Conceived mainly from the collections of the Fernand Léger National Museum in Biot and those of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice (MAMAC), the exhibition brings together the works of Fernand Léger (1881-1955), pioneer of modern art, with more than thirty works by artists of the European and American avant-garde from the 60s to the present day.
Tous Léger! Avec Niki de Saint Phalle, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Keith Haring
The exhibition is an opportunity to highlight the strong historical and artistic link between the work of Fernand Léger and the generation that immediately followed him: the New Realists. Launched in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany, the New Realists movement brought together artists such as Arman (1928-2005), César (1921-1998), Raymond Hains (1926-2005), Yves Klein (1928-1962), Martial Raysse (1936), Daniel Spoerri (1930), Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002). These artists appropriated everyday objects from consumer society and street aesthetics. Their approach did not aim at the representation of reality but at its poetic appropriation.
Although the relationship with the object occupies a central place, the exhibition also addresses other themes, including the representation of the leisure society, art in public spaces and the construction of an art accessible to all in relation to its time, or that of creative processes and the great space given to collective work. A fervent admirer of Fernand Léger's work, Restany, present with Raymond Hains at the inauguration of the Fernand Léger museum in Biot in May 1960, would give his name to this artistic movement in homage to the painter who used this expression on numerous occasions.
Léger and the new realism
Fernand Léger, already in the 1920s, defined his artistic approach as “New Realism”, “a terrible invention to make real […] whose consequences can be incalculable.”
Other periods, other movements, even international ones, such as American Pop Art with Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, May Wilson, but also artists who emerged in the 60s and XNUMXs such as Gilbert & George in London and Keith Haring in New York, whose works are represented in the MAMAC collections, are located at the heart of the exhibition, in dialogue with the work of Fernand Léger. Fernand Léger's position as a precursor of Pop Art has already been evoked in several exhibitions, in particular in the context of the Vis-à-vis cycle. Fernand Léger and his friends, presented at the Musée national Fernand Léger in Biot, the link with the French art scene of the XNUMXs, in particular with the group of New Realists, is however unprecedented. In addition to the fruitful dialogue that can be established between forms and ideas, this exhibition aims to illustrate once again the modernity, multidisciplinarity and visionary scope of Fernand Léger's work.
The exhibition was presented at the Fernand Léger National Museum in Biot under the title Léger and the new realisms from 15 June 2024 to 16 February 2025.
