The French painter, sculptor, mosaic and tapestry designer, film director, and producer Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was born in Argentan in 1881 and passed away in Gif-sur-Yvette in 1955.
He apprenticed under an architect (1897–1900) and immediately after settled in Paris, where he attended painting and drawing classes at the École des Arts Décoratifs and the Académie Julian. He took painting classes with Jean-Léon Gérôme and others. In 1905, he opened his own studio in Montparnasse. The influence of Impressionism is evident in his early works. A new emphasis on drawing, forms, volumetric-stereometric perception, and architectural structure can be found in his work after discovering Cézanne’s art at his retrospective exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in 1907. During his first period in Paris, he met Apollinaire, Braque, Picasso, and Rousseau, while from 1909 onward, he connected with the Cubists. In 1910, along with Delaunay, Jacques Villon, Le Fauconnier, Gleizes, Picabia, and Kupka, he participated in the creation of the “Section d’Or” (Golden Section) group, which championed a pure architecture of geometry and shapes. In 1912–1913, navigating between Cézanne, Picasso, Braque, and Delaunay, he developed a kind of personal Cubism, incorporating stylized tubular forms that suggested mechanical movement and noise. World War I and his injury at Verdun in 1917 had a definitive impact on him, pushing him toward new expressive modes. In 1918, his “dynamic and mechanical phase” began, during which he devised images of machines, and in 1920, he started his long-term collaboration with Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant, the founders of Purism. In 1924, he directed the first unscripted film, Ballet Mécanique (The Mechanical Ballet), and thereafter painted a series of abstract subjects influenced by Neo-Plasticism. From 1930, he became more interested in a dialogue between geometric and organic-biomorphic forms, the human figure, and its industrial environment. During the years 1940–1944, he lived in the United States and taught at Yale University and Mills College in California, while organizing a series of exhibitions after the war. In his later years, he engaged in monumental commissions of a decorative nature, including murals, mosaics, and stained-glass windows for public buildings, universities, and churches worldwide.
His work was presented in many exhibitions across Europe and America, receiving distinctions and awards (e.g., at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1955).
In 1960, the Musée National Fernand Léger was founded in the town of Biot, France.