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ENTU

Ak Functions

Painting

Femand Leger

? Functions of Painting

The Documents of 20th-century Art

ROBERT MOTHERWELL, GENERAL EDITOR BERNARD KARPEL,

DOCUMENTARY EDITOR

Functions of Painting

by Fernand Leger

TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDRA ANDERSON EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY EDWARD F. FRY WITH A PREFACE BY GEORGE L. K. MORRIS

NEW YORK THE

VIKING PRESS

Fonctions de

©

la

Peinture

1965 by Editions Gonthier

Translation, Preface, and Introduction Copyright

The Viking

©

1973 by

Press, Inc.

All rights reserved First published in

edition

New

1973 in a hardbound and a paperbound

by The Viking Press,

Inc.,

625 Madison Avenue,

York, N.Y. 10022

Published simultaneously in Canada by The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited

SBN

670-33221-6 (hardbound) 670-01945-3 (paperbound)

Library of Congress catalog card number: 71-184540 Printed in U.S.A.

Publishers' Note

This collection of essays lished in

France

cant changes

1965.

in

is

preparing

in

based on Fonctions de

The

made

this

have been arranged chronologically rather than matic sequence

As a come

result,

No

repetitions of thought

attempt has been

signifi-

essays

the original the-

in

made

and phrasing have be-

to edit these out since they

enough

are a gauge of the ideas Leger considered important

particular and repeated emphasis. In

examples appear

Peintun\ pub-

a

order to illuminate the course of Leger's thinking.

in

numerous

obvious.

la

number of English-language edition. The

editors have

in

some

different contexts; in

to

warrant

same phrases and

cases, the

the repetition

others,

may

have occurred simply because Leger intended the essay for a different

"Modern Archi-

audience. (Note, for example, that certain sections of tecture

and Color," published

in

1947

in the

United

States, recur in

essay published in Art d'Aujourd'hui in Paris in 1949.)

Some

an

of the

essays printed here were never published during Leger's lifetime, and

one may deduce

that he

borrowed certain ideas from them for use

in

current work.

Three of the essays have not been translated from the Fonctions de in the later.

la Feintiire.

These were

all

published

1930s and 1940s but did not appear

The French

in

in

texts

in

the United States

until some time some degree from

France

versions, in Fonctions, differ in

the English texts, but the latter are used here since they had a decided

impact when they were published and, moreover, are no longer easily

/

viii

available.

Publishers'

The

Note

publishers are grateful to Harold Rosenberg and George

L. K. Morris for permission to include their original translations.

Other respects

in

which

this edition

varies are in the illustrations,

which now include several photographs of the

artist himself,

and

in

the addition of a selected bibliography by Bernard Karpel. In place of the

French preface by Roger Garaudy, there

especially

for

this

critical introduction in the

context of his

edition

by

George

is

a

new one

L. K. Morris,

along

written

with

a

by Edward F. Fry, who discusses Leger"s writings artistic

development.

—

Preface

Painters of in print.

their

many

Only

persuasions have long delivered their theories of art

a handful,

however, have examined additional aspects of

contemporary worlds. Perhaps

have done so most

tellingly

it

— Eugene

is

no accident that the two who

Delacroix and Fernand Leger

both happened to be French.

Leger had ideas about everything, and

accent of ill

—was

its

own.

A

its

own

new

culture primarily urban,

the machine.

should hold

eye was everywhere.

his

Early in the twentieth century he detected a

its

Cezanne had maintained

civilization,

with an

— for

good or

heart-

that a

work of

art

with nature; he would appraise a painting against

a background of foliage. Leger, of a later generation, insisted

with manufactured objects that a painting must

it

was

now compete.

Leger bristled with ideas for improving the modern megalopolis.

Although urban

some of 193

1

officials

his proposals

he suggested

demolished

(he

—

turned deaf ears,

in

picks

jest,

let

Marshal

and that

us hope

and the

interesting to note that

it

glass walls that reflect

(No

—that under

Petain,

entirely of glass. If he could witness

himself a prophet.

is

have been realized fortuitously nonetheless. In

Verdun, for the job)

tion

it

New York whom he

might be

defended

be rebuilt with structures

New

made

York's current self-demoli-

our avenues, he might consider

one, however, has followed his next step

paint, in various colors, the ceilings

and

floors within.)

A

—

to

few years

the organizers of the 1937 Paris Exposition invited Leger to submit a project that might astonish the world. His suggestion was later,

X

Preface

/

300,000 unemployed workers sandblast every building in the city and proclaim paris toute blanche. Forty years later, on Malraux's

that

My

is

it

indeed sensational.

glimpses of Leger have remained vivid through the years.

first

In 1929. avant-garde paintings

— or made

little

sense to me; nevertheless.

made them

anything, class with

were rarely encountered

for that matter.

Paris either,

in

After

tick.

two instructors

Moderne and

To my

enrolled.

me

American; she informed

I

nude was posing on

side

was

walked around

the

to

whom

an easel and

—

there.

and rather dark.

large

behind her; on one

a platform with a screen

a vase of artificial flowers.

left foot,

were depicting the model quite fortified

with

my

me was

Beside

nationalities,

realistically.

selected

I

Art Students' League technique from

John Sloan's and Kenneth Hayes likewise.

Academic

was an amiable

There were about twenty students of various ages and most of

if

had once been Bartholdi's

was

the street level,

her

had seen

see what,

heard about one

I

surprise, the registrar

that the studio

a stool and. next to

I

(Wednesdays) and Ozenfant (SatI

and that the Statue of Liberty had been designed

The room, which was on

New York

in

The few examples was determined to

reached Paris.

I

— Leger

urdays). So the following week

A

we have paris

(almost) scrubbed clean;

the city has been

initiative,

COMPLETELY WHITE, and

Miller's

classes

— proceeded

to

do

a white-haired English lady, crouched over

water colors; she was not doing the model

at

all.

vase of

the

just

flowers. I

awaited Wednesday

closing time

when

the

afternoon

door

finally

with

impatience.

opened.

I

It

more

character, sharp and sarcastic; no one could have been I first

different.

caught sight of a blue turtle-neck sweater that contrasted with

dark-red hair.

Leger was massively built but

in

manner was shy and remote

mumbled

looked fixedly all

tiniiez."

at

me

of which

He

mumbled

as

he

moved from one

a few words, and passed on.

then

I

was

He His

easel to another,

finally

my

turn.

for a minute, then at the painting, then at

found rather unnerving. Finally he

moved

"frt la."

It

gross.

in his face.

no way

looked surprisingly gentle and troubled, with deep lines

again,

was almost

had visualized a tough

to the flowers in

said:

water color next to

He me

"Con-

me and

•

Preface

Next week was

a repeat performance

—except

and the Enghsh lady "Continuez." Later on

He

a pupil just in front of me.

down to the last make it tight, make it

see,

had ever

I

thumb;

was the most

it

He went

added, addressing us

a good start, but

all,

"The world

how many can

and

"You

on:

when you understand completely

dry. Then,

what you're doing, you can loosen your technique and

He

closer.

seen, absolutely neat

crease on the knuckle.

accurate

drew

I

took out pencil

indefinite; he

to sketch a very large

wonderful rendering of a thumb

"f« va"

got

I

xi

heard him talking to

I

never raised his voice, so

Leger was saying that the hands were too

and paper and proceeded

that

/

full

is

will hold."

it

who can make

of artists

carry a painting through to comple-

tion!"

The following Wednesday

a

young

had painted during a weekend gateway, with a wheelbarrow chickens.

I

thought

it

in

brought

girl

in the

country.

It

the lower right and,

the sky

in

think,

I

was quite good, and Leger thought so

look," he said, "the wheelbarrow should be up here"

vacant spot

canvas that she

in a

depicted a medieval

—"then

—

too.

some "But

pointing to a

He

you'd start to get a composition."

continued with an equally unexpected disposition of the chickens. I

got the message

and returned

to the painting

on

my

easel.

I

moved

the vase of flowers high up on the wall; the stool went in one direc-

nude

tion, the

in

week Leger went

another, with the screen broken into fragments. Next straight to

has seen the light!"

It

my

was the

mumble, and from then on

canvas: "Look! There's someone

first

time

had heard

I

his voice

seemed

a barrier between us

to

who

above a

have been

lifted.

As we

got better acquainted,

opinions from him.

I

Mondrian, Arp, Pevsner work.

He

I

would

try to entice

some

critical

had recently made several new acquaintances

—and

replied that his

was

—

interested in his estimate of their

own approach was

so different that he

felt

unable to appraise them; they were abstract whereas he was interested in the object. I asked

about Picasso's recent paintings; he found them

too "romantic"

judgment. His highest enthusiasm was reserved

for the

in his

Douanier Rousseau: "Voila un homine formidable!"

Rousseau's dryness that Leger admired.

work a comparable relation to folk High Renaissance, but he admired

art.

the

I

could also see

He had Italian

little

was

It

in his

own

praise for the

primitives,

whom

he

— Preface

/

xii

thought magnificent craftsmen. At

communicative.

I

him once

recall

And

"Voila line Matisse bien frisee!"

Dufy: "A

I'

he could be briefly

art exhibitions in

front of a Matisse

mock

(with

ombre de Matisse en fleiir!" own work he was equally

In discussing his

(laughing):

solemnity) before a

laconic.

When

I

sug-

gested that he alone was carrying on the great French classical tradition,

had begun to I work projected a monumentality unknown same time his art could be very human. Less

he merely shrugged and looked embarrassed. Leger's best

that

realize

At the

since Seurat.

more sculptural than that of the actual cubists, it could accommodate humor and satire while maintaining its poised aloof-

subjective and

ness.

On one greeted by

me

occasion he invited

We

A. E. Gallatin.*

Mme.

to

lunch

at his

home, along with

drove out to the square brick house and were

Leger,

who was

charming. She bore an unexpected

resemblance to her husband, as well as to the

girls in his

except that she was considerably prettier than either, led us to her rose garden in the rear,

He and

goat on a leash.

he tethered

On

it

the goat

to a post while

where Leger was exercising

seemed

Mme.

paintings

and blonde. She his

genuinely fond of each other;

Leger took photographs.

the street front, two flights of steps led up on either side to a

small terrace, where the luncheon table was

set.

It

was very

pleasant,

except that the house was located on a boulevard where the Metro

became an elevated instead of a subway; there was a considerable roar from each passing train, and sparks would almost land in the soup. Leger said he loved this sensation of being immersed in the mechanical world and pushed back his chair in contentment. Suddenly there was an awful vacancy where Leger had been, and I shall never forget

that split second

when

the large soles of his shoes appeared above the

red tablecloth.

Mme.

Gallatin and

were frozen with horror; Leger had

down

I

Leger screamed, "Qu'est-ce que tu

the flight of steps.

We

all

reappeared sucking his wrist.

*

The

late

Papa!"

backward

flew to the rescue, but he had already

He

sat

again at the table and said he

A. E. Gallatin, American painter, was director of the Museum New York University, which featured works by Leger

of Living Art, then at

and the

fais,

fallen

cubists.

Preface

often did that for the

amusement of

his guests

— fortitude

/

xiii

worthy of a

hero of Verdun!

New York on the occasion of his Modern Art. He was in high spirits and theater. The hit of the season was The Cat

Several years later Leger visited

Museum

exhibition at the

of

said he'd like to go to the

and the Fiddle (music by Jerome Kern), so I procured tickets and assembled a few friends. I had never seen him enjoy himself so thoroughly; he was enraptured by the females on stage: "See how this one is

the true siren and contrasts with the

experience with

life."

He

he understood no English; look only

said. "I

The

last

time

heard a noise

We

curb.

"How

old

nineties.

months

is

we met

Gallatin?" as

painters,

He

although

offered to translate. "Don't bother," he

I

I

was walking on

like a sea lion;

I

it

a street in Montparnasse.

was Leger

seemed so

I

told him.

am!" Leger added

who

calling

kept

old.

"Mon that he

working

— and

me

Dieu," he exclaimed, "just

wanted

to be like the great

improving

—on

their

into

was sure he could have

Switzerland,

I

saw the incredible headline on

his wish.

A

few

a news-

FERNAND LEGER EST MORT.

George York, 1971

about

After a pause he asked:

I

later, in

I

from the opposite

looked so sturdy

stand: LE PEINTRE

New

has had no

walked together for a few blocks, and he asked

same age

Italian

who

at the jokes,

at the object.'"'

Gallatin; he said Gallatin

the

ingenue,

laughed uproariously

L.

K. Morris

1

Contents

Note

Publishers'

vii

Preface by George L. K. Morris Introduction by

Chronology

Edward

F. Fry

(

1913)

Its

Representational

3

Contemporary Achievements

A

xix

xxxi

The Origins of Painting and Value

ix

in

Painting

1914)

(

1

Critical Essay on the Plastic Quality of Abel Gance's

FWm

20

The Wheel (1922)

Notes on Contemporary Plastic Life (1923)

Notes on the Mechanical Element (1923)

The

Spectacle: Light, Color,

Moving Image,

Object-Spectacle (1924) Ballet

Mecanique

The Machine

(c.

1924)

Aesthetic:

the Artisan,

and the

24 28

35

48

The Manufactured Artist

(

1924)

Object,

52

The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth (1925)

The

62

Ballet-Spectacle, the Object-Spectacle

Popular Dance Halls (1925)

74

(

1925)

71

xvi

The

Contents

/

Street: Objects, Spectacles

Abstract Art (1931)

New York The Wall,

(

1931

1928)

(

84

)

the Architect, the Painter

Speaking of Cinema

The New Realism

78

81

(

(

(

91

1933)

100

1933)

109

1935)

The New Realism Goes On (1937) Color in the World 1938) 119

114

(

The Human Body Considered

The

Painter's

Eye (1946)

Art and the People

(

as an Object

How I Conceive of the Figure A New Space in Architecture

155

1949)

(

(

149

157

1949)

Mural Painting and Easel Painting (1950)

Modern

Painting (1950)

The Circus (1950) Mural Painting

New

(

Architecture

in

Bibliographical

Index

(

1950)

217

(

160 165

167

170

1952

The Spartakiadcs

A

Art

in

178

)

Conceptions of Space (1952)

Color

132

143

1946)

Modern Architecture and Color (1946)

The Problem of Freedom

(1945)

141

1

(

960 )

Guide

181

183

1954)

189 to

Leger by Bernard Karpel

193

Illustrations

3i

Smoke, 19 12

The

32

City, 19 19

Illustration for Blaise Cendrars's

Costume sketches

La Fin

dii

Monde, 19 19

La Creation du Monde, 1922

film Ballet

Frames from Leger's

34 "7

Mechanical Element, 1924 Mecanique, 1923-24

68

"9

Composition, 1925

Leger

33

for Rolf de Mare's ballet

in his studio, c.

1925

70

Leger and friends, July 14. 1926

I05

Leger

in his studio, c.

i°"

Leger

at his desk, c.

Leger painting, Leger

^*^7

1937

^^°

1937

in his studio, c.

Leger standing Leger

c.

1935

1947

in front of

in his studio,

The Great Parade, 1954

1954

Leger's mural at the University of Caracas, 1954

^37 138

^39 ^40

Introduction

Many

of the artists

who were

the principal creators of twentieth-cen-

movements have

tury styles and

Boccioni, Kandinsky, Malevich,

more

prolific;

theories. It

School of Paris that few of

any significant degree about a handful

of

written statements of their ideas:

and Le Corbusier were among the

and even Mondrian and Klee wrote extensively on

and aesthetic

art

left

personal

its

their

one of the paradoxes, however, of the

most important

figures

their art. Picasso has

statements,

Among

attributed to him.

is

despite

the

have written to

acknowledged only

innumerable sayings

the other artists of the cubist generation

only Gleizes and Delaunay produced a substantial body of critical or theoretical writings,

work

as artists

and they did so only

after their

most important

had been accomplished.

Leger not only wrote

were important

to

at length

about

him but continued

his

to

own

art

and the ideas that

do so during the more than

years of his prolific career. His writings, therefore, stand as a

fifty

major exception to the code of the School of Paris

—which

seems

to

have been to paint (or sculpt) one's ideas and not to write about them until after the fact.

Leger was, furthermore, almost unique among the

leading artists of his generation in his expressed awareness of and

concern for the social context of ties

of the world

artist

his

in

art

which he worked.

and for the socioeconomic

He was

reali-

perhaps the most public

of his time, not only in his insistence on the social function of

own

art

and that of

his fellow artists,

but also

in his

instinctive

XX

Introduction

/

communicate

sense of the need to

means

lay

hand

at

—painting,

to the

world

teaching,

films,

large by whatever

at

or

written

the

and

spoken word.

The energy the

common

reflected directly,

whom

is

modern world, especially bond and identity,

the

in

a lifelong

felt

Almost impossible

style.

in is

to translate

has the rough, condensed, physical quality of the argot

it

spoken by a farmer, or by

French

he

unique literary

his

in

admired

that Leger so

people with

Never

cafe.

stilted

worker

a

or lost

blue overalls at the bar of a

in

abstract verbalisms, his language

in

a verbal equivalent to the plastic vigor of his paintings.

There

a

is

dividing line

Leger's

in

and thought between the

art

hermetic formalism of his cubist period and the increasingly public

concerns of

his entire later life.

The

line

can be drawn

early as TJie City (La Ville) of 19 19, although his experiences in the artist

that

and

1914-18 war

He

as artist-in-society.

World War

that

changed

his direction

to

both as

an essay of 1946,'

later explained, in

had given him the chance

I

in his art as

was without doubt

it

know

his fellow

men

again and to renew himself through them. Leger's sense of loyalty to the people, to the ple of his

life.

common man. became

the strongest guiding princi-

Although he could never be considered sentimental or

merely populist,

moved Leger

this loyalty

meaning

that "the people are a poet."

the artist to say repeatedly

that for

as imaginative and as creative as any single

him the mass of men

artist.

It

is

revealing that

is

Leger's stated preferences in literature were Balzac. Dostoevsky, Walt

Whitman, and

his

own

friend Blaise Cendrars;" in

found a corroboration of

his

all

instinctive reverence

these writers he

for the genius of

ordinary mankind. In view of Leger's

Normandy, surprising.

own

beginnings as the son of a cattleman

the strength of his belief in ordinary

That he should retain

it

men

throughout a long

should not be life

success and honor, and with sincerity rather than with

no

less

than extraordinary. However,

and thought

in its entirety,

it

becomes

cubism and the School of Paris was a his life.

His

artistic

of worldly

lip service,

when one views

Leger's

is

work

clear that his involvement with brilliant yet limited

achievements during the cubist period

landmarks of earlv twentieth-century

in

art,

and

his

episode

still

in

stand as

formal innovations

Introduction

/

xxi

of those years were to remain constants in his approach to painting.

The

and

intellectual

formalism of his cubist achievements

stylistic

receded into a secondary position,

nevertheless

subordinate

to

the

public concerns of his mature years as well as to his solidarity with

and

working

belief in the

from which he came.

class

Leger was never able to find a satisfactory resolution of the conflict

between

his

mastery of cubist high

the service of

culturally

men, not

all

privileged,

and

art

who. he recognized, were thus privileged

Much

marily for social and economic reasons. essays, beginning as early as the

1920s,

dilemma. At some point, probably

in the

that liberal solutions within

educational

his desire that art be put at

of collectors, connoisseurs, and the

just

opportunities

devoted to resolving

is

working

the

greater accessibility of art to the masses

this

middle 1930s, Leger realized

bourgeois capitalist society

a

for

pri-

of his thinking in these

—would

—increased

more

class,

time,

free

not bring about the

goal of freeing the individual to develop his creative abilities to the fullest

During the

degree.

