Living With Art – Dining Room Vignette

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    Living with Art – Dining Room Vignette
    Art by Fernand Leger and Carlos Luna
    Interiors by Willetts Design & Associates
  • 5__Dining_Room_Leger_and_Luna_2_023
    Living with Art – Dining Room Vignette
    Art by Fernand Leger and Carlos Luna
    Interiors by Willetts Design & Associates

“In this accelerated and complex life that pushes us and tears us apart, we should have the strength to slow down and keep ourselves calm, to work beyond the destabilizing elements that surround us, to conceive of life in its most gentle and pacific sense” (1) – Fernand Léger

Léger wrote this quote in 1938, yet it still holds true; if even more so today. Slow down, stop and smell the roses, or at least sit down with friends and family, enjoy their company and a good meal! Before I had read this quote, Léger’s pieces, “Le Femme Et La Fleur” and “Marie L’Acrobate”, evoked this calming feeling for me. And as his career progressed, through the use of flatter colors and bold, black outlines Léger sought to strip the Cubist style he worked in previously, of its decorative aspects and simplify his work; which I think is what I find so attractive.

In this dining room, as a compliment to Léger’s work, I used eight Talavera Plates by Carlos Luna. Originally from Cuba, Carlos Luna was influenced by Picasso’s and Gris’ Cubism and Leger’s futurist embrace of the machine age. Like Léger, Luna portrays ordinary people and ordinary life experiences in his work. Two of these people represented in these plates include his Rooster-Man and his Guajiro-Man. For me, each of these artists’ work is the perfect grouping for a dining room, where we engage in these common activities; socializing, drinking, dining, and just those things, is what living life is all about.

The dining chairs were upholstered in a grey-silver fabric, which complement the wall color, Dunn Edwards DE6374 Silver Polish and adding a simple white table cloth makes for an elegant yet casual backdrop to the artwork. The French hand-forged wrought iron chandelier mimics the bold black outlines of Léger’s lithographs. To counter-balance Luna’s hand-made ceramic plates, I added a vintage Georgian style sterling silver tea set with beautiful, delicate, bright cut decoration.

1— Fernand Léger, “Color in the World” [1938] in: Functions of Painting, edited by Edgard F. Fry. New York, Viking Press, 1973, p. 130-131.