Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 6

Fernand Lger From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Fernand Lger Fernand Lger.

jpg Fernand Lger photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1936 Born February 4, 1881 Argentan, Orne, France Died August 17, 1955 (aged 74) Gif-sur-Yvette, France Nationality French Field Painting, printmaking and filmmaking Movement Tubism Cubism Modernism Joseph Fernand Henri Lger (French: [le?e]; February 4, 1881 August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a perso nal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him t o be regarded as a forerunner of pop art. Contents [hide] 1 Biography 1.1 1909 1914 1.2 1914 1920 1.3 1920s 1.4 1930s 1.5 The War years 1.6 1950s 2 Legacy 3 Gallery 4 References and sources 5 External links Biography[edit source | editbeta] Lger was born in Argentan, Orne, Lower Normandy, where his father raised cattle. Fernand Lger initially trained as an architect from 1897 to 1899, before moving i n 1900 to Paris, where he supported himself as an architectural draftsman. After military service in Versailles, Yvelines, in 1902 1903, he enrolled at the School of Decorative Arts after his application to the cole des Beaux-Arts was rejected . He nevertheless attended the Beaux-Arts as a non-enrolled student, spending wh at he described as "three empty and useless years" studying with Grme and others, while also studying at the Acadmie Julian.[1] He began to work seriously as a pai nter only at the age of 25. At this point his work showed the influence of impre ssionism, as seen in Le Jardin de ma mre (My Mother's Garden) of 1905, one of the few paintings from this period that he did not later destroy. A new emphasis on drawing and geometry appeared in Lger's work after he saw the Czanne retrospectiv e at the Salon d'Automne in 1907.[2] 1909 1914[edit source | editbeta] A painting of smokers Les Fumeurs (The Smokers), 1911-12, oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.5 cm, Solomon R. G uggenheim Museum, New York A painting of a woman in blue La Femme en Bleu (Woman in Blue), 1912, oil on canvas, 193 x 129.9 cm (76 x 51 1 /8 inches), Kunstmuseum Basel. Exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne, Paris Painting of a nude Nude Model in the Studio (Le modle nu dans l'atelier), 1912-13, oil on burlap, 12 8.6 x 95.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York In 1909 he moved to Montparnasse and met such leaders of the avant-garde as Arch ipenko, Lipchitz, Chagall, Joseph Csaky and Robert Delaunay. His major painting of this period is Nudes in the Forest (1909 10), in which Lger displays a personal

form of Cubism that his critics termed "Tubism" for its emphasis on cylindrical forms.[3] In 1910 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in the same room (salle VIII) with J ean Metzinger and Henri Le Fauconnier. In 1911 the hanging committee of the Salo n des Indpendants placed together the painters that would soon be identified as ' Cubists'. Metzinger, Gleizes, Le Fauconnier, Delaunay and Lger were responsible f or revealing Cubism to the general public for the first time as an organized gro up. The following year he again exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and Indpendants with the Cubists, and joined with several artists, including Henri Le Fauconnier, Je an Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Francis Picabia and the Duchamp brothers, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Marcel Duchamp to form the Puteaux Group also c alled the Section d'Or (The Golden Section). Lger's paintings, from then until 1914, became increasingly abstract. Their tubul ar, conical, and cubed forms are laconically rendered in rough patches of primar y colors plus green, black and white, as seen in the series of paintings with th e title Contrasting Forms. Lger made no use of the collage technique pioneered by Braque and Picasso.[4] 1914 1920[edit source | editbeta] Dans L'Usine, 1918, oil on canvas, 56 x 38 cm (22 x 15 in) The City, 1919, oil on canvas, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, A. E. Gallatin Co llection Lger's experiences in World War I had a significant effect on his work. Mobilized in August 1914 for service in the French Army, he spent two years at the front in Argonne.[5] He produced many sketches of artillery pieces, airplanes, and fel low soldiers while in the trenches, and painted Soldier with a Pipe (1916) while on furlough. In September 1916 he almost died after a mustard gas attack by the German troops at Verdun. During a period of convalescence in Villepinte he pain ted The Card Players (1917), a canvas whose robot-like, monstrous figures reflec t the ambivalence of his experience of war. As he explained: ...I was stunned by the sight of the breech of a 75 millimeter in the sunlight. It was the magic of light on the white metal. That's all it took for me to forge t the abstract art of 1912 1913. The crudeness, variety, humor, and downright perf ection of certain men around me, their precise sense of utilitarian reality and its application in the midst of the life-and-death drama we were in ... made me want to paint in slang with all its color and mobility.[6] This work marked the beginning of his "mechanical period", during which the figu res and objects he painted were characterized by sleekly rendered tubular and ma chine-like forms. Starting in 1918, he also produced the first paintings in the Disk series, in which disks suggestive of traffic lights figure prominently.[7] In December 1919 he married Jeanne-Augustine Lohy, and in 1920 he met Le Corbusi er, who would remain a lifelong friend. 1920s[edit source | editbeta] Still Life with a Beer Mug, 1921, oil on canvas, the Tate The "mechanical" works Lger painted in the 1920s, in their formal clarity as well as in their subject matter the mother and child, the female nude, figures in an o rdered landscape are typical of the postwar "return to order" in the arts, and lin k him to the tradition of French figurative painting represented by Poussin and Corot.[8] In his paysages anims (animated landscapes) of 1921, figures and animal s exist harmoniously in landscapes made up of streamlined forms. The frontal com positions, firm contours, and smoothly blended colors of these paintings frequen tly recall the works of Henri Rousseau, an artist Lger greatly admired and whom h e had met in 1909. They also share traits with the work of Le Corbusier and Amde Ozenfant who togethe

