(Argentan 1881–1955 Gif-sur-Yvette) “Composition au fond jaune”, signed, dated F. Léger 32, titled verso, signed, dated F. Léger-32, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, framed, (PP)

Provenance:
Studio of the artist no. 71 (inscription verso)
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Private Collection, Europe

Exhibitions:
Fernand Léger, Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe/ Krakow, Muzeum Narodowe/ Lòdz, Muzeum Sztuki, 1971, no. 6;
Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, Fernand Léger, Etudes et tableaux, exh. cat. no. 30, ill. page 37

Literature:
G. Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné 1932–1937, Adrien Maeght Editeur, 1996, pages 36–37, no. 810 with full-page ill.

The random juxtaposition of unrelated elements brings Fernand Léger dangerously close to a superficial similarity with Surrealism and its associations. He followed a contrary path, and the objects in his work were never intended to serve as symbols of psychological processes. His focus was the representational and artistic value of the elements depicted; the value of each element accentuated by contrast. For Léger too, chance was allowed to play a role and the creative process to operate beneath the threshold of the consciousness, but chance and the subconscious existed only up to that moment in which conception began. Consequently, chance, game and the unconscious had to make way for the “rational legitimacy and the deliberate procedure”, here the clearly constructive intention took over. Yet Léger’s works contain “emotional and imaginative components” which are deliberately subordinated to the key focus of the work - the artistic quality of that which is depicted. This appears to be the classic nature of Léger’s artistic character, one which would intensify further over the following years. When drawing a comparison with Léger’s works from the 1920s, we see how inorganic motifs - industrial products such as cutlery, umbrellas or mouth organs, give way to organic shapes and motifs. (B. Mraz: Fernand Léger, 1980) The present work shows contrasting, partly three dimensional, organic shapes (in blue, green, red, black and white) set against a yellow background. Léger breaks with the 1920s tradition of rectilinearity, allowing the objects to float freely within the yellow space.
“Léger is content with the simple, straightforward sequencing of his image elements. Again, these objects are so selected that soft shapes are contrasted with hard, and flowing with static forms.”
(Fernand Léger, Museum des 20. Jhdt., Vienna 1968)