Fernand LégerFrench, 1881–1955Divers on a Yellow Background
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
Chicago, United States
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Long committed to ideals of social equality, Fernand Léger sought, especially during the latter part of his career, to reconcile modern art with the demands of a mass audience. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the artist executed many monumental works and turned with increasing frequency to the motif of the human figure, using organic forms inspired by the natural world rather than the geometric shapes of the man-made, machine-oriented one. Inspired by his memory of swimmers diving off the docks in Marseilles, Divers on a Yellow Background is one of numerous drawings and paintings on this theme that the artist realized while residing in the United States during World War II.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1953.176
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
Meanwhile, in the life of Fernand Léger
The whole life1940–1945
The war years in exile in the United States
In 1940–1945 Léger lives in exile in the United States. He teaches at Yale University, where Focillon, Milhaud and Maurois also teach, gives “Composition with Two Parrots” to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in the summer gives a course of lectures at Mills College (Oakland, California), where he organizes an exhibition of his paintings.
1940–1945
Broadway neon and bands of colour
During his American sojourn Léger begins making paintings in which freely arranged bands of colour are juxtaposed with figures and objects outlined in black. He credited the neon advertisements of Broadway as the source of this innovation: you talk to someone and he suddenly turns blue, then the colour fades, another one comes and turns him red or yellow.
1940–1945
A circle of refugees: Pierre Matisse and Father Couturier
In his years of exile Léger meets other refugee artists at Pierre Matisse's and forms a friendship with Father R. P. Couturier.