Popular Front

moving plea

to

at

wrongs and hypocrisies of

that collective forces

were

time of the socialist

made

essays'*

society.

He

rising in the society

that the individual align himself with them.

lemma

the

honor those individuals who had been beaten

struggle against the

knowledged

1930s,

late

France. Leger in one of his finest

in

The crux

a

in their

also ac-

and urged

of Leger's di-

then appears, for he asserted that the greatest merit any social

system can possess

dilemma reaches ing as an

artist,

its

is

to grant

final

freedom

to the creative individual.

point when, in the

same

encouraged the people to liberate themselves socially

and to seek cultural enlightenment, adding that "you artists] at

The

essay, Leger, speak-

will find us [the

the end of the road to organize this hard-won leisure." This

admission that the

artist

should act as guide and organizer for the is

gained, seems to place Leger within

the old liberal position; but at the

end of the essay Leger turned once

people, even after their freedom

more toward

his goal:

"We

[artists]

are the present.

longs to you [the people].'" Seven years later, in the

French Communist Party;

it

was

a

The

future be-

1945, Leger joined

further logical step

in

his

quest.

Many

of the greatest figures in

modern French

culture

had already

joined the Party or soon did so. Picasso joined in 1944, and he and

Introduction

/

xxii

who were

Leger,

came

ism/ This

two most celebrated

the

into conflict

with the

official

Stalinist solution to the

artists

Communist

problem of

the Party, soon

in

style

—

planned society was obviously no more convincing

to

masses

means of

dilemma

is

evident in his later paintings, notably The

of 1950 and such monumental, virThe Great Parade {La Grande Parade) of

(Les Constructeurs)

tually

mural paintings

1954.

The precedent

as

for these

works was The

City,

time the themes of modernity, the machine, the are

used

art

delectation by the ruling class. That Leger continued to

struggle with this

Builders

in a

Picasso and

Leger than was the opposite extreme of cultural elitism and of as a

real-

socialist

art for the

presented

together

a

in

large-scale

where for the

work.

first

and the worker

street,

The Builders

is

in

many ways a reprise of the earlier painting, although Leger's style had long since moved beyond the cubist vocabulary of flat color planes. In his later paintings Leger accorded much greater importance to subject matter than he had permitted himself as a cubist. During the 1940s

and 1950s he consciously chose proletarian subjects and such popular amusements parades

—

means of bridging the gap between

as a

imperatives and his wish to

make

—

sailors,

his

art accessible to the

own

beyond

this point

aesthetic

people without

resorting to socialist realism. In his painting alone, Leger to go

workers,

picnics, bicycle outings,

as the circus,

toward solving the dilemma of

was unable art

and the

people; though hardly a complete success, his effort was nevertheless

more extreme and concerted than

that of virtually

all

of his contem-

poraries, with the possible exception of Picasso.

Like his

art,

Leger's writings

may

be understood as a progressive

development of themes, each of which, once those previously acquired.

stated, joins the

By 19 14, when Leger's

first

body of

two essays

had

been published^ (both presented originally as lectures), he had long since assimilated the pictorial innovations within the cubism of Picasso

and Braque

as

well as the iconographic

of his close friend Robert Delaunay, version of cubist style suited to his

own

and

coloristic

explorations

and had devised a personal gifts

and temperament. Leger's

cubism shared with that of Picasso and Braque the

common

grounds

of ultimate indebtedness to Cezanne, avoidance of traditional illusion-

ism and chiaroscuro modeling, the use of

flat

color planes and planar

—

3

Introduction

/

xxiii

overlay, the priority of conception over perception, and in general the

depiction of motifs that are potentially observable from a single point in

time and space.

own concerns

To

these shared cubist elements Leger added his

with visual dynamics. As he explains

"The Origins of Painting," able to painting

is

developed

Forms Of 19

1

brilliantly

lines

in

his

tool avail-

of colors, of flatness and

it

and curves.

was

It

method

a

that Leger

of paintings entitled Contrasts of

series

of 19 13-14 and that

throughout

dynamic and powerful

the most

that of contrast, be

volume, or of straight

191 3 essay,

in his

modified form he continued to use

in

his life.

the other themes that appeared in Leger's writings as early as

and that were to remain with him, the two most important are

his love of

attitudes

machines and

generally

was influenced by

with speed and dynamism

his infatuation

with Italian futurism.

associated

these and similar themes

also

appear

in

Leger probably

1912 to 1914, but

futurist ideas during the years

paintings of

the pre- 19 14

La Fresnaye, with their celebrations of the Eiffel airplane, and other characteristic products of modern in-

Delaunay and Tower, the dustrial

Drawing on

life.

Leger

his principle of contrast,

"Contemporary Achievements

essay,''

Painting,"

in

1914

in his

new

praised the

experience of nature as seen from a speeding car or train, or the visual

impact of an advertising billboard scape.

Such

attitudes

in

the midst of a peaceful land-

on the part of the

Italian

futurists

and

their

French contemporaries have been aptly characterized as an idolization of modernity on the part of many artists and poets who came to maturity immediately before the disillusionment of World

From

this

pre-1914 period

of importance both to Leger's

own work and

quent development of twentieth-century 1

War

1/

thinking emerge two further ideas

in his

art.

to

much

of the subse-

In his essays of 191 3 and

9 14 Leger stressed the formal, visual qualities in painting and their

priority over subject matter, declaring the

object rather than as subject. This idea,

the central credo of

mod-

a ruling principle not only of abstract art but also of

much

nineteenth-century aesthetics, has

ernism and

primacy of the painting as which has its roots in late-

become

of the architecture of the twentieth century. Leger

however, to formulate the corollary of isolating itself

and

limiting itself to

its

this

is

probably the

principle:

own domain'^

"Each (191 3).

first,

art

is

Thus

xxiv

/

Introduction

would

architecture

restrict

concerns

to

itself

uniquely architectural, painting would occupy

purely

are

that

itself

and

only with the con-

cerns of painting, and so on.

This second principle was elevated to the status of

War

post-World the critic

II

American

art,

dogma

critical

Clement Greenberg on the painting of the 1960s.

cinating to see

how

in

particularly through the influence of It

is

fas-

Leger himself gradually changed his thinking about

formalism and the purity of media. As early as 1925, when

most abstract works, Leger

painting and cinema he was creating his

could say that specialization

both

in

in either literature

or the plastic arts could

produce nothing." In 1935 he still maintained that there was no hierarchy among images in painting and that the human face and body

had no greater

plastic value

than

trees, plants,

or rocks as elements

in a

formal composition.'" By 1945, however, he had concluded that abstract art

had reached the end of

either as

mural decoration or as pure color

1952 he went one step further

development, except for

its

to declare

painting to return to "great subjects'""

but

it

was

a

step he

it

—

had already taken

a

in

normal and

use

logical for easel

change for Leger.

radical in

its

architecture;" and in

many

of his post- 1945

works.

The year omy. Here street,

World War

after

he recapitulated

all

also he

the

mechanized

opened

common life,

I

ended Leger painted The

his art to the

people,

the

and architecture

City, in

which

and formal auton-

his old cubist ideas of contrast

world outside the studio: the

dynamism

of

—the themes of

modern urban and work and thought

his

during the next thirty years. Leger's farewell to the pure world of cubist style

came

a

few years

later

with his film Ballet Mecaniqiie of

1923-24, and with a series of architectonic, and abstract, compositions of

1924-27.

A

in several

group of the

latter

exhibited as an integral element in Le Corbusier's Esprit

instances

works was

Nouveau Pa-

1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts. It is significant that with these, his last formalist, cubist works. Leger should have turned to media that were quintessentially modern in character and vilion at the

rationale

and that continue

to be the

most public of the

plastic arts in

the twentieth century.

As

early as 1923 Leger declared that as an artist he stood with the

Introduction

people and not with the bourgeoisie, and he urged other

artists

adopt the same position, noting that middle-class tastefulness

and that most

creativity

artists

1925 he announced that the

and

activity

reality of

and hear the

emerge from lower-class

artist

modern

must go out

common man,

rangements of their display windows or slang.'* It

was

(dance halls ),''^ as he

By

and great

common

people in their bals

athletic festivals."' realities

ence

problems of financing and the

cinema, with

he soon saw that

its

a

result

of the existing economic system,

assigned to

throw It

this

all

was any military operation.'* actions and

all

He saw

also that, as a

monetary values had been

objects; everything

had become

nevertheless curious and

somewhat

its

asm for war itself: more desirable than which

ration-

to waste or

surprising to encounter at

dynamism of

time (1925). not only Leger's enthusiasm for the

its

and

away.'''

is

such a society and

all

star system;

and there was no longer anything one could afford

alized;

of in-

his experi-

time of peace commercial activity could be as

in

much

as

see

such popular spectacles as the

later eulogized

awakening probably came through

war

would

in the verbal inventiveness of

dustrial capitalism. His in

In

shopkeepers' ar-

in the

1920s he had learned the hard economic

the

roots. '^

into the streets for the

time also that Leger wrote movingly and elo-

at this

quently on the traditional dances of the

circus'^

to

is fatal to

times; there in the street he

creativity of the

xxv

/

possibilities, is

economic equivalent

"I find the state of

to war, but also his enthusi-

war much more normal and

the state of peace. ... If I

like

what

nothing more than

I

stand facing

life at

an accelerated rhytfuu."^"

such statements that Leger comes closest to pre-World attitudes, as well as revealing his

life,

with

generally called the state of war,

is

own

War

I

It

is

in

futurist

lingering and almost boyishly

energetic naivete.

With

his

departure from formalist concerns

adopted a freer

much It

was

mode

of composition

in his

in the

mid- 1920s Leger

painting and drew upon a

larger repertory of imagery than that of the cubist studio world. a turn already taken by Picasso

decade, and

it

and other cubists

earlier in the

paralleled the rise of surrealism; but even with the

strange assemblages of imagery in his paintings of the

1930s Leger

never entered the surrealist world except on the grounds of shared

xxvi

/

political

Introduction

beliefs.

The

for his escape

strongest motivation

from what

Juan Gris had called the "Golden Cage" of cubist thinking was probably his increasing involvement with architecture, beginning in

1925

with his collaboration with Le Corbusier. The Le Corbusier relationship was of undoubted importance to Leger by the end of the decade.

Le Corbusier in Berlin; in 1929 he taught with Le Corbusier's colleague Amedee Ozenfant at the Academie Moderne; and in 1933, he traveled with Le Corbusier to Greece. The results of In 1928 he lectured on

this

friendship are apparent in Leger's writings by the early

1930s,

beginning with "The Wall, the Architect, the Painter," a paper de-

The

livered in 1933.

inherently social function of architecture seems to

have been both a reproof and an opportunity for Leger, the painter search of an escape from the social limitations of his

The

solution he arrived at during the 1930s

and experience

as a painter to serving

with architects.

He

laboration were

( i )

the creation of murals

architectural scheme;

to put his talents

fruitful areas for

such col-

and compositions on

either

integrated with the overall

to be

surfaces,

was

humanity through collaboration

soon realized that the

interior or exterior wall

in

art.

and (2) the use of

his painter's

knowledge of

color in relation to architectural space, as well as to the appearance of

By

entire cities. art

and for the

architectural

the mid-i930s Leger

interiors

found confirmation of

dam where

was

calling for a rebirth of

mural

possibility of reordering the subjective perception of

the proper use of color

(an idea which, with

color."' By 1946 he had example of a factory in Rotter-

by means of pure his ideas in the

its

had improved the workers' morale

overtones of Taylorism and cost-efficiency

planning, seems alien to Leger's socialist instincts); but Leger at the

same time

also suggested that various colors be used in hospitals as

aids to the stimulation or repose of the patients." In the

Leger for the speculative

first

same essay

time explicitly identified easel painting as a form of

merchandise, and

in

1952 he linked the birth of easel

painting in the Renaissance to the simultaneous rise of individualism

and capitalism."

As

a painter during the 1930s

as possible his ideal of a public,

was

his

and 1940s, Leger did carry out mural

art,

the culmination of

mural decoration for the United Nations

in

New York

in

as far

which 1952.

Concurrently he reached a compromise solution for easel painting:

— Introduction

/

xxvii

with his works of the 1940s and 1950s, where as noted above he used

imagery depicting the frequently chose to

and pleasures of the

lives

work on

common

The Great Parade measures nine by

the final version of

people, he

and even monumental scale

a very large

thirteen feet.

In these large, late canvases Leger seems not only to have perfected a

monumental

style but also possibly to

pictures so large that they

would be

display and It

was

have deliberately painted "easel"

would of necessity be destined for public portable objects of commerce.

difficult to treat as

as a result of Leger's desire to put his artistic talents, particu-

larly his sense of scale, color,

that he conceived one of the

of twentieth-century

with Leon Trotsky

art.

in

and spectacle,

work

to

in a public setting

most extraordinary projects

In an essay of

1949 he

Montparnasse during World

in

the history

recalls

War

I.

a

meeting

Leger had

suggested that an entire city could be polychromed.^* Trotsky had

been enthusiastic and had envisioned a polychromed Moscow. Leger then reveals that

unemployed

in

in Paris

1937 he had proposed the following: the 300,000

were to be given the job of cleaning

all its

entire city

would be bathed

in

colored

serving as screens for projectors,

the whitened buildings

light,

some of which would be

while others would be mounted on airplanes flying overhead.

was

stationary

The

idea

rejected of course, although ironically the buildings of Paris were

indeed cleaned almost thirty years

was

build-

by day Paris would thus be pure white. At night, however, the

ings;

later.

The

greater irony, however,

that something very similar to Leger's idea

1930s, not as imagined by the

but at the Nazi

rallies

in

humane

spirit

was

utilized in

the

of a great French artist

Nuremberg, under the direction of Albert

Speer.

Leger's stature as a major figure in cubist and postcubist painting will assure his essays a art; the

durable importance in the literature of modern

sheer volume and diversity of his writings are indications of his

energetic fascination and concern with the central cultural issues of the

century. Without solving them, he nevertheless located their source: the failure of liberal capitalism to extend cultural as well as political

and economic enfranchisement

to

all

members

not of the bourgeoisie but of the working class

through his

art,

Leger could easily have turned

of society.

who

As

a product

rose to elite status

his eyes

away from

the

1

Introduction

/

xxviii

many

people, as so

twentieth-century

artists

have done. Although not

taking Rodchenko's ultimate step of proudly renouncing art in order to

work

he con-

for the people, Leger achieved something very similar:

tinued the development of his purely artistic abilities while at the same

time searching for ways of putting them to betray neither his

hardest of

all

own

gifts

use that would

Camus, and

among

effort

it

is

to Leger's

honor that

his

was

twentieth-century painters.

Edward

New

the

It is

tasks facing an artist, be he Jacques-Louis David, Tol-

stoy, Picasso, Tatlin, or

an exemplary

human

nor his loyalty to his fellow men.

F.

Fry

York, 1972

Notes "Art and the People," 1946, p. 143. "The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth," 1925, p.

62.

"Color

in the

World," 1938,

p. 119.

Donald Drew Egbert, Social Radicalism and the Arts Europe (New York: Knopf, 1970), pp. 346-53. "The Origins of Painting and p. 3;

Its

— Western

Representational Value," 19 13,

"Contemporary Achievements

in Painting,"

1914, p. 11.

P. II.

See Par Bergman, "Modernolatria"

et

"Simultaneita" (Uppsala:

Svenska Bokforlaget/Bonniers, 1962).

"The Origins

.

.

.

,"

1913,

p. 3. Italics Leger's.

14

"The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth," "The New Realism," 1935, p. 109. "The Human Body Considered as an Object," 1945, p. "Mural Painting," 1952, p. 178. "Notes on Contemporary Plastic Life." 1923, p. 24. "The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth,"

15

"Popular Dance Halls," 1925.

16

"The Circus," 1950,

9 10 1

12 13

p. 170.

p. 74.

p. 62.

132.

p. 62.

Introduction

17.

"The Spartakiadcs," published posthumously probably

18.

in

i960,

written

Light, Color,

Moving Image,

Object-Spectacle,"

p. 35.

19.

"The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth,"

20.

Ibid. Italics Leger's.

21.

"Modern Architecture and Color," 1946,

22.

Ibid.

23.

"Mural Painting,"

p. 178.

24.

"A New Space

Architecture," 1949.

"Color

in

in

however,

in the

p. 62.

p. 143.

p.

the World," 1938, p. 119. There

historical precedent, in

xxix

1955. p. 189.

"The Spectacle: 1924,

in

/

157. Cf. Leger's essay is

an important earlier

work of

Naum

Gabo, who

1929 designed an unexecuted project for a "fete lumiere"

Berlin; Leslie

see

Gabo,

with

Martin (London:

Harvard University

introductions

by

Herbert

Read

in

and

Lund Humphries; Cambridge, Mass.:

Press, 1957),

pi.

46.

2

1

Chronology

1

88

February 4: born

in

Argentan (Orne)

Caen

1897-1899 1 900-1 902

Apprentice with an architect

1902-1903

Military service in Versailles

1903

Admitted to the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs. Refused by

Draftsman with an architect

the Ecole des

1904

a

1905

Gerome and

an architect's

in

Paris

Beaux-Arts, but nevertheless attends the

courses given there by

Employed

in in

office,

Ferrier

then as a retoucher for

photographer

My

Mother's Garden (Le Jardin de

ma mere)

painted

under the influence of the impressionists 1

906- 1 907

Spends

winter

the

in

Corsica.

Paints

landscapes

in-

fluenced by the fauves

1907 1 908-1 909

Sees Cezanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne

Moves makes

into

La Ruche,

Passage de Danzig, where he

2

friends with Delaunay,

penko, Laurens,

Lipchitz,

Chagall, Soutine,

Max

Archi-

Jacob, Reverdy, Apol-

1909

Maurice Raynal. and Blaise Cendrars Woman Sewing (La Couseiise). Meets Henri Rousseau

1910

Nudes

linaire,

in the

Forest (Les

Nus dans

la foret).

Exhibits at

D. H. Kahnweiler's with Braque and Picasso. Smoke on the Rooftops (Les

191

Exhibits

Woman

Fumees

in

sur les toits)

Bhie {La

Femme

en bleu)

Tenth Salon d'Automne. Smoke {La Fumee)

at

the

1

xxxii

/

191 3

Chronology First contract with

and

Painlifii^

Kahnweiler. Lecture: The Oris^ins of

Representational Value

Its

at the

Academic

Wassiliev

1914

VilUii^e

the Forest

in

(Village dans la foret)

metric Elements (Elements geometriques)

temporary Achievements

Painting

in

and Geo-

Lecture: Con-

.

the

at

Academic

Wassihev. Composition with Parrots (Composition aiix perroquets)

Mobihzed August

.

2

as

a

sapper

in

the

Engineer Corps (Argonne Campaign. 1914-1916)

1916

At Verdun. Gassed

1917

The Card

191 8

Mechanical Elements (Elements mecaniqiies)

Game

in

September

(La Partie de cartes) Marries Jeanne Lohy, December

1919

The City (La

1920

Meets Le Corbusier. The Luncheon. Large Version (Le

192

Collaborates with Blaise Cendrars on Abel Gance's film

1922

Curtain,

Ville).

2

Grand Dejeuner) The Wheel

World

and costumes for The Creation of the

sets,

for Rolf de Mare's Swedish Ballet

1923

The Tugboat (Le Grand Remorqueur)

1923- 1 924

Makes

1924

Visits Italy, notably the

the

the

first

Sorbonne:

plotless film: Ballet

The

mosaics

in

Mecanique Ravenna. Lecture

Opens

Spectacle.

a

at

with

school

Amedee Ozenfant 1925

Abstract mural paintings for Le Corbusier and Mallet-

Stevens

1928

at the

Exposition of Decorative Arts

Travels to Berlin for the exhibition of his work

at

the

Flechtheim Gallery

1930

Mona

1931

First trip to the

1932

The Bather (La Baigneuse)

1933

In Zurich for his exhibition

Lisa with Keys (La Joconde aux cles)

United States

at

the Kunsthaus; gives

a

The Wall, the Architect, the Painter. Travels to Greece with Le Corbusier for the Fourth CIAM Conlecture:

gress

1934

(discussions with architects)

Lecture Eiffel

at

the

Tower

Sorbonne:

From

the

Acropolis to the

1

.