r had founded Purism, a style intended as a rational, mathematically based corre ctive to the impulsiveness of cubism. Combining the classical with the modern, Lg er's Nude on a Red Background (1927) depicts a monumental, expressionless woman, machinelike in form and color. His still life compositions from this period are dominated by stable, interlocking rectangular formations in vertical and horizo ntal orientation. The Siphon of 1924, a still life based on an advertisement in the popular press for the aperitif Campari, represents the high-water mark of th e Purist aesthetic in Lger's work.[9] Its balanced composition and fluted shapes suggestive of classical columns are brought together with a quasi-cinematic clos e-up of a hand holding a bottle. As an enthusiast of the modern, Lger was greatly attracted to cinema, and for a t ime he considered giving up painting for filmmaking.[10] In 1923 24 he designed th e set for the laboratory scene in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine (The Inhuman On e). In 1924, in collaboration with Dudley Murphy, George Antheil, and Man Ray, Lg er produced and directed the iconic and Futurism-influenced film, Ballet Mcanique (Mechanical Ballet). Neither abstract nor narrative, it is a series of images o f a woman's lips and teeth, close-up shots of ordinary objects, and repeated ima ges of human activities and machines in rhythmic movement.[11] In collaboration with Amde Ozenfant he established a free school where he taught f rom 1924, with Alexandra Exter and Marie Laurencin. He produced the first of his "mural paintings", influenced by Le Corbusier's theories, in 1925. Intended to be incorporated into polychrome architecture, they are among his most abstract p aintings, featuring flat areas of color that appear to advance or recede.[12] 1930s[edit source | editbeta] Starting in 1927, the character of Lger's work gradually changed as organic and i rregular forms assumed greater importance.[13] The figural style that emerged in the 1930s is fully displayed in the Two Sisters of 1935, and in several version s of Adam and Eve.[14] With characteristic humor, he portrayed Adam in a striped bathing suit, or sporting a tattoo. In 1931, Lger made his first visit to the United States, where he traveled to New York City and Chicago.[15] In 1935, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City p resented an exhibition of his work. In 1938, Lger was commissioned to decorate Ne lson Rockefeller's apartment.[16] The War years[edit source | editbeta] During World War II Lger lived in the United States. He taught at Yale University , and found inspiration for a new series of paintings in the novel sight of indu strial refuse in the landscape. The shock of juxtaposed natural forms and mechan ical elements, the "tons of abandoned machines with flowers cropping up from wit hin, and birds perching on top of them" exemplified what he called the "law of c ontrast".[17] His enthusiasm for such contrasts resulted in such works as The Tr ee in the Ladder of 1943 44, and Romantic Landscape of 1946. A major work of 1944, Three Musicians (Museum of Modern Art, New York), reprises a composition of 193 0. A folk-like composition reminiscent of Rousseau, it exploits the law of contr asts in its realistic juxtaposition of the three men and their instruments. Upon his return to France in 1945, he joined the Communist Party.[18] During thi s period his work became less abstract, and he produced many monumental figure c ompositions depicting scenes of popular life featuring acrobats, builders, diver s, and country outings. Art historian Charlotta Kotik has written that Lger's "de termination to depict the common man, as well as to create for him, was a result of socialist theories widespread among the avant-garde both before and after Wo rld War II. However, Lger's social conscience was not that of a fierce Marxist, b ut of a passionate humanist".[19] His varied projects included book illustration s, murals, stained-glass windows, mosaics, polychrome ceramic sculptures, and se t and costume designs. 1950s[edit source | editbeta] Stained-glass window at the Central University of Venezuela, c.1950s After the death of his wife in 1950, Lger married Nadia Khodossevitch in 1952. In his final years he lectured in Bern, designed mosaics and stained-glass windows

