his painter's vision, treating painting as an autonomous language. Objects served as elements that allowed him to structure a painting, with human beings as forms placed on the same level as objects.
The artist rejected symmetry, considering it a sign of death. He favored contrasted arrangements that represented life, and within this circuit, human beings were often excluded from emotional prominence. This approach reflected his belief that art should capture the dynamic energy of modern life rather than focus on individual psychology or traditional aesthetic hierarchies.
The documentary was produced by Paule Chavasse and directed by Maurice Audran, featuring contributions from Georges Bauquier (painter and director of the National Museum at Biot), André Fermigier (critic and art historian), Charlotte Perriand (architect and designer), Dora Vallier (critic and historian of modern art), and Françoise Adret (dancer). The program also includes archival voices of Fernand Léger, Blaise Cendrars, Le Corbusier, Marcel L'Herbier, André Malraux, Abbé Morel, and Gaëtan Picon, with readings of texts by Léger, Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Pierre Reverdy, and Georges Sadoul performed by Jean-Pierre Leroux and Claude Pasquier.
