Artist Info:
French painter, born at Argentan.
Normandy. He was apprenticed to an architect in Caen. 1897-9. and then
worked as a draughtsman in an architect's office in Paris, 1900-2, and
as a photographic retoucher, 1903-4. In 1903, he failed the entrance examination
for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Paris, and studied at the Ecole des Arts
Decoratifs and the Acadimie Julian. From (c. 1909 he was associated with
the (CUBISTS and from 1911 was a member of the informal PUTEAUX. group.
In 1913, he signed a contract with D.-H. KAHNWEILER. During his Cubist
period his tubular and curvilinear abstractions contrasted with the rectilinear
forms preferred by PICASSO and BRAQUE and c. 19I I he was the first of
the Cubists to experiment with non-figurative abstraction.After having been gassed in the war, he
was discharged in 1917 and formed a friendship with LE CORBUSIER and OZENFANT.
He collaborated with Ozenfant in the ATELIER LIBRE and in 1925 he exhibited
at Le Corbusier`s Pavilion de I`Esprit Nouveau. In 1925 also he did mural
decorations in collaboration with DELAUNAY for the entry hall of the exhibition
'Les Arts Dicoratifs'. During this period of his association with the leaders
of the PURIST movement his work exemplified the 'machine aesthetic' which
Purism stood for. His paintings were static, with the precise and polished
facture of machinery, and he had a fondness for including representations
of mechanical parts.During the late 1920s and 1930s he also
painted single objects isolated in space and sometimes blown up to gigantic
size. He also busied himself with theatrical decors, especially for the
Ballets Suedois, and with the cinema. His Ballet Mechanic (1934) was the
first film without scenario. During the Second World War he lived in the
U.S.A.. teaching at Yale University together with Henri Focillon. Andre
Maurois and Darius Milhaud, and at Mills College, California. His painting
at this time consisted of compositions featuring mainly acrobats and cyclists.
From his return to France in 1945 his painting reflected more prominently
his political interest in the working classes. But its static, monumental
style remained, with flat, unmodulated colours, heavy black contours and
a continuing concern with the contrast between cylindrical and rectilinear
forms.
In 1949 he opened a studio for ceramics
with his former pupil Robert Brice and made there his glass mosaic for
the University of Caracas (I954). At the same time he was working on the
windows and tapestries for the church at Audincourt (1951). A Leger Museum
was founded in his honour at Biot. with large ceramic panels designed by
him. Memorial retrospective exhibitions were given at the Mus. des Arts
Decoratifs. Paris, in 1956 and at the Haus der Kunst, Munich. in 1957.
His influence on artists of his day was far-reaching and very diversified
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