for the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, and painted Coun try Outing, The Camper, and the series The Big Parade. In 1954 he began a projec t for a mosaic for the So Paulo Opera, which he would not live to finish. Fernand Lger died at his home in 1955 and is buried in Gif-sur-Yvette, Essonne. Legacy[edit source | editbeta] Lger wrote in 1945 that "the object in modern painting must become the main chara cter and overthrow the subject. If, in turn, the human form becomes an object, i t can considerably liberate possibilities for the modern artist." He elaborated on this idea in his 1949 essay, "How I Conceive the Human Figure", where he wrot e that "abstract art came as a complete revelation, and then we were able to con sider the human figure as a plastic value, not as a sentimental value. That is w hy the human figure has remained willfully inexpressive throughout the evolution of my work".[20] As the first painter to take as his idiom the imagery of the m achine age, and to make the objects of consumer society the subjects of his pain tings, Lger has been called a progenitor of Pop art.[21] He was active as a teacher for many years. Among his pupils were Nadir Afonso, R obert Colescott, Paul Georges, Charlotte Gilbertson, Hananiah Harari, Asger Jorn , Michael Loew, Beverly Pepper, Victor Reinganum, Marcel Mouly, George L. K. Mor ris, Ren Margotton, Erik Olson, Saloua Raouda Choucair and Charlotte Wankel. In 1952, a pair of Lger murals was installed in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations headquarters in New York, New York.[22] In 1960, the Muse Fernand Lger was opened in Biot, Alpes-Maritimes,France. In November 2003, his painting, La femme en rouge et vert sold for $22,407,500 U nited States dollars. Sales prices of his sculptures have exceeded 8 million dol lars. In August 2008, one of Lger's paintings owned by Wellesley College's Davis Museum , Mother and Child, was reported missing. It is believed to have disappeared som e time between April 9, 2007 and November 19, 2007. A $100,000 reward is being o ffered for information that leads to the safe return of the painting.[23] Gallery[edit source | editbeta] The Railway Crossing, 1919, oil on canvas, 53.8 x 64.8 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago

Man and Woman, 1921, oil on canvas, Indianapolis Museum of Art

Grand parade with red background, 1958 (designed in 1953), mosaic, National Gall ery of Victoria (NGV), Australia References and sources[edit source | editbeta] References Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 35. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, pp. 35 38. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 242. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 102. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 242. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 66. Jump up ^ Buck 1982, p. 141. Jump up ^ Cowling and Mundy 1990, pp. 136 138. Jump up ^ Eliel 2001, p. 37. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 119. Jump up ^ Eliel 2001, p. 44. Jump up ^ Eliel 2001, p. 58.

Jump up ^ Cowling and Mundy 1990, p 144. Jump up ^ Buck 1982, p. 23. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 246. Jump up ^ Buck 1982, p. 48. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, pp. 210 217. Jump up ^ Buck 1982, p. 143. Jump up ^ Buck 1982, p. 58. Jump up ^ Nret 1993, p. 98. Jump up ^ Buck 1982, p. 42. Jump up ^ An 'element of inspiration and calm' at UN Headquarters - art in the l ife of the United Nations Retrieved October 13, 2010 Jump up ^ www.boston.com Sources Bartorelli, Guido (2011), "Fernand Lger cubista 1909-1914". Padova (Italy): Cleup . ISBN 978-88-6129-656-5 Buck, Robert T. et al. (1982). Fernand Lger. New York: Abbeville Publishers. ISBN 0-89659-254-5 Cowling, Elizabeth; Mundy, Jennifer (1990). On Classic Ground: Picasso, Lger, de Chirico and the New Classicism 1910-1930. London: Tate Gallery. ISBN 1-85437-043 -X Eliel, Carol S. et al. (2001). L'Esprit Nouveau: Purism in Paris, 1918-1925. New York: Harry Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-6727-8 Lger, Fernand (2009). F.Lger, Exhibition catalogue. Paris: galerie Malingue. ISBN 2-9518323-4-6 Nret, Gilles (1993). F. Lger. New York: BDD Illustrated Books. ISBN 0-7924-5848-6 External links[edit source | editbeta] Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Fernand Lger Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fernand Lger Artcyclopedia - Links to Lger's works Fernand Lger at the Museum of Modern Art Artchive - Biography and images of Lger's works Ballet Mecanique - Watch Fernand Lger's Short Film Paintings by Fernand Lger (public domain in Canada) Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 34459370 LCCN: n79045173 ISNI: 0000 0001 2127 2310 GND: 118570994 BNF: cb11912166r Categories: 1881 births1955 deathsPeople from Argentan19th-century French painte rs20th-century French paintersAlumni of the Acadmie JulianBallet designersBallets designed by Fernand LgerCubist artistsFrench film directorsFrench military perso nnel of World War IModern paintersOrphismPurism Navigation menu Create accountLog inArticleTalkReadEdit sourceEditbetaView history Search Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Interaction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact page Toolbox Print/export Languages ??????????

?????????? (???????????)? ????????? Bosanski Catal Cesky Dansk Deutsch ???????? Espaol Euskara ????? Franais ??? Hrvatski Italiano ????? Latvie u Magyar Nederlands ??? Norsk bokml Norsk nynorsk Piemontis Polski Portugus Romna ??????? Sicilianu Simple English ?????? / srpski Srpskohrvatski / ?????????????? Suomi Svenska Trke ?????????? ?? Edit links This page was last modified on 17 September 2013 at 16:37. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; add itional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and P rivacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-prof it organization. Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaDevelopersMobile viewWi kimedia Foundation Powered by MediaWiki

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi