Post-Cubist Léger on Display

After the cubism revolution of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque violently overturned accepted artistic conventions, the door was open for artists like Fernand Léger to rearticulate the relationship between form and representation. “Fernand Léger: Contrast of Forms,” on display at the Fogg Art Museum from April 14 through June 10, offers a rare look at the stylistic evolution of this seminal artist as he moved from pure abstraction to representation.

The exhibit is notable for featuring Léger’s early, very rare, and more purely Cubist work produced between 1912 and 1914. Filling just two rooms, the tightly focused collection doesn’t overwhelm the viewer or distract from the works themselves.

One room holds the early and raw “Contrasts of Forms” series—most recently displayed at the University of Virginia—while the other contains a selection of Léger’s later and more characteristic work from Harvard’s permanent collection.

As a whole, the exhibit is accessible to visitors with no prior knowledge of Léger and still interesting to patrons familiar with his oeuvre.

Completed on the eve of World War I, the pieces on exhibit represent Léger’s experimentation with abstraction. The works are largely black and white sketches and studies on tan paper, though the traveling exhibit does include one finished canvas, providing a fitting conclusion to the “Contrast” series.

Purely abstract pieces that study the relationships between curved and angular shapes line one wall. Facing these sketches are still-lifes and human figures that represent the application of Léger’s new artistic technique. Both the representational and abstract pieces are dominated by the tubular forms and contrasting colors that Léger’s work is identified with.

Despite their diverse subjects, the works in this exhibit possess similarly dynamic and compact compositions. Léger concentrates the energy in the center of each image with tightly arranged tubes and cubes that explode off the paper and rush at the viewer. White and black shapes interrupt the tan ground while curved lines abut sharp edges, creating the illusion of depth.

The deconstructed shapes that Léger uses are reminiscent of cubism, but the depth that is created sets his work apart from artists more traditionally associated with the movement.

The exhibit is well constructed and provides an important visual diary of Léger’s artistic development without distracting the viewer with excess. The introductory text succinctly provides the necessary context for laypeople to understand the significance of the series.

The second, retrospective-based room is a valuable addition that makes the exhibit more comprehensive and educational. Arranged chronologically and including works up through Léger’s time in New York in the 1950s, the retrospective places the “Contrasts of Forms” exhibition in the context of his more representational style.

The legacy of Léger’s early experimentation is seen in the fragmented forms, but his return to representative art is impossible to miss. Léger depicts the world by assembling basic shapes and bold colors into paintings that emphasize smooth, natural forms.

This exhibit illustrates the stylistic permutations of a great modern painter without assuming vast knowledge of 20th century art. In capitalizing on an opportunity to showcase the trajectory of Léger’s career, the Fogg has assembled a collection that speaks for itself.