Page 59 - Studio International - May 1970

3 In 1918-19 I was violently criticized for con-
Fernand Leger portant and the most interesting. It is not just
Composition au Serin Jaune 1937-39 sidering l'élément mécanique' as a visual an experimental curiosity; it is an art which
Oil on canvas possibility. I wish to clarify one point,
93x 130 cm has its own inner value, which has established
although I was the first to have used this itself and responds to a demand, because a
4
Fernand Leger modern element in painting, this does not certain number of collectors are dedicated to
Homme a la Pipe 1920 mean that I believe 'there is no other way'.
Oil on canvas this art.
130.5x 97 cm `L'élément mécanique' is only a method and This proves that this trend is part of life.
5 not an end in itself. I think of it simply as Perhaps in the future it may be classed among
Fernand Leger
Element Mécanique 1919 visual 'raw material' like parts of a landscape `artificial paradises', which I don't believe.
Oil on canvas or a still life. (1928) This line of thought is dominated by the
92 x 73 cm
desire for perfection and total liberation
In 1919 I painted a picture only using pure which makes saints, heroes and madmen. It
colour surfaces. This picture is technically a is an extreme state where only a few creators
revolution. It was possible, without tone or and admirers can survive. The danger of this
modulation, to produce depth and dynamism. faith is its rarified air. Modern life, tumultuous
Advertising benefited first from the results. and fast, dynamic and variable, attacks
Pure colour, blues, reds, yellows, escaped from furiously this light, luminous delicate edifice

Impressionists, modern art has tried to build this painting into posters, shop windows, road which emerges coldly from chaos. Don't
on contrasts; instead of reflecting a subject, signs and signals. Colour had become free, it touch, it's done; it had to be done; it will
the painter makes an insertion and uses sub- was a reality in itself. It had a new life wholly remain. (1931)
ject matter for purely plastic considerations. independent of the object which before this
All those artists who have upset public period contained and supported it. (1946) Colour is a vital necessity. Its raw material is
opinion these last years have sacrificed sub- as indispensable to life as fire and water. It is
ject for visual effect. (1914) The work of art is the equivocal state between impossible to imagine the existence of man
these two values, the real and the imaginary. In without an environment of colour. Plants,
This new total freedom made Abstract Art. finding the balance between these two poles animals assume colour naturally; man dresses
This freedom plays such a strong part in our lies the difficulty, but to cut it in two, and himself in colours. This life is not only
lives that some artists think that the problems to take only one or the other, to make pure decorative; it is psychological. Linked to
of easel painting may be resolved by abstrac- abstraction or imitation, that is really too easy, light, it becomes `intensity'; it becomes a
tion. and avoids the problem in its totality. (1928) social and human need. (1938)
I can talk about this as I was one of those who
practised it. If we return to subject matter, it A painting as I understand it, to equal or to An 'abstract picture' does not exist. There is
is because easel painting must be rich and surpass a beautiful industrial object, must neither abstract nor concrete. There is a good
complex. (1914) have a life of its own as does any human picture or a bad picture. There is a picture
intellectual achievement. All objective human that moves you or one that leaves you
He will not be an innovator because he has creativity is dependent on geometric laws. All indifferent. (1946) q
fractured the object or put a red or yellow artistic creation is parallel. (1928)
square in the middle of a canvas. He will be
an innovator when he has encompassed the Of all the different art movements of the last
creative spirit within that external object. twenty-five years abstract art is the most im-