Chronology 1935

Second

United

the

to

trip

Museum

Modern Art

of

exhibitions

States:

New York

in

xxxiii

/

the

at

and the Chicago

Art Institute

1936

Participates in the debates on at

Maison de

the

"The Dispute over Realism"

Aragon

with

Culture,

la

and

Le

Corbusier

1937

The Outburst of Forces

(Le

Transport

des

forces),

mural for the Palace of Discovery

1938-1939

Third

United States; decorates Nelson Rocke-

trip to the

apartment

feller's

New York

in

1939

Sets for Jean Richard Bloch's

1940

Fourth

trip to the

versity

with

The Birth of a City

United States. Teaches

Henri

Andre

Focillon,

at

Yale UniDarius

Maurois,

Milhaud. Begins series of The Divers (Les Plongeurs)

1945

Returns to France

in

December. Joins the French Com-

munist Party

1946

Thomas Bouchard's

Leger

film

America (commentary

in

by Fernand Leger). Asked by Father Couturier to do a

mosaic for the fagade of the church

Assy (Haute-

at

Savoie); finished in 1949

1947

Plays a role

in

Hans

Dreams That Money

Richter's film

Can Buy 1948-1949

Leisure:

Homage

to

David (Les

Loisirs:

Hommage

Circus

{Le

a

David) 1949

Text

and

Teriade).

illustrations

Sets

and

for

The

costumes

for

Darius

Cirque;

Milhaud's

Bolivar at the Paris Opera. First ceramics at Biot (Alpes-

Maritimes).

Exhibition

at

the

Musee National d'Art

Moderne, Paris 1950

1

95

Death of Jeanne Leger. The Builders (Les Constructeurs) Mosaics for the memorial at Bastogne in Belgium Stained-glass

windows

for

church

the

(Doubs). Paints many landscapes 1952

Marries Nadia

and

Khodossevitch,

assistant in his studio.

Mural

his

at

Audincourt

Chevreuse student

since

1924

for the large auditorium

of the United Nations Building in

Gif-sur-Yvette

in

New

York. Moves to

xxxiv

1954

/

Chronology Stained-glass

windows

for the church at Courfaivre

in

Switzerland and for the University of Caracas, Venezuela.

The Great Parade (La Grande Parade) 1955

Travels to Czechoslovakia for the Congress of Sokols in

Prague. Exhibition at the Lyons

at the

Museum.

Exhibition

Third Sao Paulo Biennale; wins the Grand Prize.

Dies August 17, at Gif-sur-Yvette

1957

February 24: laying of the cornerstone for the Musee

Fernand Leger

in

Biot,

founded by

Mme.

Leger with

the collaboration of Georges Bauquier

i960

May

1967

October 10: donated to national

1972

Musee Fernand Leger Musee Fernand Leger and its collections the French state. The museum becomes a

13: opening of the

museum

January: major retrospective opens Paris

at the

Grand

Palais,

Functions of Painting

off Painting and Representational Value

The Origins its

Without claiming

to explain tlie

aim or the means of an

already at a fairly advanced stage of development, attempt, as far as

it

often asked about

modern

is

possible, to

art that

am

I

is

going to

answer one of the questions most

pictures.

form: "What does that represent?"

I

put this question

in

I

will concentrate

on

its

simplest

this

question and, with a brief explanation, will try to prove

its

simple

utter in-

anity. If,

in the field of painting, imitation of

any picture by anyone

at all

have pictorial value. As

I

an object had value

do not think

point or to discuss such an example,

it is

I

necessary to insist upon this

now

something that has

assert

been said before but that needs to be said again here: the of a

work of

art

is

in itself,

that had any imitative character would

realistic

value

completely independent of any imitative character.

This truth should be accepted as

dogma and made axiomatic

in the

general understanding of painting. I

am

using the

word

"realistic" intentionally in

for the quality of a pictorial

work

is in

its

most

literal sense,

direct proportion to

its

quantity

of realism. In painting, what constitutes what

we

call

realism?

Definitions are always dangerous, for in order to capture a complete

concept

in a

few words,

often sacrifices clarity or In spite of everything

it

is I

is

necessary to

make

a concession,

which

too simplistic. will risk a definition

and say

that, in

my

4

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

view, pictorial realism tic

the simultaneous ordering of three great plas-

is

components: Lines, Forms, and Colors.

No work

can lay claim to pure classicism, that

independent of the period of

its

creation,

if

to a lasting quality

is,

one of those components

is

completely sacrificed to the detriment of the other two. I

am

that

necessary

in

and those

Every epoch has seen is

it

a definition, but

I

believe

order to differentiate clearly between the pictures

that have classical traits

ate as

dogmatism of such

well aware of the

it is

facile

do

that

not.

productions whose success

is

as

immedi-

ephemeral, some completely sacrificing depth for the charm

of a colored surface, others satisfied with an external calligraphy and

form. The latter has even been christened "Painting of Character." I

repeat: every

epoch has produced such works, which, despite

the talent they involve,

may

dated; they

astonish or intrigue present generations, but since they

components needed

do not have

the

must

disappear. For most of the painters

finally

to attain

in itself.

as decorative as the next

human

subject

Apart from

—were

I

the

mentioned

compositions

portraits, all

—one

restricted to the description of great

historical facts.

impressionists were the

and

That

The

that

events illustrating either religious or mythological ideas or con-

temporary

The

who preceded

to the imitation of a subject that contained

were closely linked

an absolute value

pure realism, they

to

components

impressionists, the three indispensable earlier

all

remain simply period pieces. They become

is

first

to reject the absolute value of the

to consider its value to be

the

tie

that links

merely

relative.

and explains the entire modern evolution.

impressionists are the great originators of the present its

from the

imitative aspect, they considered painting for

neglecting

all

movement;

primitives in the sense that, wishing to free themselves

they are

form and

all line

its

color only,

almost entirely.

The admirable work resulting from this conception necessitates comprehension of a new kind of color. Their quest for real atmosphere even then treated the subject as relative: closely

interconnected, enveloped

in

a

trees,

colored

houses merge and are

dynamism

that

their

methods did not yet allow them to develop.

The

imitation of the subject that their

even then, no more

work

still

than a pretext for variety, a

involves

is

thus,

theme and nothing

The Origins of Painting more. For the impressionists a green apple on a red rug the relationship between tones, a green

When

and

became formulated

movement was

inevitable.

painting, for

think

I

objects, but the relationship

is

it

I

completing

no longer

is

between two

its

ascent,

to the impressionists,

works, the present

living

in

particularly stress this

moment

at this precise

epoch of French

two great

that the

and realism of conception, meet

pictorial concepts, visual realism first

5

a red.

truth

this

two

/

which includes

all

— the down

traditional painting

and the second, realism of conception, beginning

with them.

The

first,

as

I

have

perspective that are

said,

now

demands an

The second, dispensing with ready been achieved

One

painter

in

among

object, a subject, devices of

considered negative and antirealistic. all

this

cumbersome baggage, has

many contemporary

al-

pictures.

the impressionists, Cezanne, understood every-

thing that was incomplete in traditional painting.

He

felt

the necessity

new form and draftsmanship closely linked to the new color. All his life and all his work were spent in this search. I will borrow some observations from Emile Bernard's extremely well-documented book about the Master of Aix, and also some thoughts drawn from Cezanne's own conception. "His optics," says Bernard, "were much more in his brain than in his eyes." He overinterpreted what he saw; in short, what he made came completely from his own genius and if he had had creative imagination, he would have for a

been able to spare himself from going to "the motif," as he called

from placing

still-life

arrangements

letters I notice ideas like these:

in

it,

or

front of himself. In Cezanne's

"Objects must turn, recede, and

wish to make something lasting from impressionism,

like

live. I

the art in

museums"; and further on, he writes something that supports what I said earlier, "For an impressionist, to paint after nature is not to paint the object, but to express sensations." He wept with despair before Signorelli's

drawings and exclaimed: "I have been unable to

remain the primitive on the road In his

moments of doubt and

I

depression,

Cezanne from time

reverted to a belief in the necessity of ancient forms.

museums, he studied

the

realize,

I

have discovered."

He

to time

haunted the

methods of expression of the painters who copies, hoping in this way to find what his

had preceded him; he made

6

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

His work, beautiful and admirable as

restless sensibility sought.

mark

frequently bears the that culture.

He

understood that

traditional value of a

he wrote

in

one of

work of

it

art

his letters (I

old masters, one must

He saw

of this restlessness.

make

is

is

it

is,

the danger of

perilous to look back and that the

personal and subjective. Moreover,

quote): "After having looked at the

haste to leave

them and

to verify in one's

self the instincts, the sensations that dwell in us."

This observation by the great painter deserves careful study.

Every painter, when confronting works based on traditional concep-

must guard

tions,

his personality.

He must

look at them, study them,

but in a wholly objective way.

He must dominate and it

amateur

the

is

in

art

analyze them but not be consumed by them;

who abandons

his

own

personality for one

imposed by the work.

The artist must always be in harmony with his own time and in this way counterbalance the entirely natural need for varied impressions. In the history of modern painting Cezanne will occupy the place that Manet held some years before him. Both were transitional painters.

Manet, through

his investigations

and

his

own

sensibility, gradually

abandoned the methods of

his predecessors to arrive at impressionism,

and he

great creator.

is

unquestionablv

its

The more one examines one

is

the

work of

these

two

painters, the

more

struck by the historical analogy between them.

Manet was

inspired by the Spanish, by Velasquez, by

most luminous works,

Cezanne a structure

to arrive at

finds a color and. unlike

and form

that

Goya, by the

new forms. Manet, struggles

Manet has destroyed and

in the

pursuit of

that he feels

is

absolutely necessarv to express the great reality. All the great

movements

in painting,

whatever their direction, have

always proceeded by revolution, by reaction, and not by evolution.

Manet destroyed us go back further.

in

order to arrive

The

at his

own

creative principle. Let

painters of the eighteenth century, too sensu-

ous and too mannered, were succeeded by David, Ingres, and their followers,

As

this

who reacted by excessive use of the opposite formulas. movement ended in an equivalent excess, it made Delacroix

necessary. Breaking violently with the preceding notion, he returned to

The sensuality in color and to powerful

Orii>ins of Painting

dynamism

/

7

forms and drafts-

in

manship.

These examples concept

is

will

be enough to illustrate clearly that the modern

not a reaction against the impressionists' ideas but

on the

is,

contrary, a further development and expansion of their aims through the use of

methods they neglected.

Divisionism

in color,

however

the impressionists' work, and trast but

And

it

tentative is

it

was, nevertheless exists

by a parallel exploration of divisionism

work

so the impressionists'

in

being followed not by a static con-

is

in

form and

line.

not the end of a movement, but

rather the beginning of another, which

is

being continued by the mod-

ern painters.

The

relationships

among volumes,

the springboard for

ence exerted on

From now

all

lines,

and colors

work of recent years and

the

artistic circles

both

in

prove to be

will

for

all

the influ-

France and abroad.

on, everything can converge toward an intense realism

obtained by purely dynamic means. Pictorial contrasts used in their purest sense lines,

(complementary

colors,

and forms) are henceforth the structural basis of modern

pic-

tures.

As was will

tend to seek their

still

northern

true of painters before the impressionists,

artists

dynamic means through the development of

color while southern painters will probably give great importance to

forms and

lines.

This understanding of contemporary painting, born

founded on all

a universally valid

sensibilities;

the Italian

Logically the picture

is

France,

in

is

concept that permits the development of

futurist

movement

is

one proof of

this.

going to become larger, and output must be

limited.

Every dynamic tendency must inevitably move toward an enlarge-

ment of

the

Many

means

in

order to be able to achieve

its full

expression.

people are patiently awaiting the end of what they

in the history of art; they are waiting for

think that

modern painting

perhaps, but that

it

is

something

call

else,

a phase

and they

passing through a stage, a necessary one

will return to

what

is

commonly

called "painting

for everyone."

This

is

a very great mistake.

When

an

art like this

is

in

possession of

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

8

means, which enable

all its is

bound

to be

am

I

complete works,

to achieve absolutely

it

it

dominant for a very long time.

convinced that we are approaching a conception of

as

art

comprehensive as those of the greatest epochs of the past: the same tendency to large

the

scale,

same

warrants lengthy consideration.

Most French

and

literary

It is

collective effort.

movements have

artistic

same way. It is power of dissemination. One may

ative is

work, but the

translated

vital

proof of

remark

generally mani-

doubt on an isolated cre-

cast

validity

its

very

into

collectively

last

proof of their great vitality and

fested themselves in the

the

This

important.

is

established

when

means of personal

distinct

it

ex-

pression.

The sentimental notion

one closest to

in plastic art is certainly the

the heart of the great majority.

The

old masters, besides achieving

purely plastic qualities, were obliged to satisfy this need with their pictures and to tecture in

its

fulfill

a

complex

social task.

They had

to assist archi-

popular expressiveness and provide literary values suitable

to instruct, educate,

and amuse the people. To

this

end they

illustrated

churches, public buildings, and palaces with decorative frescoes and pictures representing the great deeds of humanity. Descriptive quality

was a necessity of the

For

age.

painters, living like everyone else in an age neither

intellectual than preceding ones,

similar

way

merely

else besides their audacity If the

less

impose a

of seeing and to destroy everything that perspective and

sentimentalism had helped to erect,

had an

more nor

different, in order to

age had not lent affinity

with

its

previous eras,

it

was necessary

itself to this

own

to

have something

their individual conception.

—

I

repeat,

if

their art

time and had not been

had not

an evolution

—

it would not have been able to survive. more fragmented and faster moving than life in has had to accept as its means of expression an art of

deriving from past epochs

Present-day

and

life,

dynamic divisionism; and the sentimental

side, the expression of the

subject (in the sense of popular expression), has reached a critical

moment

that

must be

clearly defined.

In order to find a comparable period,

I

will

go back to the fifteenth

century, the time of the culmination and decline of the Gothic style.

During

this entire period, architecture

was

the great

means of popular

— The Origins of Painting

/

9

expression; the basic structure of cathedrals had been embellished with

every

lifelike

ornament

French imagination could discover and

that the

invent.

But the invention of printing was bound

to revolutionize

and change

means of expression. I quote the famous passage from Victor Hugo's Hunchback of NotreDame, from the chapter "This Will Kill That": "In the fifteenth century, human thought discovered a way of pertotally these

petuating

more durable and more

not only

itself

and

ture but also simpler

Orpheus's

easier:

lasting than architec-

letters

of stone were re-

placed by Gutenberg's letters of lead.

"The book

going to

is

Without attempting tific

kill

to

the building."

compare

the present evolution, with

inventions, to the revolution brought about

Middle Ages by Gutenberg's invention,

means of expression,

I

in

the

at

its

scien-

the end of the

realm of humanity's

maintain that modern mechanical achievements

such as color photography, the motion-picture camera, the profusion of

more or

less

popular novels, and the popularization of the theaters

have effectively replaced and henceforth rendered superfluous the de-

velopment of matter I

visual, sentimental, representational,

and popular subject

in pictorial art.

earnestly ask myself

matic pictures shown of any cinema.

how

in the

Visual

all

those

more or

less historical

or dra-

French Salon can compete with the screen

realism

has never before

been so intensely

captured. Several years ago one could

lacked color,

but color

still

argue that at least moving pictures

photography has been invented.

"Subject"

paintings no longer have even this advantage; their popular side, their

only reason for existence, has disappeared, and the few workers

used to be seen

in

museums, planted

Detaille or a historical scene by

M.

in front of a J. -P.

who

cavalry charge by

M.

Laurens, are no longer there;

they are at the cinema.

The average bourgeois

—the small merchant who

also

enabled these minor local and provincial masters to

now

fifty

make

years ago a living

has completely dispensed with their services.

Photography requires fewer

sittings

a likeness more faithfully, and costs

than portrait painting, captures

less.

The

portrait painter

is

dying

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

10

/

out,

and the genre and

historial painters will

die out too

—not

by a

natural death but killed off by their period.

This will have killed that. Since the means of expression logically limit itself to

own

its

have multiplied,

plastic

must

art

purpose: realism of conception. (This

was born with Manet, developed by the impressionists and Cezanne, is achieving wide acceptance among contemporary painters.)

and

Architecture

stripped of

itself,

approaching a modern and

all

its

utilitarian

representational trimmings,

is

conception after several cen-

turies of false traditionalism.

Architectural art ship between

element

Each

itself is

art

is

confining

its

own means

—the

relation-

becoming

and architectural. and limiting itself to its own domain. a modern characteristic, and pictorial art. like plastic

is isolatini^ itself

Specialization

is

other manifestations of

human

genius,

must submit

by limiting each discipline to

logical, for

achievements to be In this

itself to

and the balance of large masses; the decorative

lines

way

its

own

to

its

purpose,

law;

intensified.

pictorial art gains in realism.

total expression of a it

is

enables

it

The modern conception

not simply a passing abstraction, valid only for a few initiates;

aspirations

all

it

new generation whose needs

it

it

shares and

is

is

the

whose

answers.

Montjoie!, Paris, 19 13

Contemporary Achievements in

Painting

Contemporary achievements

in

painting are the result of the

modern

mentality and are closely bound up with the visual aspect of external things that are creative and necessary for the painter.

Before tackling the purely technical questions,

why contemporary painting sense of the word, of the new visual the new means of production. explain

A

work of

art

must be

intellectual manifestation.

am

I

going to try to

representative, in the

is

imposed by the evolution of

state

significant in

modern

its

Because painting

own is

time, like any other

visual,

it

is

necessarily

the reflection of external rather than psychological conditions. Every pictorial

work must

enables

to

it

possess this

momentary and

endure beyond the epoch of

its

eternal value that

creation.

has changed, it is because modern life has The existence of modern creative people is much more and more complex than that of people in earlier centuries. The

If pictorial expression

necessitated intense

thing that

is

it.

imagined

did formerly. train,

it

less fixed, the object

is

When one

becomes fragmented;

synthetic value.

exposes

itself less

than

it

crosses a landscape by automobile or express it

loses in descriptive value but gains in

The view through

the door of the railroad car or the

automobile windshield,

in

combination with the speed, has altered the

habitual look of things.

A

modern man

registers a

sensory impressions than an eighteenth-century

our language, for example,

is

full

hundred times more

artist;

so

much

so that

of diminutives and abbreviations.

12

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

The compression

modern

of the

forms, are the result of

means of locomotion and

new way

Many

of seeing.

picture,

this.

all

It

variety,

its

breaking up of

its

certain that the evolution of the

is

have a great deal

their speed

do with the

to

superficial people raise the cry

"anarchy"

in

front of these pictures because they cannot follow the whole evolution

of contemporary

that painting records.

life

They

believe that painting

has abruptly broken the chain of continuity, when, on the contrary, has never been so truly it

today.

is

A

realistic,

kind of painting that

beginning to appear, and

A

new

so firmly attached to

it

is

own

realistic in the highest sense is

in

response to a

new

state of things.

Innumerable examples of rupture and change crop up unexpectedly our visual awareness. advertising

billboard,

I

will

by

dictated

men

of

.

in

choose the most striking examples. The

brutally cuts across a landscape

infuriated so-called

it

period as

here to stay.

appeared

criterion has

is

its

.

