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Current Exhibitions
History
When Robert Hughes described the rapid decline of early twentieth century Cubism, he was quick to characterize Léger’s work as a “sustained confession of modernist hope that one cannot imagine Braque doing, that he could make images of the machine age that could cut across barriers of class and education — a didactic art for the man in the street, not highly refined, but clear, definite, pragmatic, and rooted in everyday experience.” (Hughes, Robert, Shock of the New, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1980, p. 34)
Indeed, Léger made a life-long commitment to depict the common man and to create for him accessible art not limited to the world of fine art connoisseurship. During the 1940s and ‘50s, the automata persona and modeling of his early figures of tubes, barrels and linkages gave way to freely arranged bands of color juxtaposed with flattened forms of figures and objects outlined in black. The style, unabashedly simple and full of brightly lit positivism, resonated with American sensibilities and artists such as Stuart Davis and Keith Haring. The work was jazzy, fun, and readily consumed by the public. Léger credited the neon lights of New York City as the source of the innovation: “I was struck by the neon advertisements flashing all over Broadway. You are there, you talk to someone, and all of a sudden he turns blue. Then the color fades—another one comes and turns him red or yellow.” (Buck, Robert T., Fernand Léger: An Exhibition, Abbeville Press 1982, p. 52)
MoreMarket Insights
- Léger was a central figure of the Cubist movement whose artistic influence is rivaled by few others.
- The graph by Art Market Research shows that since 1976, works by Léger have increased at a 6% annual rate of return.
- Paintings by Léger have sold for up to $70 million at auction. The record price for a work on paper is $4.7 million, set by another study for a major series.
- Currently, Léger works on paper present an opportunity to acquire a museum-quality Léger under $5 million USD. There is an enormous disparity between the prices paid for Léger oils on canvas and the works on paper, a prudent area of acquisition ahead of the market direction.