Fernand Léger Litografies / Litografías. 1950. Editor: Teríade, Les Editions Verve, París. © Fernand Léger, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2024
CIRCUS
For Léger, the circus is a succession of circular forms that allows us to escape from our rigid structures, from our geometric lives. The circus is the grand spectacle, the complete cycle, the metaphor of life.
This is his invitation: "Go to the circus. There is nothing rounder than the circus. Leave your rectangles, your geometric windows, and enter the land of circles in motion."
The circus captivated him from childhood, when traveling troupes would visit Argentan, among acrobats and clowns, he dreamed of a bohemian world. It was a dazzling place, filled with lights, color, music—a world of fun and freedom.
Later, in Paris, he frequented the Cirque Medrano in Montmartre with friends like Apollinaire and Max Jacob. There, he would sketch and revel in the movement, rhythm, and colors.
During his years of exile in the United States due to World War II, Léger became fascinated by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which performed at Madison Square Garden in New York. With its three rings and two stages—five simultaneous shows—it evoked for him the whirlwind of modern life.
Throughout his life, Léger painted acrobats, clowns, animal trainers, jugglers, and horses, always in action. For the artist, capturing the frenetic movement of the circus was a challenge.
Moreover, the circus was egalitarian and popular. Léger firmly believed that culture, music, and the performing arts should be accessible to the general public. The circus, for him, represented freedom.
LES ILLUMINATIONS
“Les Illuminations” is the title of a collection of free-verse and prose poems composed by Arthur Rimbaud between 1872 and 1875. They were partially published in the literary magazine La Vogue in the spring of 1886. The text was reprinted as a book in October of that same year under the title “Les Illuminations”, thanks to the initiative of French poet Paul Verlaine, Rimbaud’s former friend and lover. As Verlaine explains in the preface, the title is derived from the English word “illumination,” referring to colored engravings.
In 1949, during his stay in the United States, Léger selected several of these poems and produced an edition featuring 15 lithographs with a preface by playwright Henry Miller titled “Voici le temps des assassins” (“This is the time of assassins”).
The collection of lithographs begins with the famous portrait of Rimbaud, based on the photograph taken by Étienne Carjat in October 1871, when Rimbaud first met Verlaine. The portrait captures the young poet with tousled hair, showcasing an innocent appearance.
Following this opening image, the series features flowers, landscapes, faces, machines, and poems. Léger adopts a highly visual language, most notably exemplified in the sonnet “Vowels”, where each letter is assigned a different color. This collection of prints demonstrates that Léger had achieved a distinctive iconography and an original language of forms and colors, making his style unmistakable.
Fernand Léger / Arthur RimbaudLitografies / Litografías. 1949. Louis Grousclaude, Éditions des Gaules, Lausanne. © Fernand Léger, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2024