.

is

modern commercial needs,

that

one of the things that has most

good

has even given

taste. It

stupefying and ridiculous organization that pompously calls

rise to a

itself

"The

Can anyone imagine of worthy men charged with

Society for the Protection of the Landscape."

anything more comic than

this

high court

solemnly decreeing that such and such a thing landscape and another thing preferable to do

is

By

not?

away with telegraph

taste,

contrast.

people

would be

.

.

The

.

so-called

and

men

of

is

nothing worse than habit, and you will find the same

protest with conviction in front of the billboard writhing

with laughter tures,

it

the cultivated people, have never been able to stomach

There

who

appropriate in the

poles and houses immediately

leave only trees, sweet harmonies of trees!

good

is

reckoning,

this

at the

Salon des Independants

front of

in

which they are incapable of swallowing,

like

the

modern rest

pic-

of the

public.

And

yet, this

yellow or red poster, shouting

the best of possible reasons for the

new

in a

painting;

it

timid landscape,

is

topples the whole

sentimental literary concept and announces the advent of plastic contrast.

Naturally, in order to find basis for a life

new

pictorial

in this

break with time-honored habits a

harmony and

and movement, there must be an

of the normal vision of the crowd.

a plastic

means of dealing with

artistic sensibility far in

advance

Contemporary Achievements

13

/

same way. modern means of locomotion have completely

the

In

in Painting

upset relationships that have been taken for granted since time im-

memorial. Formerly a landscape had a value

and quiet road could cross

in

and

itself,

white

a

without changing the surroundings at

it

all.

Now

the railroads

or dust, seize

the

all

and the automobiles, with

dynamic force

plumes of smoke

their

and the landscape

for themselves,

becomes secondary and decorative. Posters on the walls, flashing advertising signs

— both

same

are the

order of ideas. They have led to a formula as ridiculous as the Society

mentioned above has ever

A

cited: "Post

No

Bills."

lack of comprehension of everything

new and

alive

is

what has

brought out these wall policemen. Also, those interminable walls of

governmental and other buildings are the saddest and most

know

sinister

The poster is a piece of modern furniture that painters immediately knew how to use. It is bourgeois taste again that one finds in these rules, the taste for monotony that they drag around with them everywhere. The peasant resists these mollifications; he has surfaces

I

of.

retained a taste for violent contrasts in his costume, and a poster in his field

does not upset him.

In spite of this resistance, the old-fashioned

has had to evolve with everything

else.

costume of the towns

The black

suit,

which contrasts

with the bright feminine outfits at fashionable gatherings, manifestation of an evolution clash,

and the visual

exact

opposite

of

in

fashionable parties

effect of present-day

the

that

effect

a clear

is

Black and white resound and

taste.

similar

social

gatherings

is

in

the the

The dress of whole aspect was more

eighteenth century, for example, would have produced. that period

was

all

the

in

same

tones,

decorative, less strongly contrasted, and

the

more uniform.

Evolution notwithstanding, the average bourgeois has retained his ideas of tone on

yellow bedroom, last

word

in

tone, will,

good form

the decorative concept.

some

and

red parlor,

the

especially in the provinces, continue to be the for a long time. Contrast has always frightened

peaceful and satisfied people; they eliminate as possible,

The

it

from

as they are disagreeably startled

their lives as

billboard or other, so their lives are organized to avoid

uncouth contact. This milieu

is

much

by the dissonances of all

such

the last one an artist should frequent;

14

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

truth

an

shrouded and feared;

is

artist

can seek

all

that remains

is

manners, from which

vain to learn something.

in

In earlier periods, the utilization of contrasts could never be fully

exploited for several reasons. First, the necessity for strict subservience to a subject that

Never,

had

to

have a sentimental value.

until the impressionists,

had painting been able

to shake off

the spell of literature. Consequently, the utilization of plastic contrasts

had

to be diluted by the

need

which painters have now

to tell a story,

recognized as completely unnecessary.

From

modern

the day the impressionists liberated painting, the

pic-

ture set out at once to structure itself on contrasts; instead of submitting to a subject, the painter

makes an

insertion

and uses a subject

the service of purely plastic means. All the artists

public opinion in the

last

to the pictorial effect.

back

burden of like

few years have always sacrificed the subject

Even Delacroix (and

that puts us even further

was extremely controversial because,

in history)

literary

romanticism, he succeeded

The Entry oj

in

who have shocked

in

the Crusaders into Jerusalem,

spite of his

in

bringing off paintings

where the subject

is

clearly dominated by plastic expression; he was never accepted by

qualified people

and

officials.

This liberation enables the contemporary painter to use these means with the

in dealing

prepare himself

means

in

new

that have not yet been so used.

new visual objectivity, but be new state of things.

of the the

He

will not

I have just described. He must maximum of plastic effect on He must not become an imitator

visual state that

order to confer a

a sensibility completely subject to

be original just because he will have broken up an object

or placed a red or yellow square in the middle of his canvas; he will be original by virtue of the fact that he has caught the creative spirit of

these external manifestations.

As soon

as

one admits that only realism

realizing, in the

contrast, plastic

most

plastic sense of the

conception

capable of

is

effects of

one must abandon visual realism and concentrate

means toward

all

the

a specific goal.

Composition takes precedence over

mum

in

word, these new

all

else;

to obtain

expressiveness, lines, forms, and colors must be

the utmost possible logic.

It

is

their

maxi-

employed with

the logical spirit that will achieve the

Contemporary Achievements greatest result,

and by the

logical spirit in art,

in

Painting

mean

I

order one's sensibility and to concentrate one's means the

maximum

It is

I

power

the

to

order to yield

effect in the result.

true that

atmosphere,

in

15

/

if

I

look

at objects in their

do not perceive any

line

surroundings, in the real

bounding the zones of

color, of

course; but this belongs to the realm of visual realism and not to tie

wholly modern one of realism

in

except for their significance

To

conception.

means of expression such

eliminate specific

terms of color

in

try deliberately

is

10

and forms

outlines

as

childish

and

retro-

The modern picture can have lasting value and escape death not by excluding some means of expression because of a prejudice for one alone but, on the contrary, by concentrating all the possible means of plastic expression on a specific goal. Modern painters have understood that; before them, a drawing had one special value, and a painting had grade.

another.

From now

on, everything

attain essential variety along with calls

himself modern, and

who

brought together,

is

maximum

realism.

A

order to

in

who

painter

rightly considers perspective

and

senti-

mental value to be negative methods, must be able to replace them pictures

his

with something other than,

harmony of pure This

is

for

instance,

in

an unending

tones.

an utterly inadequate justification for a picture of even aver-

age size and even those seen at the

square meters

less for pictures several last

Salon des Independants

—

this is the

in area, like

enlargement

of scale by the neoimpressionist formula.

This concept, which consists of using direct contrast between two tones in order to avoid a dead surface,

is

unproductive in the construc-

tion of a large-scale picture. Construction

by means of pure color has

long been considered to have reached a perfect neutrality and evenness. It

is

what

painting,"

I

call

which

I

"additional" painting as opposed to "multiplicative will try to define further on.

The impressionists, being sensible men, felt that their somewhat meager means did not permit composition on the grand scale; they kept within established bounds.

A

big picture

requires variety

and

consequently the addition of methods other than those of the neoimpressionists.

Contrasts of tones can be infinitely repeated.

The

summed up by

ideal use of the

the ratio

i

and

2,

i

and

formula would be to apply

2, it

l6

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

throughout, and of equal planes set against

this

would lead us

to a canvas divided into a

one another. One picture composed

them

us for a while, but ten of

two tones should balance,

plane, for instance,

more important than

is

longer any construction. pressionists tried to

it

You

essential that

is

it

end that

is all

that counts)

neutralize each other;

i.e.,

astonish

monotony.

In order to achieve construction through color, in the

way can

in this

inevitably produce

from the point of view of value (for the

number

which tones of equal and complementary value are

in

if

the green

the red plane, there

no

is

can see where that leads. The neoim-

a long time ago,

and

old-fashioned to go back

is

it

it.

By employing

the

all

means of expression, composition

pictorial

through multiplicative contrast not only allows a greater range of realistic

experience, but also ensures variety; in fact, instead of op-

posing two means of expression ship,

you compose

picture

a

in

an immediate cumulative relation-

opposed by other contrary groupings. the

same way,

that

groups of similar forms are

that

so

you

If

your color

distribute

in

by adding similar tones, coloring each of these

is,

groupings of forms in contrast with the tones of an equivalent addition,

you obtain

collective sources of tones,

and colors acting

lines,

against other contrary and dissonant sources. Contrast

and hence a

maximum

commonplace subject: smoke rising between Here you have the multiplicative

expressive effect.

I

will take as

the visual effect of curled and

houses.

best

intensities.

You want

to

convey

example on which

=

dissonance,

an example a

round

puffs of

their plastic value.

apply research into

to

Concentrate your curves with the greatest

possible variety without breaking up their mass; frame

them by means

of the hard, dry relationship of the surfaces of the houses, dead sur-

movement by being colored

faces that will acquire

in

contrast to the

central mass and being opposed by live forms; you will obtain a maxi-

mum effect. This theory

is

not an abstraction but

is

formulated according to

observations of natural effects that are verified every day. did not take a so-called

modern

an ancient or modern subject; tion.

are

subject because all

But locomotives, automobiles, all

good

for the

I

know if

you

application of a

is

purposely

do not know what

I

what

insist,

I

is

a

new

is

interpreta-

advertising billboards,

form of movements;

all

this

Contemporary Achievements research comes, as

have

I

said,

in Painting

from the modern environment. But you

can advantageously substitute the most banal, worn-out subject,

nude

modern engines

that are difficult to pose in one's studio. All that

method; the only interesting thing

many

In

is

how

it is

roborates what period, which

I

just said, his

was

less

and

fragmented than ours, could

less

which

is

it

but he did

landscapes, with the houses awkwardly flattened out

had sensed

that the truth lay there.

and create the concept of

To abandon

it.

an assurance of development and a to neoimpressionism,

say, an error that

I

all it

it

in his

and go back is,

felt

All his paintings were done in the presence of a

the trees, he

formulate

cor-

it.

not understand

among

this

at,

this

thoroughly impressionist milieu and his

condensed and

not lead him as far as the multiplicative concept; he

subject,

and

Unfortunately,

contrasts.

to plastic

is

used.

of Cezanne's pictures one can see, barely hinted

sensitivity

restless

like a

and a thousand others, for locomotives and other

a studio

in

17

/

has to say;

which

is

first

could not

step into the creative,

a last stage and an ending,

must be denounced. Neoimpressionism has said in fact it was a very

curve was extremely short

its

He

this discovery,

—

small circle, in which nothing of value remains.

Seurat was one of the great victims of this mediocre formula in

many

of his pictures, and he wasted a great deal of time and talent by

confining himself to that small touch of pure color which actually has

no color

must

at all, for the question of

also be clarified.

dynamic mobility

in

some of

ically loses

When

power

in the efi'ect of coloration

you use tonal contrast as a source of

order to eliminate local tone, your color theoret-

its

power; a yellow and a violet contrasted

volume are constructive, of course, but only

power of

color,

which has an

intrinsic

at

value that

is

use

it;

equal

no longer its

consequently the neoimpressionist formula arrives

re-

maximum

mix is gray. Only local tone has Only the system of multiplicative contrasts permits one

spected; the optical coloration.

in

the expense of the

at the

to

para-

doxical but certain end of employing pure tones to arrive at a gray entity.

Cezanne, finger

I

repeat,

was

the only

on the deeper meaning of

one of the impressionists

plastic life,

to lay his

because of his sensitivity to

the contrasts of forms. I

will stop these technical

explanations here, but

I

do not want

to

l8

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

end

this

made on

explanation without answering some objections that have been the subject of the Salon des Independants.

would be

It

a banality to try to justify this Salon here, but

insist

I

on answering the objections made by people who certainly have

for-

gotten the purpose of the Salon.

The Salon des Independants which, preponderant place

a salon of painters for painters.

As

occupied a

as in every year, has

worldwide exhibitions of painting,

in

of

is first

who come

a result, the people

all

there

looking for perfectly realized works will find nothing for themselves.

They

are completelv mistaken about the

have criticized the

don

aim of the exhibitors. Others

fact that painters of yesterday's avant-garde aban-

and no longer exhibit

the Salon today

their pictures there.

People

more or less self-serving motives involved, which Anyone who thinks this has forgotten that the

believe that there are is

absolutely

Salon in

is first

false.

and foremost

the whole

world (and

a salon for artists' exhibits. I

am

It is

when

not exaggerating

the greatest

use

I

such

terms). perpetual renewal

Its

is

exactly what gives

where one

like the other salons

sees the

same

it

its

raison d'etre

painters'

— un-

work again and

again.

Here, there must always be room for the seekers and their restlessness,

and credit for

possession

younger

of

this

who need

artists

If

methods

expressive

their

contemporaries].

must be given

all

to see their

the painters

to the artists definitively in

who

yield

work hung

who

place

their

[to their

in relation

led the

battle

at

to

the Inde-

pendants continued to occupy the rooms (which would certainly be attractive),

prevent the

it

would be

new

to the detriment of

younger

artists

and would

manifestations from appearing.

The Salon des Independants

is

a salon of amateurs.

When

painters

have mastered their means of expression, when they have become professionals, they

could become Its it

is

there. This Salon

meant for buyers.

perpetual element of newness the one thing

"sliding gear"

whose

always have

is

its

to

what provokes universal

which may be allowed

interest;

to act as a kind of eternal

itinerant existence gives

it

new

life

every year,

Whatever direction the Salon may take, it public of the curious and of painters. Everyone

instead of diminishing will

do

a salon for sales,

no longer have anything

like all the others:

it.

Contemporary Achievements important

modern

in

and work, hoping the

chosen

place

shown

art lias

in cloth

for

great

this

official

museums

together.

pictorial

will be the pride of their period. It

been able to penetrate;

very

There are no rugs

fine.

it

know what

it

hatched than

the

all

and along with

works of several painters who

in

good

and

the big ugly salon,

is

it

is

and one catches head colds

to trample,

and pure joy been piled together

In order to

search

These shabby

exhibition. talent

along with the pictures, but never have so ing,

who

the single place bourgeois

is

19

/

should be proud to be

the Salon of Inventors

It is

the follies that will never bear fruit are

taste has not

Painting

there, all those artists

to be exhibited there. Paris

and wood have seen more

rooms

in

much

emotion,

life,

suffer-

such an unpretentious place.

one must have exhibited there during

is,

one's youth; trembling, at the age of twenty, one must have taken one's

first

sketches there.

The hanging of

opening, that brutal illumination that

shadow;

all

sensibility

those

unknown

and your

hits

pictures,

timidity.

One remembers

it

all

one's

would never suspect that drama being played out with all its joys and its

they were aware of

it,

they would enter with respect as

for at heart they are decent

life.

You

The bourgeoisie who

to laugh at these palpitations

full-fledged

in

things that, at a single blow, rout your

bring there everything you hold most precious.

come

the lighting, the

you and leaves nothing

if

there

is

a

stories. If

into a church,

men. Soirees de Paris, Paris,

1914

A

Critical Essay on the Plastic Quality off

Abel Gance's Film The Wheel

Abel Gance's

involves three states of

film

interest

and a

alternate: a dramatic state, an emotional state, this entirely

new

plastic contribution

tions for our time

The

two

first

I

whose

real

continually

that

plastic state. It

is

value and implica-

shall struggle to define precisely.

states are

developed throughout the whole drama with

interest.

The

third, the

exclusively in the

first

three sections, where the mechanical element

mounting

one that concerns me, occurs almost

plays a major role, and where the machine becomes the leading character, the leading actor. It will be to

Abel Gance's honor that he has

successfully presented an actor object to the public. This

tographic event of considerable importance, which

examine

cinemagoing to

carefully.

new element

This

a

is

am

I

is

presented to us through an infinite variety of

methods, from every aspect: close-ups, fixed or moving mechanical fragments, projected at a heightened speed that approaches the state of simultaneity and that crushes and eliminates the

duces

its

interest,

pulverizes

reluctantly watch disappear, that sive;

it

appears

like

flashes

human

you wait for impatiently,

of a spotlight throughout

a

heartrending tragedy whose realism admits no concessions.

nowhere

event

is

no

fitted

in

with care, appropriate, and seems to

less

implications in

there because of

itself

object,

This mechanical element that

it.

it,

and for the future.

it's

me

else;

to

it

is

unobtru-

vast,

The is

re-

you long

plastic

planned,

be laden with

Abel Gance's Film The Wheel

The advent to

of this film

determine a place

additionally interesting in that

is

it

/

21

going

is

now

order for an art that has until

in the plastic

remained almost completely descriptive, sentimental, and documen-

The fragmentation

tary.

object,

modern

of the object, the intrinsic plastic value of the

domain of the With The Wheel Abel Gance has elevated the art of film equivalence, have long been the

pictorial

its

arts.

to the plane of the plastic arts.

Before The Wheel the cinematographic art developed almost con-

on

stantly

mistaken path: that of resemblance to the theater, the

a

same means, want to turn

same

the

actors, the

into theater. This

tographic art could commit;

is

is

it

same dramatic methods. It seems to the most serious error the cinema-

the facile viewpoint, the art of imita-

tion, the imitator's viewpoint.

The image

justification for film,

— and

now

world

is

only one,

the projected image. This

is

moves. The moving image was created, and the whole

it

on

its

but unmoving, captures children and adults alike

that, colored,

its

knees before that marvelous image that moves. But

observe that this stupendous invention does not consist in imitating the

movements of nature;

it's

a matter of something entirely different;

a matter of makini^ images seen,

where for

its

well, define

yield

up

its

and the cinema must not look

reason for being. Project your beautiful image, choose

it

under the microscope, do everything to make

it

put

it,

it

maximum, and you

will

have no need for

Whether

perspective, sentimentality, or actors.

of

the

it's

else-

or

close-up,

pure

inventive

it

(simultaneous

fantasy

through the moving image), the new event

is

text, description,

be the infinite realism

there with

all its

poetry implica-

tions.

now America

Until

tographic

fact:

film

has been able to create a picturesque cinema-

cowboy

intensity,

comic genius, but there we are theatrical concept, that

tion

is,

still

plays,

Douglas,*

beside the point.

It

Chaplin's is

still

the

and the whole produc-

the actor dominating

dependent on him. The cinema cannot

fight

the

theater;

the

dramatic effect of a living person, speaking with emotion, can not be equaled by

The

film

is

its

direct, silent projection in black

beaten

in

advance;

it

will

consider only the visual point of view. *

Leger

is

and white on

always be bad theater.

Where

is it

in all this?

probably referring to Douglas Fairbanks here.

—-Ed.

a screen.

Now

let

us

22

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Here

it

80 percent of the elements and objects that help us to

is:

live

are only noticed by us in our everyday lives, while 20 percent are seen.

From

deduce the cinematographic revolution

this, I

to

is

make

us see

everything that has been merely noticed. Project those brand-new ele-

ments, and you have your tragedies, your comedies, on a plane that

uniquely visual and cinematographic. The dog that goes by street

is

that the

only noticed. Projected on the screen,

whole audience reacts

The mere

as

if it

A

seen, so

much

image already defines the

judiciously

object,

composed image already has

value through this fact. Don't abandon this point of view. Here

new

pivot, the basis of this

has achieved will see

he

it,

the

is

Abel Gance has sensed

art.

to have presented

first

moving images presented

with a judicious range contrast of effects); a

modulated hand

like a picture,

the balance of

in

figure

still

still

it

it

is

the

He You

perfectly.

to the public.

centered on the screen

and moving parts (the

on a machine that

is

moving, a

contrast to a geometric mass, circular forms, ab-

in

and

stract forms, the interplay of curves

straight lines

(contrasts of

wonderful, a moving geometry that astonishes you.

lines), dazzling,

Gance goes

so

discovered the dog.

fact of projection of the

which becomes spectacle.

is

it

is

the

in

further, since his

marvelous machine

is

able to produce

the fragment of the object.

