About Fernand Léger, briefly...

Though Fernand Léger became known as a Cubist, his style shifted dramatically from decade to decade, alternating between figuration and abstraction and drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources. Léger worked in many different mediums, including paint, ceramics, film, theater and dance sets, glass, print, and book arts. While his style changed, his work was always visual, with a focus on primary colors, pattern, and bold form.

Léger accepted the Cubist idea of splitting objects into geometric patterns, yet he was still interested in presenting the illusion of three-dimensionality. Léger's Cubism was marked by his emphasis on cylindrical form and his use of robot-like human figures that symbolized harmony between humans and machines.

Léger tried to depict the loudness, dynamism, and speed of new technology and machinery in his paintings that represented the optimism of the pre-World War I period, influenced by the chaos of urban settings and his fascination with dazzling, primary color.

Léger's work synchronizes the sometimes clashing dualities in most 20th-century art by embracing recognized subject and the illusion of three-dimensionality, interspersed with or often concurrent with explorations with abstraction and non-representation.