Etching and aquatint, 1952

Edition : 73/150

Publisher : Galerie Maeght (Paris)

Catalog : Saphire E15 / Maeght 1402

64.00 cm. x 50.00 cm. | 25.2 in. x 19.69 in. (paper)

43.00 cm. x 32.00 cm. | 16.93 in. x 12.6 in. (image)

A luminous work where blues and ochres dominate, where plant and geometric forms animate a dynamic composition.
Fernand Léger (1881-1955) was one of the main artists of the avant-garde, without ever joining a movement. He developed a humanistic art where color plays a predominant role.
Here; a vegetable form, biomorphic, we see a kind of stem and ramifications. It is pierced at the top. An enigmatic, almost informal form that imposes itself in its growth and harmony and that opposes the blue filaments in the right part of the painting, like stems that seem to extend outside the limits of the work. These forms, which evokes the living, are in contrast with the dominoes. Geometric shapes with an obvious graphic impact, composed of dots - the dot being the basis of the drawing - dominoes are important in Léger's repertoire, and often associated with flowers. Circular shapes distributed in pairs complete the composition. They could represent gambling chips. The colors of these forms are similar to those of the "plant form" and the filaments, with Léger adding a very soft almond green. These "tokens" link the different elements of the composition together, through their colors and shapes. Here Léger displays all his talent as a composer of forms. Since the 1910s, he builds his compositions on "contrasts of forms", as here. For the artist, who explains in many texts or conferences, such as the one given in New York in 1935 (in his book Function of Painting): the object is worth not for its meaning but for its plastic value. Léger approaches the world around him with the same "tools" as those of painting. The "real" domino only has a plastic, pictorial value for Léger. Thus, the artist benefits from a "total freedom which will allow compositions of imagination where the creative fantasy will be able to reveal itself and develop". This fantasy is at work in the highest domino, which has seven points on each side, which is not realistic. In fact, for Leger, the fact that a work is realistic has nothing to do with its degree of resemblance to tangible reality, as he shows us with this seven-point domino, but has to do with its pictorial properties: shapes, colors. This is what we see here.

Very good condition
Handsigned by the artist in pencil
Certificate of authenticity

Ref : LCD5047