He

whom you

who moved you by his delivmake you see and move you in phantom whom you have no more than

He

is

turn with the face of this

noticed before.

You

will

it

you

to

in

place of that actor

have noticed somewhere and

ery and his gestures.

Gance

gives

You

will see his eye, his

make you

see

tragic,

vating than the character all

hand, his finger, his fingernail.

with his prodigious blazing lantern.

comic,

in the

parts:

its

this

all

fragments magnified a hundred times, making

will see all those

up an absolute whole, appear with

going to

its

plastic,

more moving, more captiThe locomotive will

theater next door.

wheels,

its

rods,

its

signal

plates,

its

geometric pleasures, vertical and horizontal, and the formidable faces of the

men who

evoke for you In rare

all

live

on

it.

A

nut bent out of shape next to a rose will

the tragedy of

moments

scattered

The Wheel

among

(contrasts).

various films, one has been able to

have the confused feeling that there must be the

truth.

Wheel Gance has completely achieved cinematographic

With The

fact.

Visual

fragments collaborate closely with the actor and the drama, reinforce

Abel Gance's Film The Wheel them, sustain them, instead of dissipating their masterful composition.

same

time. His

drama

Gance

and

is

first

of

actors; he never submits to

means

confused with the desired end. In that above the

American contribution

cal in quality, in

fade.

and

The it

art of

will

bondage

resides.

to

The Wheel

some will

The

in

latter,

its

at the

the history of

a technical one.

all

23

thanks to

effect,

and a fulfillment

a precursor

going to mark an epoch

is

cinema. His relationship objects

is

/

He

absorbs

that ought not to be

all

his superiority

over

picturesque and theatri-

talented stars, will fade as the actors

remain, armed with

dominate cinematographic

art

in

its

new

technique,

the present and in the

future.

Comoedia, Paris, 1922

Notes on Contemporary

In 191 8-19.

I

was severely

element as a plastic

cal

am

I

the

Plastic Life

eager to put the thing

first

have the

to

employ

in focus,

and although

modern element

this

slightest intention of

The mechanical element it

having tackled the mechani-

criticized for

possibility.

claiming that "that's

is

I

may have

for pictorial ends, all

there

is

only a means and not an end.

simply plastic "raw material,"

been

do not

I

to it." I

consider

elements of a landscape or a

like the

still life.

But an

in

accord with the individual's plastic purpose,

artist's

element

is

need for the

A

I

picture,

work of as

I

in

think that the

extremely advisable for anyone

intensity in a

industrial

element.

real

who

accord with

mechanical

seeks fullness

and

art.

understand

it,

which must equal and surpass the must be an "organic occur-

"beautiful object" in beauty,

human human creation is dependent Every human plastic creation is in the

rence," like the object in question, like every manifestation of intellectual achievement. Every objective

on absolute geometric

laws.

same relationship. The relationship of volumes,

lines,

and colors demands absolute

orchestration and order. These values are

all

unquestionably influen-

tial; they have extended into modern objects such as airplanes, automobiles, farm machines, etc. Today we are in competition with the "beautiful object"; it is undeniable. Sometimes its plastic qualities

Notes on Contemporary

make

beautiful in itself

it

arms and admire

fold one's

Plastic Life

25

and consequently unusable; one can only it.

There

window

display. Certain store

that are

no longer raw material

also today an astonishing art of

is

windows at all

are highly organized spectacles

and become unusable.

pushing things to extremes, the majority of manufactured objects

If,

and "store spectacles" were beautiful and had

plasticity,

would no longer have any reason

is

scattered around in the world. It is

/

a matter of satisfying

Now

realize that

I

we

to exist.

There

a question of quantity

It is

we

artists

a need for beauty

and demand.

it.

are

still

very useful "as producers."

Manufactured objects rarely compete on the

level

of the beauti-

ful.

This rather

get over

what about the future?

the current situation. But

is

new and

disturbing situation. Personally,

through a plastic

it

style that

I

natural to

is

will

me

do

my

It

is

a

best to

while searching

for the state of plastically organized intensity.

For

that,

apply the law of contrasts, which

I

of creating an equivalence to

men

life

external as a

is

method

and the only one that has enabled

such as Shakespeare and Moliere and others to transcend their

epoch and

attain lasting significance.

Instead of opposing comic and tragic characters and contrary scenic states,

I

organize

the

opposition

of

contrasting

values,

lines,

and

curves. I

oppose curves to straight

local colors to

lines, flat

nuances of gray. These

surfaces to

superimposed on objective elements or not, me. There

Here

I

is

since

its

can dominate the situation, for

I

which

ends are

Notice that

it is

difficult for

made them

I

reach a "multiplica-

any manufactured object to achieve,

painting of the past there are inclinations toward

figures to architecture

and not a

difference to

strictly useful.

in

contrasts, especially in the

itself

it

forms are either

makes no

only a question of variety.

think

tive" state,

molded forms, pure

initial plastic

work of

—Giotto— and

deal with this idea.

the primitives

(the opposition of

later in Poussin). It is

But the subject

the chance effect of a subject

plastic will to organization.

Besides,

and makes

I

recognize that this task easier.

modern life is often in a state of contrasts The most common example is the harsh.

26

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

sharp advertising billboard, with violent colors and lettering, that cuts across a melodious landscape.

The

smoke

soft

rising over

a

harsh

mechanistic environment or out of modern architecture also produces a clash of contrasts. All these events are subjects to paint.

my own

think, closely linked to

soon as

as

I

us look at

my

time by

style.

I

am

now,

I

But why the outcry

touched on the mechanical element several years ago? Let

how

painting began.

then the white clouds

in

I

think blue sky was discovered and

then the trees below; then houses were

it,

someone painted the houses, and then roads with telegraph poles; all that was painted, and then modern industry created machines, so why at this moment of human evolution would they come built,

and say: "Stop is

there,

you have no

right to paint that, to use that"?

It

absurd.

Art

is

subjective, that

is

understood, but a controlled subjectivity

based on "objective" raw material. That Plastic

work

is

and the imagined. The

ditficulty

poles; to cut the difficulty in

make

is

my

absolute opinion.

"the ambiguous state" of these two values, the real is

between these two

to find a balance

two and take only one or the other, to

either pure abstractions or imitations of nature,

and avoids the problem

The

question of "raw material"

Many

mislead them

in

the choice of

Usable raw material

in art is

really too easy

extremely serious.

because of their warped

artists get lost

is

as a whole.

around us everywhere.

is

initial instincts,

which

raw material. It is

simply a question

of hitting on the right thing.

One does not work with overused its is

colorful elements,

its

The modern

elements.

lettering, has very often served

me

street

with

(for me,

it

raw material). The Douanier Rousseau frequently used photographs

and postcards. The means are everywhere,

it

is

simply a matter of

choice.

The enormous mistake

of the Renaissance painters and of the

cials of the

Ecole des Beaux-Arts

ject."

the

It

against ject, is

is

to

fundamental error that

which we modern beautiful,

is

it

is

artists react

offi-

run after the "beautiful subcontinues and the one

still

above

no longer raw material;

all. it

If

an object, a sub-

has plastic value and

therefore unusable; one can only look at and admire

it.

It is

is

not even

"copiable."

Notes on Contemporary Plastic Life

/

The experience of it is complete. Put fifty copyists in the same light and then look what they

do.

of the

same model

one

alike. Philosophically,

is

exists in itself, that everything

condemned.

irreparably

So we

find

relative.

is

The

epochs are beautiful; the others do not

very close to

making

in

lies

being

Not

nothing

this that

beautiful subject

from force of circumstance,

invention and equivalence, and plastic truth

Subtlety

in front

is

now

not raw material.

It is

ourselves,

can be deduced from

it

27

a state of

in

there only. All inventive

exist.

for being inventive can

distinctions,

Certain

imitative.

is

primitives,

come

and pictures by

Ingres, by David, for example, are very close to being imitative.

There the amateur's equals the

on the realm of

over the destruction of the subject

difficulty

over the choice of raw material.

artist's difficulty

sensibility there.

We

We

touch

leave the debatable intellectual

spheres behind for an obscure situation where the most justifiable,

most acute criticism no longer has

For

influence.

a safeguard that, in a time as fierce

is

it

may

criticism

That makes

me

and analytical

rejoice.

as ours,

with proof and microscope in hand, invade this

not,

impenetrable sanctuary. This preserves

life

and makes

it

worth having

lived.

For

if

one day

a

and dissect a picture '"the

really arrives to predict the future to us

monster as

were an

if it

insect,

then that day will really be

end of the world."

For moral and must

at all

intellectual health in life, I also think that creators

costs avoid soft environments (the average bourgeois, the

worn-out aristocracy). There

nothing to gain and everything to lose

is

from feeding on those people; the mechanism of based on a all.

"minimum

They adore

of life."

Not much

the state of peace in

their existence

effort or diversion, that

is is

the wrong sense of the word.

Their spectacles and diversions are always "pretty good," never really terrible or really good.

The

One cannot

lower-class environment, with

ness, of tragedy

recommended possible

and

its

I

For

my

am happy

part,

I

good."

aspects of crudeness and harsh-

and comedy, always hyperactive,

for us.

find

exist in a state of the "pretty

is

the environment

live in these places as

much

there.

Kimstblatt, Berlin, 1923

as

Notes on the Mechanical Element

Here are some further notes about

my

work

personal

(especially in

connection with the mechanical element and the use of contrasts).

was

I

cal

having tackled the mechani-

criticized severely (in 19 18) for

element as a plastic

Although

I

may have been

for pictorial ends, that "that's

all

possibility.

I

there

I

the

am

first

eager to put things in focus.

employ

to

modern element

this

have no intention of shouting from the roof tops is

to

it."

The mechanical element,

like

everything

else, is

only a means, not

an end.

But

one wants

if

intensity,

if

do powerful work

to

one wants

to

that has toughness

do organic work,

if

and

plastic

one wants to create and

obtain the equivalent of the "beautiful object" sometimes produced by

modern

industry,

it

is

very tempting to

make

use of

its

elements as raw

material.

A

picture organized, orchestrated,

like

a musical

score,

has geo-

human

metric necessities exactly the same as those of every objective creation (commercial or industrial achievement).

There are the weight of masses, the relationship of

lines, the

of colors. All the things that require an absolute order. values influence the contemporary commercialized object (rarely)

do but

in

plastic realizations.

to fold one's

values are diffused, as

When

this

balance

All

those

—sometimes

happens, nothing

is

left

to

arms and admire. But most of the time, these in a

landscape or a

still

life.

Then, the painter's

Notes on the Mechanical Element

comes

contribution

on disorder.

The

He

and he organizes, he imposes

into play

Or

moment

situation at the present

at least fascinating.

volumes,

He must lines,

mobiles, farm machinery, beautiful; that

29

order

his

creates, he reaches a balance. is

all

tragic enough.

which

"in competition" with the useful object,

relationships,

/

is

The

artist is

sometimes beautiful.

create as well or better. Geometric

and colored surfaces (airplanes, autocommercial

objects, etc.

.

.

can be

.)

absolutely indisputable.

is

they were always beautiful, there would no longer be any reason

If

There are window displays, absolutely modern compositions, impossible to make use of: they are no longer raw material but finished works. It becomes then a question of for the role of the artist to exist.

perfect

numbers, for be nothing

if

this

left to

do.

production answered

They answer

human demand,

repeat, in the face of these objects, the artist's situation

I

would

there

a need, they retail art.

often

is

disturbing.

myself hope to escape from

I

this

by searching for a

state of

organ-

ized intensity.

In order to find

it,

I

apply the law of plastic contrasts, which

has never been applied until today. flat

I

I

think

group contrary values together;

surfaces opposed to modeled surfaces; volumetric figures opposed

to the flat facades of houses;

molded volumes of plumes of smoke flat tones opposed to

opposed to active surfaces of architecture; pure, gray, modulated tones or the reverse.

Between these two kinds of for

painting,

I

look

for

a

relationships,

relationship

which are eternal subjects of

never

intensity

before

achieved. Earlier artists have always been bothered by sent.

None

Many

what subject

to repre-

have had a vague sense of the value of plastic contrasts.

of them was able to dominate his subject matter enough to apply

these values fully, that

is,

to distort the subject

if it

were necessary for

the plastic result.

From

this principle,

tional picture, result in the

same

In this way,

I

follows that

it

one that

is

intensity attain

I

can make a solid representa-

distorted, or even

and

abstract,

and each

will

force.

an intensive organized

beyond most of the commercial phenomena

state,

and

I

am

certainly

(industrial products). It

is

— 30

/

FUNCTIONS OF F'AINTING

extremely rare for useful items to participate

such a relationship to

in

my

they compete in terms of Beauty with

the extent that

to

will

organization through contrast. These achievements depend on observation of

modern

life.

We

live in

a geometric world,

also in a state of frequent contrasts. is

the advertising billboard

that cuts across the tender

The most

—sharp,

undeniable, and

it is

example of

striking

this

permanent, immediate, violent

and harmonious landscape.

A

contempo-

rary fashionable party contrasts the men's severe, crisp black clothes

women. An

with the prettier and more delicately colored dresses of the

epoch of contrasts.

An

eighteenth-century

party

was simply

tone

on

An epoch of harmony. am consistent with my own time, and when

all

the

said

and

tone,

clothes were similar.

So

I

done, the result

The

first

what counts. As

is

painters

a

method, any way

all

is

good.

is

began perhaps by painting the sky, then the

clouds, then the trees, then the houses, then the line of the

then the telegraph pole and the car on that road.

Why,

human evolution, would people want to cry "Stop there!" to who is using the mechanical element? Why? What justifies this It is

absurd. Art

tivity built

subjective, of course, but

is

it

a

mar

action?

a controlled subjec-

is

on objective raw material.

The work

of art

is

the ambiguity between these

two elements. To

arrive at a fixed state, an enduring state that

is

not too far to the

extremely

left,

but in the middle,

is

must be perfect balance between the

artist's

The romantic pushes toward

—an

warm

road,

first

at this point in

state).

His opposite

the

left

not too far to the right,

instinct

excess

pushes toward the

difficult.

and

There

his control.

of subjectivity

right

— an

excess

objectivity (a cold state).

Unpublished,

1923

(a

of

Smoke {La Fiimee), Gallery, Buffalo.

X i^V^". Albright-Knox Art Contemporary Art Fund.

19 12. Oil on canvas, }>6Va"

New

York.

Room

of

^^

C3

X3

o

bJ3 -(V)

U

^fi^l^

The Spectacle:

Moving Image,

Light, Color,

Object-Spectacle

To have

to talk

about spectacle

visual manifestations

existence).

The

It

dominates

eye, the

all

contemporary

ever.

Speed

is

daily

its

the law of the

records from

subtle, infallible,

and

morning

it

risks

its

to

precise.

modern world. The eye must "be

choose" in a fraction of a second or driving a car, in the street,

responsibilities, controls the

ceaselessly

It

must be quick, accurate,

night. It

in all

life.

major organ of a thousand

more than

individual

imagine the world

to

is

has become one of the fundamental needs of

(it

able to

existence, whether

it

be

or behind a scholar's microscope.

becomes mobile. of life" seen from

Life rolls by at such a speed that everything

The rhythm terrace

is

is

dynamic

so

a spectacle.

that a "slice

another there. The interplay of contrasts

always exaggeration

On

the

letters in

in the effect

boulevards two

and looks. There

is

is

so violent that there

are is

the origin of the

To organize a artists who want to

carrying

some immense

modern

spectacle.

spectacle based

nomena, the

distract the

It is

gilded

so unexpected that everyone stops

the surprise effect.

continual renewal.

is

you glimpse.

men

a handcart; the effect

a cafe

diverse elements collide and jostle one

The most

The shock of

on these

daily phe-

crowd must undergo

a

a hard profession, the hardest profession.

There must be a constant

state of choice

and invention. Happily,

our modern means are increased tenfold thanks to daily inventions. Objects, lights, the colors that used to be fixed and restrained have

become

alive

and mobile.

36

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

human element dominates

Previously, and around us, the

everywhere

asserts itself

it

who dominates

dancer

hall groups.

the stage;

from the dazzling

as entertainment value,

the stage with her talent to the erotic music-

But the superrevues, with their constant race for some-

worn

thing new, have

out,

have coarsened, the already limited means

at their disposal.

They have "touched bottom." The spring

We

end of a

are at the

is

dried up.

crisis.

Let us try to act with newer, brand-new materials.

A

spectacle must be fast-moving for the sake of

go on for more than short time span for

We

"new

unity. It

cannot

materials."

have found what we are competing with; we must renew the

We

man-spectacle mechanically.

move,

its

or twenty minutes. Let us look at this

fifteen

set

them

can make the materials themselves

in action.

Industry and commerce, swept along

have been the

first

to

in

a frantic competitive race,

grab everything that could serve as an attraction.

They admirably sensed that a shop window, a department store must be a spectacle. They had the idea of creating a pervasive, persuasive atmosphere by using only the objects goes into the store

is

half

won

at their disposal.

A woman who

over; she must buy, she will buy because

her defenses are destroyed by the "shopkeeper's brilliant trick." It's

a spell, a fascination,

victim; they often have one.

knowingly manipulated. The stores want

The

lighted colored display counter

a

the

is

one that does the most business.

The Catholic methods ful

religion has also

to steer

churches,

it

men according

known how

to

make

to

use of these

instructions. Possessing

its

wonder-

has pushed the art of the spectacle very far;

it

has

subjugated the masses, through masterly and deliberate direction of interior

and exterior

The church understood long ago

that

the brilliant, luminous colored object.

has imposed

itself

It

on the world, that

any of the visual and auditory means of

Overwhelmed by

who take:

aspires to

its

cult manifestations.

the

conquer

man

is

drawn

because

its

instinctively to

stage set of

his public

do?

He

it

If

it

has not neglected

epoch.

enormous

to rise to the plane of beauty

is

adopted music and song.

life,

what can the

has only one chance

artist

left to

by considering everything that

The Spectacle

/

37

surrounds him as raw material; to select the plastic and theatrical values possible from the whirlpool that swirls under his eyes; to interpret

them

nate

it

terms of spectacle; to attain theatrical unity and domi-

in

any

at

price. If

the higher plane, he

he does not

enough,

rise

immediately

is

if

he does not reach

competition with

in

life

which equals and surpasses him. There must be invention,

itself,

any

at

cost.

Adapting to fashion problem

never adapts;

life

bad, but

it

of theater,

inferior

adapt,

I

minimum

elegant formula, the

day

is

be solved.

to

it

it is

— that

the

is

effort, the established position.

Present-

creates unceasingly, every morning,

good or

invents. If adaptation

Nowadays

and very far from dealing with the

you adapt, he adapts

is

defensible from the point of view

not defensible as spectacle.

there

is

no place on the vast stage of the world

as the public stage, but

and

restricted to inventors,

is

it

as

good

not for

is

arrangers.

Commercial endeavors models

at a

are

so

competitive

that

of

procession

a

good couturier's equals and even surpasses a number of

average stage shows in entertainment value.

There has never been an epoch as frantic for spectacle rush of the masses toward the screen or the stage

phenomenon.

ern

The

as ours.

an unending

In lower-class districts seats are reserved in advance.

This frenzy,

from a need

is

this

craving for distraction at any price, must arise

for reaction against the harshness

and demands of mod-

life.

