Leger, Fernand, << lay ZHAY, fehr NAHN >> (1881-1955), was a French artist who developed a distinctive style that expresses the dynamics and tension of modern life in an industrialized society. Leger’s works feature cylindrical and tubular shapes that have a machinelike quality. Leger’s subjects include such mechanical devices as machine cogs and railway wheels and such human subjects as construction workers and mechanics.
Leger was born on Feb. 4, 1881, in Argentan, near Alencon. His early paintings show the influence of the Cubist movement. Beginning in the early 1940’s, Leger enclosed his forms with heavy black lines that gave his pictures a posterlike simplicity. In some later pictures, he painted outlined figures and objects over abstract color patterns. Throughout his career, Leger showed an interest in forms of popular culture such as the circus, shop window displays, and billboards. He died on Aug. 17, 1955.
