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Lot Essay
In December 1945, shortly before painting the present work, Léger returned to Paris after five years of war-time exile in New York. Although deeply impressed by New York which he called "the most colossal spectacle in the world," there is no discernable "American Period" as such. He describes an unbroken continuity in his art, "My work continues and develops independently of my geographical position... My environment does not affect me in the least. A work of art is the result of an inner condition and owes nothing to picturesque appearances. Perhaps the rhythm or the climate of New York enables me to work faster. That's all" (quoted in W. Schmalenbach, Léger, New York, 1976, p. 142).
In the late 1930s and through the 1940s, Léger executed two different types of paintings. On the one hand, he worked on several monumental figure paintings, in which he employed extensive modeling and shading to invest the compositions with both light and depth. Simultaneously, he painted still-life subjects, which embrace flatness and exhibit little or no modeling. The present painting, Composition en rouge et noir, falls into the second category. Although there is a figure present in this work, the subject is essentially a still life, for at this point in his career Léger considered the human figure an object like any other. In doing so he transferred the expressive value within the painting from the human figure as a subject, to the contrasts between the forms of the various elements in the composition. Léger once asserted that, "All the spectacular, sentimental or dramatic manifestations of life are dominated by the laws of contrast" (quoted in Functions of Painting, New York, 1973, pp. 132-133). The law of contrast--between tones and colors, straight and curved shapes, flatness and volume--was the guiding principle in Léger's oeuvre.
In the present painting, Léger sought to create the effect of light and depth that he did through modeling by smartly juxtaposing flat shapes of contrasting color and form. Curved forms stand out against the stiff vertical lines that surround them, creating both a sense of depth and movement. The objects depicted in the composition exist primarily for their plastic qualities and potential, while their everyday function is secondary or relatively unimportant.
Color is another element of contrast that lends this work its sense of depth, despite the lack of conventional modeling. Bright colors placed against one another, separated by thick black outlines, create the semblance of space within the composition. Léger wrote, "Separated objects which, depending on the color chosen for them, advance or recede on the canvas, and the background color as well, create a new space through movement, with no effect of perspective" (quoted in ibid., pp. 181-182). In the present work, the background color is a neutral gray against which Léger's thick bands of red, green and yellow emerge as striking compositional elements that further emphasize contrast and the resulting perception of movement and space.
In the late 1930s and through the 1940s, Léger executed two different types of paintings. On the one hand, he worked on several monumental figure paintings, in which he employed extensive modeling and shading to invest the compositions with both light and depth. Simultaneously, he painted still-life subjects, which embrace flatness and exhibit little or no modeling. The present painting, Composition en rouge et noir, falls into the second category. Although there is a figure present in this work, the subject is essentially a still life, for at this point in his career Léger considered the human figure an object like any other. In doing so he transferred the expressive value within the painting from the human figure as a subject, to the contrasts between the forms of the various elements in the composition. Léger once asserted that, "All the spectacular, sentimental or dramatic manifestations of life are dominated by the laws of contrast" (quoted in Functions of Painting, New York, 1973, pp. 132-133). The law of contrast--between tones and colors, straight and curved shapes, flatness and volume--was the guiding principle in Léger's oeuvre.
In the present painting, Léger sought to create the effect of light and depth that he did through modeling by smartly juxtaposing flat shapes of contrasting color and form. Curved forms stand out against the stiff vertical lines that surround them, creating both a sense of depth and movement. The objects depicted in the composition exist primarily for their plastic qualities and potential, while their everyday function is secondary or relatively unimportant.
Color is another element of contrast that lends this work its sense of depth, despite the lack of conventional modeling. Bright colors placed against one another, separated by thick black outlines, create the semblance of space within the composition. Léger wrote, "Separated objects which, depending on the color chosen for them, advance or recede on the canvas, and the background color as well, create a new space through movement, with no effect of perspective" (quoted in ibid., pp. 181-182). In the present work, the background color is a neutral gray against which Léger's thick bands of red, green and yellow emerge as striking compositional elements that further emphasize contrast and the resulting perception of movement and space.