It

is

a harsh, prosaic, precise

everything; the object,

amined from every everything

is

angle.

life:

individual

the

the microscope is

An epoch

on

Time, measurement, are taken seriously;

now measured

in

seconds and millimeters. There

a race for perfection that inventive genius limits.

trained

is

gone into thoroughly, ex-

that has resulted

from an

is

pushed to

instructive

its

war

is

such

extreme in

which

every value was stripped bare, and there was a total revision of moral

and material

values.

maximum. After self

on

Human

endurance was tested and pushed to the

four years of this paroxysm,

a social plane that

plateau where economic

is

war

modern man

finds

him-

not peace; he finds himself on another leaves

him no room

another state of war as lamentable as the

first.

to breathe.

It

is

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

38

As long as the economic revolution does not give man the hoped-for new equilibrium, as long as he is a victim of the machine instead of being its beneficiary, we will witness that daily phenomenon of people hurrying and scrambling to go to work, to eat, who at night rush to a spectacle in order to try to find distraction

from

They go

fascinated,

there

moths

like

the

to

light,

their daily exhaustion.

with a kind of

intoxication that stands between that of the bistros and that of the

drug addicts, also impelled by an obscure but certain

—a

feeling, scarcely perceptible

need for Beauty, to which

I

will

return

in

a

little

while.

What

is

going to be offered to meet

The music

halls,

this

enormous demand?

circuses, revues, ballet

companies, and gatherings

of high or low society are the fields of action (the theater, properly speaking, being outside

mv

Romains's Six Gentlemen

However,

subject).

Row

in a

I

will

mention Jules

one of the most original

as

theatri-

cal manifestations.

What The

did one see before our period? theater

classical

gesture, declamation,

us and

moves

us

is

was above

their use of

theatrical;

all

melodrama. As

a plastic

their

means were

method, what

interests

masks: they invented the mask.

The mask dominates classical theater, and the most primitive it as a means of creating spectacle. They realized, with their weak methods, that on stage the human resemblance was a peoples use

barrier to the lyric state, the state of astonishment.

They wanted I

am

to transform the face.

going to do

important points of

my

best to tie in this event because

it is

one of the

this lecture.

[The mask was devised] to make a break between the visual atmosphere of a

pear

in

room and

order to

that of the stage, to

utilize

human

make

the individual disap-

material, to create fiction on the stage.

The human material appeared, but

it

had the same spectacle value

as

the object and the decor.

Our tion,

I

present methods are manifold, of course, but on one condirepeat, that the individual-as-king

means

like

talent,

is

the rest.

The

star

artist,

a frequent obstacle to unity.

is

really willing to

become

a

with or without the necessary

He

has

all

our sympathy,

dancer who. for centuries, "did evervthinc; necessarv" to

elicit

this

the

The Spectacle enthusiasm of the audience, but

have a thousand leap.

So

diflferent

ways

of

in spite

all

/

39

he doesn't

his genius,

to smile, to turn, to fling out his leg, to

said and done, he has had his day. If only all these would humbly consent to look around, to think of would enable them to renew themselves; they will always

after

all is

talented artists

means

that

have their place on stage, they look at the

human document;

them and there would be no need the

only they would

will glitter there, but if

daily

of plastic facts would help

life full

for

them

and "absorb" from

to go

museums.

Why

won't they accept the lesson of the acrobats, the simple, hum-

ble acrobats?

There are more "plastic passages"

acrobatic spectacle than there are in the leading dancers to

many

do a cartwheel or

even to do a somersault; they

all

of the program.

around

us,

They

everywhere,

certainly

To know

in the street,

houses; they sense that there

made up

to

walk on

may

Now

be polite, that that there

from the top

is

a wealth of

the

main part

grace and

is

ask

their hands, or

what

lack quickness. Yet

stage eflfects are to be found there.

minutes of an

in ten

scenes of ballet.

to the

charm

bottom of the

be a plane of entertainment there

charm and grace, and that has nothing to do with the movements and a pretty smile. If only they would decide to be choreographers, rather than star performers, if they would agree to become part of a spectacle "with equal billing," if they would accept the role of "moving scenery," if they themselves would direct the advent of the spectacle-object, then a number of entirely new methods would appear that up to now have remained "in the wings." Then you would have the mechanism for unexpected plastic qualities that will be able to come into play and of

eternal balletic

animate the stage. Let's trace the

dull

problem

to

its

origin.

We

inattentive, cold, difficult to reach. In front of

them and the stage there cross

have a dead auditorium,

and dark. Thirty percent of the audience are people who are

—the

footlights;

it

is is

them

is

a stage;

an

obstacle

that

nevertheless

crossed, in order to create the atmosphere indispensable to

tainment,

away from

in

between

a neutral, dangerous space, difficult to

order to go and ensnare the gentleman

must be all

enter-

who came

to get

it all.

In order to reach that point, there

must be a

maximum

of stage

40

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

axiom

effects; the

that "the state of the stage

push the system

Let's

stage

what

to the extreme. Let's order that

on the

is

must be a complete invention.

The auditorium = immobility, darkness, The stage = light, movement, life. I

must be inversely propor-

must be proved.

tional to the state of the auditorium"

silence.

say a stage of total invention.

You will never who offended you

again see on

my

stage the nose of that gentleman

who

on the bus or the profile of the blonde lady

makes you jealous. The individual has disappeared. He becomes a moving part of scenery, or ... he goes behind the scenes to manage the new theater of the beautiful object. Please notice that several music-hall artists have object's importance.

jugglers pay attention

performer,

Their

in the

set,

felt the

They surround themselves with to

it

and improve

spectacle-

acrobats and

it;

but always behind the

it,

background.

as limited as

it

may

counts for half the spectacle-

be,

effect.

The "Big Top"

When

I

am

of the

lost

and the

spotlights

this

in

New

Circus

tiny acrobat

distracted. In spite of his

an absolutely marvelous world.

is

astonishing metallic planet with

who

him.

I

no longer

I

dazzling I

am

dangerous game, prescribed by the cruelty of

a certain public that has dined well and sends cigars, I forget him.

its

every night.

risks his life

am

looking

him

puffs

at the spectacle that

see the flushed faces.

I

am

is

from

their

around

all

caught up by the strange

architecture of colored tent poles, metallic rods, and ropes that cross

each other and sway under the

Keep looking

at

this

effect of the lights.

event.

Draw from

it

consequences from the

viewpoint of attraction.

Very gently make the

"little

the stage will not be empty,

fellow" disappear. for

we

I

are going to

swear to you that

make

the objects

act.

Let's take a stage with the

plane as (the

much

as

minimum

possible; watch

mechanics of a gesture,

movement

that

is

a

effective for ten

in

Keep

of depth.

to the vertical

hand, time the length of action

spotlight,

or

a

sound).

seconds becomes poor

A

if it

plastic

lasts for

The Spectacle twelve. actors,

come

top of the set ing backdrop,

now phosphorescent (on

back,

animated by films projected on

is it

metallic object,

disappears

it

—the

a dark stage).

—decor for the

The mov-

apparition of the beautiful, luminous

and disappears. Controlled

shifts

woven

are continually at play,

activity of a

whole

together, and multiplied at the pleasure

of the director. If a face appears,

may

it

be

were metal. The human face can play

ness"

absolutely null

is

Human

nothing more.

no way

set gestures,

may

material

sacrificed to in

fixed, frozen, rigid, as

part, but

it

"expressive-

its

made up

be used

in

groups moving

in a

effect

it.

action ought to cross the footlights to create the

atmosphere, take over the theater, and conquer the audience, for is

logical, if

it

has a sense of what

it

wants,

Nothing on the stage resembles the transposition, a

new

or

can contribute variety, but

rhythm, on the condition that the general

parallel or contrasting

These methods

stiff, its

the spectacle-stage. Heavily

in

masked, transformed, with

in

it

where pleasing, extraordinary surprises and unexpected things

stage

is

41

The background scenery is movable. The action begins: six "moving scenery," cross the stage turning cartwheels (a lighted

stage); they

if it

/

fairyland,

it

rest

created, a

is

must be

if it

satisfied.

of the theater.

A

complete

whole new and unexpected

world evolves before them.

They

are the blind

who have suddenly been

wand; enchanted, they see a spectacle

healed by a magic

that they have never seen be-

fore. If

to

it

do

wants it.

public

is

to,

the

The public better than

director there

is

modern

stage can go this far;

will follow,

we

think

it

—who,

is,

in

everything

all

a fabulous director, and

like I

that,

—the

want

to

pro-

and

Jacques

fortunately.

pay homage here

who was

the

to

first

France to have the courage to agree to a spectacle where is

done with machinery and the play of

light,

human silhouette is on the stage; and to Jean Borlin and who are condemned to the role of moving scenery. In

means The

but between the public and the

Rolf de Mare, the director of the Swedish Ballet, person

the

there.

is

often, misunderstands his public

warps everything. They are not is

we have

has followed; proof

often an important obstructive character

ducer or the impresario

Hebertot

it

where no his troupe,

agreeing to perform the Negro ballet Creation of the

World

42

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Monde) he dared

(Creation du

impose on the pubHc for the

to

time a truly modern stage, at least

was rewsroed with

effort

success.

terms of technical means. His

The

public immediately went along

with him completely, while most of the

remarks. As French propaganda his work was influential.

in irrelevant

in spite

have been the

first

have risked and presented over there an entirely

and Serge de Diaghilev it

has

French quality

in oi^der

to the world.

done? Has

it

Mare

to be foreigners such as Rolf de

to recognize the vital

have heard that there

I

of the French

of the huge difficulties such a trip entails, he will to

French program. There have to present

artists

He came back from Amer-

avant-garde, have gone around the world.

where,

themselves

official critics lost

His creations, eight or ten of which were done by

ica,

first

in

it

a

is

made

ever

propaganda department

What men who

in Paris.

contact with these courageous

enormous amounts of capital without for once being "businessmen"? I don't think so. What did this propaganda department do? What was its staff doing during and after the war? Is there a document

risk

somewhere But

negligence,

with

that reveals their

in spite

of

life

this,

heroism?

everything progresses;

limitless plastic possibilities

its

in spite

of this lamentable

goes on, and change rushes forward.

— an

Cinema came,

incredible invention, fraught

with plastic consequences that unfortunately are often blocked because of a completely wrong point of departure.

Filming a novel fact that

is

a

fundamental mistake, one that

most of the directors have

a literary

results

from the

background and educa-

tion.

In spite of their unqestionable talent, they are caught between

a

means and the moving image that must be end. They often confuse the two things. They sacrifice that won-

scenario that must remain a the

derful thing, "the image that moves," in order to present a story that

much

better in a book.

easy and stops

all

It

is

still

that deadly "adaptation" that

innovation. Nevertheless, their

means

life

to

a

fragment. The close-up

give plastic identity to a detail. it

is

unbelievable

Where

they

can

It

is

neglect

their

is

is

so

are infinite,

unlimited; they have this amazing power to personify, to give a plete

is

alphabet,

they

comcan

such a field of innovations that it

for

the fantasies of lyrical imagery can

a

come

sentimental

scenario.

into play, they

show

The Spectacle famous novels adapted

us

for

the

screen.

/

43

They, too, adapt "with

might and main"; they are already the victims of the

least

possible

effort.

The average calculation goes like this: To make a film, you must have money. To get it, let's take Joan of Arc or Napoleon, characters who have a certain historical notoriety, let's get a famous actor, who is really famous in Paris, as our star, and we're off. It will be "amortized"; we will make a good business deal, and it won't be any trouble. The movie is already made. The monetary viewpoint dominates everything. As a result of this, the cinema is awful, and it is even dangerous for the Princes of the Screen, for they ought to consider that, by debasing the cinematic art to this level, they have tion.

On

no defense against competi-

anyone with an average

that plane,

intelligence

can become a

screen ace.

They

thrown overboard,

be

will

drowned by

who

hatching" of mediocre competitors

they had the courage to raise the artistic possibilities,

who

is

terrified

level

If

above the average

about his money.

dominated by him and by the monstrous

We

"spontaneous

they would be authentic and invulnerable kings. But they

submit to the backer

francs a

the

invade the marketplace.

week

star

They

who demands

are

5,000

for her pretty face or dubious fame.

are currently in a frantic mess of millions spent for ridiculous

historical productions. Still

without

it

should be possible to have a cinema without millions and

stars. It

is

an effort that should be made. But on that day

would be necessary

tentious fellow with plastic training,

who from

says to them: "This image a

little

slow group a

charming person

little faster, this

Stay with black and white.

No

perspective,

it

for directors to accept at their side a nice unpre-

why

all

time to time quietly

to the right, a little to the left, that

Enough

is

really seen too

literature, the public

these subtitles? So are

is

much.

sick of

it.

you incapable of mak-

ing a story without subtitles, with nothing but the image? But cartoon-

must manage and

on the back page of a newspaper. That's what you a lot of other things that we'll see about later, and

then good cinema

is

ists

have done

it

on the way."

Let's recognize this:

44

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

The French screen has contributed ment that has been presented so far. Abel Gance, Jean Epstein in

the only truly plastic achieve-

by Blaise Cendrars

assisted

The Faithful Heart (Coeur

in

The Wheel {La Roue),

in

fidele).

Marcel L'Herbier

Gallery of Monsters (Galerie de monstres) and The

huinaine), Moujoskine

in

Keiiu, have

cessfully presented plastic

Inhuman

obtained, achieved, and suc-

all

emotion to the public through the simulta-

neous projection of "fragments of images"

an accelerated rhythm.

in

They have achieved an equivalent plane through absolutely new nical means; Gance and Cendrars's exploding train, Epstein's carnival, L'Herbier's circus

and

It

is

plasticity,

alone that acts on the spectator, and he submits to a beautiful victory

It is

techstreet

laboratories, Moujoskine's jig are the

reasons for the success of their films.

conquered.

{L'ln-

—achieved

it.

it

is

is

the image

moved, and

before an audience that

has reacted to and applauded for something other than a sentimental literary intrigue.

The new values

making progress everywhere. The stage and the

are

screen are gradually being liberated.

properly speaking, changes,

Spectacle,

advent of new

The

Eiffel

and we imagine the next

possibilities.

Tower and

two enormous "object-

the Great Wheel, those

spectacles" that dominate Paris, are as

much admired

as the beautiful

Gothic facades.

Everyone regretted the disappearance of the Great Wheel; familiar silhouette.

An

form.

The wheel, The circle is

The

was

entire object

sought after for

there

It

its

better than the Eiffel

whose

initial

in

the circle

and colored, dominates the

satisfying to the

no break

is

was a

is

always

its

much

value of attractiveness.

lighted is

form

it

Tower because of

human

eye. It

street carnivals. is

a totality, a whole,

it.

enormous possibilities as plastic values. Put a sphere or a ball never mind what material it is made of in your apartment. It is never unpleasant and always will fit in wherever it may be. It is the beautiful object with no other purpose than what it is. ball, the

sphere, have

—

—

We

live

surrounded by beautiful objects that are slowly being

vealed and perceived

by man; they are occupying an

important place around

us, in

our interior and exterior

life.

re-

increasingly

The Spectacle Cultivate

release

possibility,

this

direct

it,

extend

it,

/

its

45

conse-

quences.

So

may

that as early as elementary school, children

be taught to

admire beautiful manufactured objects.

The

Our

fill.

eyes, closed for centuries to the true

objective

phenomena

Something roads,

in

is

that

surround

ending; something else

transition

—

and mistakes I

sure

a

possibility

We

beginning.

all this

appears

is

everywhere

daily, urgent

confused throng of desires

—the

of the

cult

Beautiful.

demand

for the

and undeniable.

Let us be aware of our daily actions; concern for the Beautiful three-quarters of everyday

From our need

fills

life.

we

arrange the room

to

up.

are at the cross-

agree with the theories dear to Ozenfant; the

Beautiful

Beauty, to the

where every mistake

cruel epoch,

thankless,

a

realistic

beginning to open

are

us, is

and reaction can operate. But out of

Here

and sen-

collapse of religions has caused a void that spectacle

sualism cannot

arrangement of a lock of hair under a

live

the

to

in,

the desire for

hat,

discreet

harmony

penetrates everywhere. Don't think, for example, that taste in clothes

concerns young people alone. in the provinces.

a local

Have

businesswoman

Go

into the

the patience to is

having.

To

shop of

watch

all

a

little

dressmaker

through a

fitting that

get the effect she wants, she will

be more meticulous, more exacting than the most elegant Parisian. This stout, fifty-year-old lady, she too wants to achieve a harmony that

is

appropriate for her age, her environment, and her means. She

too organizes her spectacle so that

it

will

make

effect

its

where she

thinks necessary; she hesitates between the blue belt and the red one, indicates her choice,

and accordingly worries about "the Beautiful."

Let us help

who

all

those

display nothing

routine observance for the old, outdated

them:

relief

is

more than religions,

indifference

and

work

for

let

coming. Don't stop denouncing those

us

officials

Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the others, useless and ridiculous,

Those grotesque

* Picture

are

from them badly.

societies for the protection of the

French landscape

to stop life

and

used by a toiletry

in Paris at this time.

who

plagiarize

bent on restoring departed times and

who presume

who

of the

—Tr.

to prevent

company

Cadum

Baby''' or

that advertised widely

Brand-X

Pills

on billboards

46

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

from being inserted does

into a landscape

begin and end?

it

the elements that

make

What it

court

— but what

opened eyes

brims over beside

ment

up, to channel

it

visual

spoke of

in

trated at

all.

it,

world and look with

little it

rolls

organize

of contemporary

at least

40 percent

which we are obliged to

in

The

due

is

as

life

along, shifts,

and

plastically.

it

job, but possible.

The hypertension nerves,

to define

us.

dam

Let us try to

An enormous

contemporary

at

Where

a landscape?

up?

Let's frankly discard this queer antiquated fully

is

presumptuous enough

is

to the

The

is

its

daily

assault

on the

overdynamic exterior environ-

live.

world of a large modern the beginning,

life,

spectacle that

city, that vast

badly orchestrated;

in

I

not orches-

fact,

intensity of the street shatters our nerves

and drives

us crazy.

problem

Let's tackle the

spectacle. This

scope. Let's organize the exterior

in all its

nothing more or

is

architecture" from scratch, taking in

less

than creating "polychromed

all

the manifestations of current

advertising. If

the spectacle offers intensity, a street, a city, a factory ought to

offer an obvious plastic serenity. Let's organize exterior life in

its

domain: form,

color, light.

Let's take a street; ten red houses, six yellow houses. Let's exploit

beautiful materials let's

avoid

—stone,

marble, brick,

dynamism completely.

A

static

steel,

gold,

silver,

bronze;

concept must be the rule;

all

the commercial and industrial necessities will be developed, instead of

being sacrificed

Color and

— a constant anxiety

light

in society.

have a social function, an essential function.

The world of work,

the only interesting one. exists in an intolerable

environment. Let us go into the factories, the banks, the hospitals. light

is

color; that

it

required there, what does it

is

may

as necessary as water

it

and

fire.

Let's apportion

it

be a more pleasant value, a psychological value;

influence can be considerable.

Life through color.

The polychromed hospital. The colorist-doctor.

A

If

illuminate? Nothing. Let's bring in wisely, so its

moral

beautiful and calm environment.

The Spectacle

The

leprous, glacial hospital

We

are not in the realm of vague prophecies;

is

/

47

dressed up in multicolor.

we

are

coming very

close to tomorrow's realities.

A

society without frenzy, calm, ordered,

knowing how

to live nat-

urally within the Beautiful without exclamation or romanticism.

That It is

is

where we are going, very simply.

a religion like

any other.

I

think

it

Bulletin de

l'

is

useful

Effort

and

beautiful.

