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拍品专文
Fernand Léger was an artist and an idealist alike, and in the years after the Second World War in particular, sought to make art that was accessible to all, and which would also improve the environments in which people lived and worked. Painted in 1952, Composition architecturale 'Fond Bleu' appears to relate to Léger's work in the sphere of murals, the format that allowed him to have a direct impact on the world around him, and crucially around his fellow man. This picture, which has been exhibited in a number of international shows since its completion, is filled with a joyous energy, and one can well imagine it enlarged in a public place such as the United Nations building in New York, where one of Léger's murals was unveiled in 1952, or Central University, or Nelson Rockefeller's apartment, all of which featured his work. Léger himself appears to have appreciated this picture: in a photograph taken of Léger in his studio, it appears that this work is shown in an earlier state just behind the artist; in the present work, pentimenti discernible correspond with the differences between the picture shown there and Composition architecturale 'Fond Bleu', implying that Léger revisited the picture, giving it its present form at a later stage.
Composition architecturale 'Fond Bleu' features a deep, rich blue background which provides a contrast to the jostling, rhythmic forms that dominate the canvas. These feature the black outlines that are such a signature of so much of Léger's work. They appear to have a self-propelling, pulsing, rhythmic energy. As was the case with some of Léger's mural work, they appear abstract, evocative and decorative rather than illustrative. This reflected Léger's own beliefs regarding the pictorial subject, which he considered an unnecessary factor in a successful painting. 'The plastic life, the picture, is made up of harmonious relationships among volumes, lines and colours. These are the three forces that must govern works of art,' Léger explained two years earlier in terms that relate to Composition architecturale 'Fond Bleu'. He continued:
'If, in organising these three essential elements harmoniously, one finds that objects, elements of reality, can enter into the composition, it may be better and may give the work more richness. But they must be subordinated to the three essential elements mentioned above. Modern work thus takes a point of view directly opposed to academic work. Academic work puts the subject first and relegates pictorial values to a secondary value, if there is room. For us others, it is the opposite. Every canvas, even if non-representational, that depends on harmonious relationships of the three forces - colour, volume, and line - is a work of art' (F. Léger, Functions of Painting, E.F. Fry, ed., London, 1973, pp. 168-69).
Composition architecturale 'Fond Bleu' features a deep, rich blue background which provides a contrast to the jostling, rhythmic forms that dominate the canvas. These feature the black outlines that are such a signature of so much of Léger's work. They appear to have a self-propelling, pulsing, rhythmic energy. As was the case with some of Léger's mural work, they appear abstract, evocative and decorative rather than illustrative. This reflected Léger's own beliefs regarding the pictorial subject, which he considered an unnecessary factor in a successful painting. 'The plastic life, the picture, is made up of harmonious relationships among volumes, lines and colours. These are the three forces that must govern works of art,' Léger explained two years earlier in terms that relate to Composition architecturale 'Fond Bleu'. He continued:
'If, in organising these three essential elements harmoniously, one finds that objects, elements of reality, can enter into the composition, it may be better and may give the work more richness. But they must be subordinated to the three essential elements mentioned above. Modern work thus takes a point of view directly opposed to academic work. Academic work puts the subject first and relegates pictorial values to a secondary value, if there is room. For us others, it is the opposite. Every canvas, even if non-representational, that depends on harmonious relationships of the three forces - colour, volume, and line - is a work of art' (F. Léger, Functions of Painting, E.F. Fry, ed., London, 1973, pp. 168-69).