Fernand LégerFrench, 1881–1955Walking Flower
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the sculpture
This colorful, towering flower seems to walk toward us with outstretched arms. A pair of "legs"--one orange, one black--extend from a central blue and white "body." The orange right leg takes a deliberate step forward as if to stabilize the form. Four additional elements radiate from the center. At the top of the sculpture, the white and orange petal serves as the flower's "head." Three extended "arms" in green, red, and white flank the head. Fernand Léger began creating glazed ceramics around 1950. These works were almost immediately celebrated for their adventurous use of pure, saturated color which was unusual for sculpture. Léger developed the animated flower subject in his paintings of the 1930s and returned to the motif on many occasions. For Léger, the forms of nature were an antidote to the pressures of an increasingly fast-paced and mechanized world.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- 2005.110
In the catalog
Sources
- J. Paul Getty Museum
- Image: J. Paul Getty Museum — ; In Copyright
Meanwhile, in the life of Fernand Léger
The whole life1952
The 26th Venice Biennale
In 1952 Léger takes part in the 26th Venice Biennale. In April he has an exhibition and gives a lecture at the Kunsthalle in Bern, and there are exhibitions at Paris galleries and at Sidney Janis's gallery in New York.
21 February 1952
Marriage to Nadia Khodossevitch and a home in Gif-sur-Yvette
On 21 February 1952 Léger marries Nadia Khodossevitch, a cousin of the poet, who had been a student of his Academy since 1924 and later its assistant. They settle in the Gros-Tilleul quarter of Gif-sur-Yvette.
1953
A touring exhibition in Japan
In 1953 an exhibition of Léger's work tours Japan; his work is also shown at the Gallery of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and in San Francisco, and an exhibition of coloured sculptures is held at the Louis Carré gallery.
1955
The Grand Prix in São Paulo and a retrospective in Lyon
In 1955 Léger receives the Grand Prix at the São Paulo Art Biennial, and a retrospective exhibition of his work is held at the Lyon museum.
16 July 1955 – 18 September 1955
Exhibition: documenta
17 August 1955
Died