Moderne,

Paris,

1924

Ballei

Mecanique dates from

Ballet

the

Mecanique

machine

myself used that

civilization. in

my

the period

when

architects talked about

There was a new realism

pictures

and

in this film.

in that

This film

is

period that

above

all

I

proof

machines and fragments of them, that ordinary manufactured have plastic

objects,

possibilities.

There are not only natural elements such

as the sky, the trees,

human body; all around us are things man has created new realism. The day that public taste accepted a house in the

was the beginning.

A

house

is

and

that are our a landscape

not a natural element, so there

is

no

reason to pause and then set about replacing the noble subject with the object which

is

of the quest for

the current plastic problem. In this film, in the midst

new

and contrast. The world. film

It

(in

realism, there are elements of repose, distraction,

film

has been shown

several

times

all

over the

has unquestionably influenced the development of modern Russia and Germany), the art of window display, and the

development of photographic collections where geometric and mechanical elements are explored.

The them is

fact of giving

plastic.

There

is

movement

to

one or several objects can make

also the fact of recognizing a plastic event that

what it represome people. I filmed a hundred times. I showed

beautiful in itself without being obliged to look for

sents.

To

prove

this,

woman's polished

I

once

fingernail

set a trap

and blew

it

for

up

a

Ballet

it.

of

Mecanique

/

49

The surprised audience thought that they recognized a photograph some planetary surface. I let them go on believing that, and after

they had marveled

them:

told

feeling angry.

nothing;

The

at this

"It is the

it's

planetary effect and were talking about

thumbnail of the lady next

had proved

I

to

them

to

it,

me." They went

I

off

that the subject or the object

is

the effect that counts.

story of avant-garde films

is

very simple.

It is

a direct reaction

against the films that have scenarios and stars.

They

offer imagination

and play

opposition to the commercial

in

nature of the other kind of films. That's not

such as

all.

this one,

They

are the painters'

and

poets' revenge. In an art

where the image must be everything and where

sacrificed to a romantic anecdote, the avant-garde films

had

it

is

to defend

themselves and prove that the arts of the imagination, relegated to being accessories, could, films without scenarios

all

own means,

alone, through their

construct

by treating the moving image as the leading

character.

Naturally, the creators of these films have never intended to

them available same, there

is

to the public at large for

a minority of people in the

more numerous than one might

think,

commercial world

and

it

who

profit.

make

All the

are for us;

it

is

prefers quality to quan-

tity.

Whether

it

is

Ballet

lesque fantasy like goal

is

Mecanique, somewhat

theoretical,

Entr'acte by Francis Picabia and Rene

or a burClair, the

the same: to avoid the average, to be free of the dead weight

that constitutes the other films' reason for being.

To break away from

the elements that are not purely cinematographic, to let the imagina-

roam

tion it is

freely despite the risks, to create adventure

on the screen as

created every day in painting and poetry.

Our constraints are self-imposed; little money, little means. The grasping financier who presides over the big commercial films is disgraceful. When Von Stroheim spends a fortune to make Greed, that marvelous and so little known film, so much the better; but 99 percent of the films that are turned out do not warrant these penditures.

Money

Creative Genius that,

is

is

antiart,

enormous

an exess of technical means

used to living with constraints;

it

knows

and the greatest works generally spring from poverty.

is

ex-

antiart.

all

about

50

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

All artistic decadence arises from overabundance.

To know how

midst of abundance

to deal with constraints in the

is

a rare talent.

be rich.

It's difficult to

The cinema

is

silver stars,

its

stories;

it

danger of dying from

in

it.

In

its

from the

pirates

theater,

copies

it

imagine for yourself that the recruitment of the sary for these enterprises

known

plav.

I

add

I'm sure you'll find

isn't difficult.

well-known

a

bring out one of those

little

plays.

human

material neces-

Anybody

star.

mix.

I

will do.

ble. It

is

is

wondering when the Commercial Cinema

I

am

new

is

a

it

in

and blood, "gives

about Ballet Mecanique.

little

1923 and 1924. At that time

everything himself.

I

Its

story

is

simple.

was doing paintings all

in

atmosphere, put

relationships to each other.

had

already

destroyed

scenario was going to be destroyed I

it

weak one night, the next night he redeems mechanism that affords no second chances.

going to say a

Painters

thought that through film

assume

is

contempti-

is

which the active elements were objects freed from in

less

is

sustained by a kind of tradition and by the vanity of the actor

The cinema

made

I

Boulevard Paramount masterpieces that

in front of the footlights in flesh

he's got." If he

I

take a well-

I

shake gently, and

I

going to collapse. The average theatrical production

who,

own

its

Then you can

first-rate.

now everyone

Right

gilded theaters with

doesn't even take the trouble to think up

it

its

in

the

I

as

the

descriptive

neglected object would be able to

this

value as well. Beginning there,

very ordinary objects that

subject,

avant-garde films.

I

worked on

this film, I

transferred to the screen by giving

took

them

a

very deliberate, very calculated mobility and rhythm.

Contrasting objects, slow and rapid passages, rest and intensity

whole film was constructed on

that.

I

used the close-up, which

—the

is

the

only cinematographic invention. Fragments of objects were also useful;

by

isolating a thing

you give

it

The documentaries,

the

work led me new contemporary value.

a personality. All this

to consider the event of objectivity as a very

newsreels are

filled

with these beautiful

"objective facts" that need only to be captured and presented properly.

We all

are living through the advent of the object that

those shops that decorate the streets.

is

thrust

on us

in

Ballet

A

That

The

unknown

an

is

like

is

objectivity.

thighs of

a close-up Ballet

—that

51

rotating in disciplined formation,

beautiful

is

Mecanique

had to be

sea that disorients the spectator.

fifty girls,

a lot of trouble.

that

/

herd of sheep walking, filmed from above, shown straight on the

screen,

me

Mecanique

cost

and

me

that

is

shown

as

objectivity.

about 5,000 francs, and the editing gave

There are long sequences of repeated movements

cut. I

had

to

watch the smallest

details very carefully

because of the repetition of images.

For example, in "The Woman Climbing the Stairs," I wanted to amaze the audience first, then make them uneasy, and then push the adventure to the point of exasperation. In order to "time"

properly,

I

got together a group of workers and people in the neighborhood, and

I

it

studied the effect that was produced on them. In eight hours

what

I

wanted

to

know. Nearly

all

learned

I

of them reacted at about the

same

time.

"The

Woman

material for

it,

on the Swing" I

also

hats, artificial legs,

is

a post card in motion.

had complications.

It's

To

get the

very hard to rent straw

and shoes. The shopkeepers took

me

for a

madman

or a practical joker. I had put all my materials in a chest. One morning I noticed someone had filched all my junk. I had to pay for everything and time buy other materials.

An It

epoch

alive with exploration, risk,

which perhaps

is

that this

ended now.

continues through animation, which has limitless possibilities for

giving scope to our imagination and humor.

It

has the

last

word.

Unpublished

(c.

1924)

The Machine Aesthetic: The Manufactured Object, the Artisan, and the Artist

Modern man

lives

more and more

in

a preponderantly geometric

order.

All mechanical and industrial

human

creation

subject to geo-

is

metric forces. I

want

to discuss first of all the prejudices that blind three-quarters

mankind and

of

beautiful or ugly I

totally prevent

phenomena

it

from making

a free

judgment of the

that surround them.

consider plastic beauty in general to be completely independent

from sentimental,

descriptive,

ture, architectural

work, and ornamental arrangement has an

value that

Many

is

strictly absolute,

individuals

visual object)

if

and imitative values. Every

independent of what

would be unintentionally

uals as all,

if

for classifications at

they were tools.

the only state of

critical,

intrinsic

represents.

sensitive to beauty (of a

the preconceived idea of the ohjet d'art did not act as

a blindfold. Bad visual education

modern mania

it

object, pic-

mind

Men

is

the cause of

any

it,

are afraid of free will,

which

is,

after

possible for registering beauty. Victims of a

skeptical, intellectual epoch, people persist in

derstand instead of giving

along with the

price, for categorizing individ-

in to their sensibilities.

wanting to un-

"They believe

in the

makers of art," because these are professionals. Titles, honors dazzle them and obstruct their view. My aim is to try to lay down this notion: that there are no categories or hierarchies of Beauty the worst possible error.

The

Beautiful

is

—

this

is

everywhere; perhaps more

in

The Machine Aesthetic

/

/

53

the arrangement of your saucepans in the white walls of your kitchen

room

than in your eighteenth-century living

or in

the

mu-

official

seums. I

would, then, bring about a new architectural order: the architec-

ture of the mechanical. also originates

Greek

art

French

made

both traditional and modern,

Architecture,

from geometric

forces.

horizontal lines dominant.

seventeenth

century.

Romanesque

influenced the entire

It

emphasized

art

vertical

The Gothic achieved an often perfect balance between the play of curves and straight lines. The Gothic even achieved this amazing thing: moving architectural surfaces. There are Gothic facades that shift like a dynamic picture. It is the play of complementary lines, lines.

which

interact, set in oppposition

by contrast.

One can assert this: a machine or a machine-made object can be beautiful when the relationship of lines describing its volumes is balanced not

now

ing;

it is

in

an order equivalent to that of earlier architectures.

phenomenon

confronting the

new

We

are

order, properly speak-

simply one architectural manifestation like the others.

Where

becomes most

the question

mechanical creation with goal of earlier

nate over

all

monumental

utility,

dominant aim utility

of a

is

it

its

subtle

architecture

undeniable that

is

its

is,

aim.

If

the

was

to

make Beauty predomi-

in

the

mechanical order the

Everything

strictly utility.

utility,

where one imagines

is

consequences, that

is

directed toward

with the utmost possible rigor. The thrust toward

utility

does

not prevent the advent of a state of beauty. I

tive

form.

in the

even curious because of the fact that the more the car

It is

has fulfilled is,

functional ends, the

its

beginning,

then contrary to still

its

when

more

vertical lines

beautiful

dominated

it

has become. That

its

form (which was

purpose), the automobile was ugly. People were

looking for the horse, and automobiles were called horseless car-

riages.

and

example the case of the evolution of automo-

offer as a fascinating

When, because

elongated,

when,

of the necessity for speed, the car

consequently,

curves became dominant, ized toward

its

horizontal

lines

became a perfect whole, purpose; and it was beautiful. it

was lowered balanced

This evidence of the relationship between the beauty and the car does not

mean

by

logically organ-

utility

of

that perfect utility automatically leads to per-

54

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

feet beauty;

contrary.

I

deny

them now. of

recall

until there

it

a conclusive demonstration to the

is

have seen frequent examples, though

I

I

cannot offhand

the loss of beauty through the accentuation of

function.

Chance alone governs beauty's occurrence

in

manufactured

the

object.

Perhaps you regret the

loss of fantasy; the state of

ness that has not agreed with you

is

offset

metal. Every machine object possesses

two

geometric cold-

by the play of

light

on bare

qualities of materials: one,

often painted and light-absorbent, that remains static (an architectural value), and another (most often bare metal) that reflects light and the

of unlimited fantasy

role

of color leads

me

value).

(pictorial

determines the degree of variety

in

the

machine

So

object.

fills

that

light

is

it

Another aspect

second plastic occurrence connected

to consider a

with the machine: the occurrence of polychromed mechanical architecture.

Here, certainly,

we

find ourselves witnessing the birth of a fairly

obscure, but nevertheless definite plastic taste: a rebirth of the artisan

you

or, if

prefer, the birth of a

new

artisan.

absolutely indispensable manufactured object did not need to

The

be colored for either functional or commercial purposes;

way,

we

see? Putting color on the useful object has always

from the peasant who decorated

existed,

his knife

ern industries producing "decorative art."

hierarchy

of

objects

create

a

artistic

value for the object.

This arts).

it

sold any-

response to an absolute need. Before this occurrence, what do

in

is

It is

more or

less

handle to the mod-

The aim was and

still

is

to

and thus increased commercial and

the area exploited in the production of objects (decorative

done with the aim of creating the

mistake, to

my mind)

dehi.xe object

(which

is

a

and strengthening the market by creating a

hierarchy of objects. This has led us (the professional artists) to such

decadence

in

the "decorative object" that the

few people who have

become discouraged and

quite naturally turn to

sure and healthy taste

wood

or unpolished metal, which is work on or make work to their The polychromed machine object is a new beginning. It is a kind

the mass-produced object in plain

inherently beautiful or which they can taste.

of rebirth of the original object.

The Machine Aesthetic I

know

since

it

order,

I

Commercially,

in

terms of

is

with his

is

the sequence of

its

it?

Does

frequently concerns

its

child judges beauty, so

it

knows

How

does the public

utility first?

think that the

I

object, particularly It

very

this

the question from this

judge beauty or

degree of beauty.

much

personality and

by no means a negligible point.

judgment? Personally

judgment of the manufactured

own

the manufacturer

aspect: "the public's reaction to a given object."

judge an object offered to

the geometric

gentleman with long hair

we must examine

so important that

is

this

sales,

work within

in the

in his tie, intoxicated

own imagination. The charm of color works;

well. It

to

55

ornaments. However,

also creates

itself

condemned by its function put more confidence in it than

and Windsor knot his

machine

that the

is

/

/

is

among

What initial

the masses,

indisputable that the

so that he puts the thing he likes in his

mouth and wants to eat it in order to show his desire to possess it. The young man says: "The good-looking bicycle," and only afterward does he examine it from the viewpoint of usefulness. One says: "The beautiful

automobile" about the car that passes by and disappears (the of the judgment of beauty, free will above and

birth, consequently,

beyond professional

aesthetic prejudices).

The manufacturer has become aware of this value judgment and it more and more for his commercial ends. He has gone so far as

uses

to put color

on

strictly utilitarian objects.

We

unprecedented invasion of the multicolored

machinery

itself

its

now

witness to an

is

such a

Farm

object.

has developed an attractive character and

out like a butterfly or a bird. Color recapturing

are

utilitarian

is

decked

vital necessity that

it

is

rights everywhere.

All these colored objects compensate for the loss of color that can

be observed

in

modern

dress.

The

disappeared; contemporary clothing dressed up and has

become

old, is

very colorful fashions have

gray and black.

The machine

a spectacle and a compensation.

is

This

observation leads us to envisage the inherently beautiful manufactured object as something of ornamental value in the street. For, after the

manufacturer, attractive

and

who

has used color as a means of making the object

salable, there

is

the retailer, the shopkeeper,

who

in turn

arranges his store window.

We

arrive at the art of

window

display,

which has assumed substan-

56

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

importance over the

tial

several years.

last

permanent spectacle of increasing

The display-window

The

street has

become

a

intensity.

become

spectacle has

a

major source of anxiety

Frantic competition reigns there: to be looked

in the retailer's activity.

more than the neighboring store is the violent desire that animates streets. Can you yourself doubt the extreme care that goes into

at

our

preparing these displays?

My

Not even on at the

and

friend Maurice Raynal

the boulevards

end of a badly

lit

have witnessed

I

this

labor of ants.

the brilliance of the streetlights, but

in

The

arcade.

modest

objects were

the

(in

a famous hierarchical sense of the word); they were haberdasher's small display window. This man, this artisan, had seven-

waistcoats,

teen

waistcoats

cufflinks

utes

arrange

to

his

in

window, with

He

and neckties surrounding them.

We

on each; we timed him.

had been there

one hour

for

left,

in

as

many

in

sets

spent about eleven min-

tired out, after the sixth item.

front of that

of

We

man, who would come

out to see the effect after having adjusted these things one millimeter.

Each time he came With the

eyes fixed, as

his

if

was so absorbed

out, he

dexterity of a

fitter,

that he did not see us.

he arranged his spectacle, brow wrinkled,

whole future

life

depended on

the carelessness and lack of discipline in the

it.

When

work of

think of

I

certain artists,

well-known painters, whose pictures are sold for so much money, we should deeply admire

this

his own work more valuable than

worthy craftsman, forging

and conscientiousness, which

with difflculty

is

those expensive canvases; they are going to disappear, but he will have

renew

to

keenness. art

his

work

Men

a

in

like this,

—one closely

tied to

few days with the same care and the same such artisans, incontestably have a concept of

commercial purposes, but one that

is

a plastic

achievement of a new order and the equivalent of existing manifestations, whatever they

We

may

find ourselves in the presence of a

of a world of creative artisans

artistic

be.

thoroughly admirable rebirth

who make

joy for our eyes and trans-

permanent and endlessly varied spectacle. I really believe that the entertainment halls would empty and disappear, and people would spend their time outside, if there were no hier-

form the

street

into

a

archical prejudices in art.

world of laborers

is

On

the day

when

the

work of

this

understood and appreciated by people

whole

who

are

The Machine Aesthetic from prejudices, who

free

see,

an extraordinary revolution. The false great pedestals,

there

and

it

and values

be put

will finally

no hierarchy of

is

art.

A

work

in their

proper place.

worth what

is

it

impossible to establish a criterion. That

is

57

we will truly witness men will fall from their

have eyes to

will

/

/

is

worth

is

/

repeat,

in itself,

a matter of taste

and of individual emotive capacity. In the face of these artisans' achievements, what

is

the situation of

the so-called professional artist?

Before considering the situation

backward glance

on people's

at a

artistic

monstrous

justifies

art,

beauty, with

my making

traditional values of intention that

The

Renaissance (the

Italian

will allow

I

myself a

weighs heavily

still

judgments.

The advent of mechanical intending to be

question,

in

plastic error that

all

its

beautiful objects not

a quick examination of the

were once considered

Mona

definitive.

Lisa, the sixteenth century)

is

considered by the whole world as an apogee, a summit, an ideal to

The Ecole des Beaux-Arts

bases

its

the slavish imitation of that period.

This

is

strive for.

possible.

The

sixteenth century

is

reason for existence on the

most colossal error

a period of nearly total decadence in

the plastic areas.

all

It

is

the error of imitation, of the servile copy of the subject, as

opposed to the so-called primitive epoch that precisely because

it

invented

its

mistook means for ends and believed also thus combined two major

is

and immortal

great

forms and methods. The Renaissance in the beautiful subject. It

errors: the spirit of imitation

and the copy

of the beautiful subject.

The men of

the Renaissance have been considered superior to their

predecessors, the primitives. In imitating natural forms instead of seeking

their

equivalents,

they

produced

immense

pictures

that

placently described the most striking and theatrical gestures tions of their epoch.

subject itself,

A

is

beautiful,

They were victims of if a form is beautiful,

com-

and

ac-

the beautiful subject. If a it

is

a value

absolute in

rigorous, intangible. beautiful thing cannot be copied;

it

can be admired, and that

all.

At the very most, one can, through one's

lent

work.

The Renaissance

is

talent, create

responsible for engendering that

is

an equiva-

malady that

is

58

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which runs ecstatically after the beautiful subject.

They wanted something

beautiful subject

is

uncopiable.

that

is

even materially impossible; a

cannot be reproduced

It

in the scien-

front of a beautiful

The everyday experience of thirty students in object, all in the same light at the same time, but

each

difTerent

sense of the word.

tific

producing

a

methods of imitation such

enough.

conclusive

is

an unknown element that

will

Scientific

photography are not the most

Every manifestation of beauty, whatever

successful.

is

copy,

as casting or

may

it

be, contains

always be mysterious for the admirer.

It

already there for the creator, who, caught between his conscious and

his unconscious,

is

incapable of defining the boundaries of these two

realms; the objective and the subjective continually collide with each other, interpenetrating in such a

way

always a partial enigma for the

artist.

modern

Two

beautiful subject;

it

too

is

that the creative event remains

The beautiful machine

is

the

uncopiable.

producers then face each other. Are they going to destroy each

other? I

believe that the need for beauty

From childhood

to be.

to adult

is

life,

more widespread than demand for Beauty

the

it

appears

is

consid-

erable; three-quarters of our daily gestures and aspirations are plagued

with the desire for tions,

it.

sional

artist,

it

is

thanks to the prejudice

I

mentioned still

have

earlier,

from which

barely open to the very

beautiful object manufactured by the artisan,

I

func-

directed mostly toward the profes-

he benefits and which keeps people's eyes

work of an

demand

Here, too, the law of supply and

but at the present time,

because

it

is

not the

"artist."

just seen

the Paris Fair, a spectacle

over at every step, where a prodigious effort

is

where invention

made

to

boils

emphasize the

quality of execution. I

am amazed

to see that all these

men who

arranged, for example,

those admirable panels of mechanical parts, those astonishing fountains of letters

and

lights,

those powerful and

not understand, do not feel that they are true

overturned

all

In such a case, perhaps ignorance

—

^this

that they have

artists,

modern plasticity. They they are unaware of it.

the received conditions of

nore the plastic quality they create;

matter

awesome machines, do

is

healthy, but

most disturbing lack of consciousness

in

it

is

ig-

truly a sad

artistic creation

The Machine Aesthetic

— and

will disturb those

it

who evoke

/

/

59

the mystery for a long time to

come. Let us suppose

the same, as

all

I

just said, that this

whole, immense

world of engineers, workers, shopkeepers, and display conscious of

demand

all

for beauty

would be

would almost be

his

melody of

in

satisfied

Why

neckties.

artists

which they

became The

live.

by them; the peasant

mowing machine, and

with his beautiful colored

satisfied

salesman with

and

the beauty they create

is

the

necessary for these

it

people to go into ecstasies on Sunday over the dubious pictures in the

Among

Louvre or elsewhere? ones?

tiful

same

The he

a hundred

a thousand pictures are there two beau-

machine-made

objects, thirty are beauti-

and they resolve the problem of Art. being beautiful and useful

ful,

the

Among

artisan regains his place,

the true

is

creator.

It

is

enable us to

live.

which he should always have kept, for

who

he

and invents the pretty

creates

at

time.

daily,

trinkets

modestly, unconsciously

and beautiful machines

that

His unconsciousness saves him. The vast majority of

professional artists are detestable for their individual pride and their

make everything

self-consciousness; they

wither. In these periods of

decadence one always observes the hideous hypertrophy of the

indi-

vidual in false artists (the Renaissance).

Take

a tour of the

annual exhibitions, the

Machine Exhibitions,

just like those fine

machine has

for the

gentlemen the

artists.

Automobile Show or the Aviation Show, the Paris

the

most beautiful spectacles

carefully.

Every time

Every time It

own

it is

its

in

execution

the world. is

the

Look

work of an

desecrated by a professional,

it is

at

Fair,

the

artisan,

Go

its

to see

which are work very it is

good.

bad.

should never be necessary for the manufacturers to leave their terrain

and address themselves to professional

artists;

that

is

where all the mischief comes from. These fine men believe that there is a category of demigods above them who make wonderful things, much more beautiful than theirs, who annually exhibit these immortal masterpieces at the Salon des Artistes Frangais, at the Salon de la Nationale,

or

somewhere

else.

They go

humbly throw themselves should not be mentioned If

in

into

the

to these

openings

raptures

in

evening dress and

over these

imbeciles

who

same breath with themselves.

they were able to destroy their stupid prejudice, they would

know

6o

FUNCTIONS OF F'AINTING

/

most beautiful annual salons of

that the

would have confidence

who massacre

What artisan

their

own. They

men who surround them,

the

work.

definitive conclusion

everything? No.

is

who

few,

plastic art are their

admirable

and they would not go out looking for the pretentious incom-

artisans,

petents

in the

I

can be drawn from

are capable of elevating

That the

that?

all

some men above him, very

think there are

him through

their plastic

concept to

Those men must

a height that towers over the primary level of Beauty.

be capable of viewing the work of the artisan and of nature as raw material, to be ordered, absorbed and

fused in their brains, with a

perfect balance between the two values: the conscious and the uncon-

and the subjective.

scious, the objective

The

plastic life

criterion

terribly

is

no

possible,

is

dangerous;

ambiguity

its

No

perpetual.

is

tribunal of arbitration exists to settle conten-

tions about the Beautiful.

When

the impressionist painter Sisley

was shown two of

pictures that were not quite identical, he could not fake.

We

must

tion,

I

and create

live

who

ambiguity. Those

in a

d'Automne,

I

tell

hammers and

the machanics" songs.

never, in spite of

my

I

hard, permanent, and useful,

in

The power of geometric forms dominated it all. The mechanics saw me come in; they knew that neighbors. They in turn asked permission to go to

materials,

comment I

will

who had

who were fell

into

had eyes.

I

the

and

been so

I left

vast

for beautiful,

pure local colors;

vermilions and blues.

infinite varieties of steel surfaces at play next to

these worthy men,

my

their frames,

metallic objects,

in

Show, to

the barrier,

familiarity with these spectacles,

and gray, pretentious

the Salon

listened

I

jumped over

surfaces, dismal

at

to the Aviation

impressed. Never had such a stark contrast assailed

their lives,

In this connec-

it.

open. Through the partition,

to

a

perpetual turmoil, in this continuous

deal in beautiful things ignore

had the advantage of being next

which was about

own

which one was

always remember that one year, showing

will

his

they had artists as the other side,

and

never seen an exhibition of painting

in

clean and fine, brought up amid beautiful raw

raptures over works that

I

would not want

to

on.

always see a sixteen-year-old with

fiery red hair, a

new

blue

canvas coat, orange pants, and a hand spattered with Prussian blue

The Machine Aesthetic blissfully

contemplating the nude

—

women

in

I

/

6i

gold frames; without the

modern worker, blazing with color killed the whole exhibition. Nothing more remained on the walls than vaporous shadows in old frames. The dazzling kid who slightest doubt,

he

in his clothes of a

—

looked as though he had been fathered by a piece of farm machinery

was the symbol of the neighboring

when

exhibition, of the life of

tomorrow,

Prejudice will be destroyed.

Bulletin de

l'

Effort

Moderne,

Paris,

1924

The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth

Each

artist

possesses an offensive

weapon

tradition. In the search for vividness

the

machine

and

that allows

him

intensity,

have made use of

I

have used the nude body or the

as others

You

to intimidate

still

must never be dominated by the

subject.

and not above

Otherwise, you are out of date.

it

or behind

manufactured object

is

cise, beautiful in itself;

has even been subjected but

how new!

I

there, a

and

it

to.

A

as others

the most terrible competition the artist

is

matter of

life

or death, a tragic situation,

means of succeeding

power. The painter

is

in

not a fixed position, an

is

caught between a

of focusing with his head, as

ground. extract

It

is

from

it

were,

realistic figure

in the

necessary to retain what it

invent images

atti-

conveying a feeling of strength and

which become the objective and the subjective.

figure,

I

have made landscapes from their imagina-

For me, the mechanical element

tude, but a

The

polychrome absolute, clean and pre-

have never enjoyed copying a machine.

from machines, tion.

it.

You

life.

are in front of the canvas

the best part possible.

I

is

and an invented It is

a question

clouds and his feet on the

useful in the subject and to

try to create a beautiful object

with mechanical elements.

To

create the beautiful object in painting

mental painting. anything

less

A

worker would not dare

means breaking with

senti-

to turn in a part that

was

than cleaned, polished, and burnished. There nothing

wasted; everything

is

unified.

clean picture with finish.

The

The

painter must seek

primitives

dreamed of

ways

is

to achieve a

these things.

They

The Machine Aesthetic had professional conscientiousness: painting of an inch, while the mechanical

an inch. The

a worker,

is

Pure tone implies absolute candor and

At the most,

of a pure tone

if

Cezanne

a

One

sincerity.

a neutral tone

little

movement

reborn under the influence

is

my canvases. my canvases, I

in

engineer.

does not play

they are adjacent in one of

impression of

to give the

judged down to a tenth

puts his sensibility at the service of a job. There are

artist

it.

63

measured to the ten-thousandth of

is

workers and engineers. Rousseau tricks with

is

/

II

surfaces to volumes that play against them.

I

Since

I

seek

oppose

flat

have collaborated

in

doing some architectural designs, and have then contented myself with being decorative, since the vohimes were provided by the architecture

and

moving around.

the people

I

sacrificed

volume

the

to surface,

painter to the architect, by being merely the illuminator of dead surfaces. In

works of

this kind,

it

is

not a question of hypnotizing through

color but of refining the surfaces, of giving the building, the town a joyful countenance. For us French painters, our epoch In

Germany,

the collaboration between architects

is

escaping

and painters

is

us.

close.

and

it

will

be nothing so long as the possibility of illuminating the walls

is

not

Only there does the

plastic life exist. It

is

nothing

in Paris,

recognized.

In Ballet,

thought only in terms of the decorative, of simple sur-

I

faces covered with

Blaise Cendrars,

posed

in

it.

As

flat

colors.

I

did that for Skating Rink and for The

World. In collaboration with Darius Milhaud and

Creation of the

created an African drama. Everything was trans-

I

a point of departure,

I

used African sculpture from the

documents, the original dances. Under the aegis of three Negro gods twenty-six feet tall, one witnessed the birth of men,

classical period; as

plants,

and animals.

Plastic beauty

imitative values. tive

is

totally

Each

independent of sentimental, descriptive, and work, and decora-

object, picture, architectural

arrangement has a value

in

itself,

absolute and independent of

what it may represent. Every created object can contain an intrinsic beauty, like all the phenomena of the natural order, which the world has admired since time began. There is no classification or hierarchy of the beautiful.

The

beautiful

is

everywhere,

in the

arrangement of a

set

64

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

of saucepans on a white kitchen wall as well as

beauty

is

in a

museum. Modern

almost always combined with practical necessity. Examples:

which

the steam engine,

coming

is

and closer

closer

to the

perfect

cylinder; the automobile chassis, which, because of the need for speed,

and which has become a

has been lowered, elongated, streamlined,

balanced relationship of curved and horizontal

born from the

lines,

geometric order.

Geometric form and psychological electric

dominant.

is

These new values must

The

I

art

rigorous in

its

visual

landscape,

poster shatters the

the

be plastically utilized in searching for

all

conceive of two modes of plastic expression: object

machine, object),

sculpture,

(picture,

made out

itself,

its

value

of concentration and intensity, antidecora-

The coordination

the opposite of a wall.

tive,

penetrates every area with

meter on the wall destroys the calendar.

equivalence. 1.

It

The

influence.

of

possible plastic

all

means, the grouping of contrasting elements, the multiplication of

whole united,

variety, radiance, light, brought into focus, life force, the isolated,

and embodied

Ornamental

2.

in a

frame.

dependent on architecture,

art,

relative (almost traditional),

accommodating

place, respecting live surfaces

(A

its

value rigorously

itself to

the necessities of

and acting only

materialization in abstract,

flat,

to destroy

dead surfaces.

colored surfaces, with the volumes

supplied by the architectural and sculptural masses.) It

is

necessary to distract

man from

his

enormous and often

agreeable labors, to surround him with a pervasive

which

I

new

to live.

war much more normal and more

find the state of

desirable than

the state of peace. Naturally, everything depends on the position

which you look point of view, all

dis-

plastic order in

my

It

life.

work.

It is

facing

life,

at

it

seem

I

is

—whether

to be a monster. /

all

state of war,

which

The

peace

state of

into gear, behind

want

its is is

possibilities.

I

rhyme

like

nothing more than life at a

drawn

life at

slack rhythm;

blinds,

it

who

viewpoint

does plastic

for poetry. If

is

what

is

from

the sentimental

to ignore that

an intolerable burden for anyone

a drug, a negative value as

with

From

hunter or prey.

I

stand

generally called the

an accelerated rhytlun. is

when everything

a situation of getting is

really

happening

in

The Machine Aesthetic the street where the creator

profound and

must

their hyperactive value,

sity,

be.

There Mfe

men and

There,

tragic.

is

all

65

revealed at top speed,

things are seen in

examined from

/

II

inten-

all their

sides, strained to the

breaking point.

my

Before the war,

who snapped there are

father took his cattle to Villette, guarded by dogs

at their heels.

no more dogs.

A

Now

that a steer costs six thousand francs,

while ago, a drink cost three sous.

Every object has become valuable

costs three francs.

in itself.

Today

it

There

is

no more waste.

A

nail,

a stub of candle,

regiment's. In contemporary

a shoelace can life,

cost a man's

one looks twice, and

if

or a

life

this

an

is

no longer anything of negligible value. Everything counts, everything competes, and the scale of ordinary and admirable thing to do, there

conventional values

object, the valuable

Contemporary

my

epoch.

It

machine

life is is

overturned.

A

nervous officer

assume

ruthlessly

the state of

war

—

that's

hard and sharp, but with to see

finished

is

The valuable man,

replaces him.

and always wants

clearly is

is

noncom

cool-headed

is

more

and

a

valuable

their natural hierarchy.

why

I

profoundly admire

immense senses

its

clearly,

the

whatever

may

it

sees

happen.

It

the end of obscurity, of chiaroscuro, and the beginning of the state

Too bad

of enlightenment.

composition of nuances,

is

weak

for those with

eyes.

The nebulous,

the

about to perish, and painters too must go

through some change.

My

literary preferences are for the

angle to see the whole spectrum of Balzac, Dostoevsky fascination. Their

hidden from me. there

is

It

are two

work

is

whom

men who have enough of a visual human drama without blinders. always reread with the same

I

a sphere, and one aspect of

must be turned

in

order to be seen; so

it

I

is

turn

always it

and

always something new. They have a sense of the "close-up."

Their work also contains the cinema of the future; there too, moving

toward personification through enlarged the fragment,

competes with

where the drama begins, life

in this

a

is

way. The hand

changeable meanings. Before

what

detail, the individualization

I

saw

hand was! The object by

it

is

in the

itself is

thing absolute, moving, and dramatic.

set,

and

stirs.

of

The cinema

an object with multiple, cinema,

I

did not

know

capable of becoming some-

66

/

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

Specialization in literature,

in

the plastic arts, can offer nothing. Art

produced exclusively from mind and place in France. Even though

I

am

prefer works that have "dimension." spite of the mistakes they

that will express

taste

occupies a considerable

French, these works escape me.

Whitman, Rimbaud, Cendrars,

I

in

do not always avoid, give us the "close-ups"

contemporary

life in

the future.

Propos

d'artistes, Paris,

1925

Frames from Leger's film Ballet Mecanique, 1923-24. {Photograph courtesy The

Museum

New

68

of

York.)

Modern

Art,

Composition, 1925. Oil on canvas, 51^/8" x 3814". The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

69

in his studio about 1925, photographed by A. E. Gallatin. (Photograph courtesy The Museum oj Modern Art, New York.)

Leger

The Ballet Spectacle, the Object-Spectacle

Until now, dancers, singers, stars of the music hall have

own more

the group spectacle to their ties.

We

with

reached

A

peak.

its

no longer

it

stage

sacrificed

in this

domain; the

predominance of ''human characterizations" has

can be varied, but the interest curve remains the

It

rises. It is stale.

music, lighting (bright enough) for a dominating acci-

set,

which

dent,

its

all

less authoritative personali-

have seen and heard almost everything

realistic ballet

same;

or

A

always spontaneously brought about.

is

man, a woman,

with or without talent, asserts himself or herself and organizes the

whole spectacle that,

in

terms of

we have submitted

to be able to

to

emerge from

different plane

where the

its

it

theatrical value.

We

have believed

as long as spectacle has existed.

this theatrical

star

is

command and

We

in

ought

pass on to a

absorbed into the plastic ranks, where

a mechanical choreography closely connected to

its

own

scenery and

music attains a whole, planned unity; where the scenery that has been immobile until now begins to move; where the spectacle's charm en-

compasses the entire

The offers

public

them new

The

stage.

itself inclines

effects

acrobat's "ever

and

toward

this theatrical

concept because

more dangerous" routine

is

intrinsically

for the danger should never be a cause for attraction, but indicate the audience's interest in the new and unexpected.

Make

it

surprises.

a beautiful thini> for tliose

who

don't expect

it,

wrong, it

does

and you are

.

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

72

and the crowds (Chaplin

the master of the stage

You can

particular sense).

banks]

mous

is

up

to;

you can

figure out too often

human

the

If

The surface

the stage

is

also brought to

measure," which

mechanism

life.

If

the

human

Everything can move; "the disappears.

Man becomes

a

everything else; instead of being the end, as he for-

like

merly was, he becomes a means effect

a considerable

is

multiplied by ten, the background of

is

now was dominant,

until

[Fair-

an enor-

is

material and the mobile-

scenery material are firmly hitched together, there field for surprise.

That

rarely guess with Chaplin.

coefficient of interest.

inspired in this

is

what Douglas

(the

of

multiplication

means of

)

destroy the

I

maximum

different

from

human

effect,

scale, if

my

scenery moves around.

obtain a whole on the stage that

I

obtain

I

totally

is

the atmosphere of the auditorium.

The following axiom must prevail in the making of spectacle: Maximum interest is obtained when the theatrical creation is diametrically different

from

the visual aspects of the auditorium.

All the genius of a dancer will not prevent a state of competition, of

resemblance, between the spectator and him. Because of feits

50 percent of

Because the

man

in the

audience and the

each other, you have an inferior

Once prejudice of emerge from

traction

this,

he for-

his surprise effect.

the individual-as-king

the

man on

the stage resemble

state of spectacle. is

gone, the means of at-

shadows and are innumerable.

Lights, projec-

tions of film, enter into play.

The mechanical working

state

can be seriously considered, that

details of gesture,

The impact of

movement, and

parallel forces

(

same time (slower rhythm) the back

of the

set,

object,

moving or unmoving,

raises

maximum.

cross the stage (fast

they return (same rhythm), the stage at the

the exact

20 performers moving together).

Contrasting forces can operate to the

Ten yellow acrobats

is.

projector.

is

rhythm) doing cartwheels,

dark; they are phosphorescent;

the film projector animates the top

curtain;

the

apparition

that holds the stage.

case, the cartwheel, the display of

of the beautiful

Time X. The

unexpected invention that

stair-

glitters

and disappears.

To

conceive of objects as the pivot of

interest, objects so beautiful

The Ballet-Spectacle they have an enormous spectacle value,

that

73

unknown and always

The honor of having sensed

sacrificed to the eternal star.

/

the interest

objects have on the stage belongs to the music-hall actors.

They did the

it

time.

first

The

it

was there

spectacle value.

its

that

I

saw them

Olympia knows obscurely

juggler at the

values his equipment for

and

for

that he

For example, he doesn't

their value; all those beautiful things are behind him, he

ponder front

surrounded themselves with them, they

timidly, they

emphasize them, but anyway,

didn't

is

in

asserts himself.

The music halls are the only places where there is daily invention. They are an inexhaustible mine of raw material. It is only glimpsed, never fully worked out, but it is in force. I know of nothing more beautiful than the '"big top of the New Circus," and when the "little fellow," lost in that metallic planet where the spotlights shine, risks his life every night, I find him ridiculous, I don't see him any more,

in spite

of

all

his

wishing to be seen, to be

elsewhere,

in a

around him.

"state of danger"; the spectacle

is

The contemporary event coming more and more to ground and must direct their

the personality of the objects; they are

There

something

is

We

are objects.

mated.

If

because itself

it

is

the forefront.

all

Man

fades into the back-

arrival.

"man, animals, and plants"; there

else besides

must reckon with them. They are stationary or

I

react

is

a tour

when

the

acrobat turns a cartwheel,

it

is

ani-

really

de force. But wouldn't you say that the cartwheel

crossing the stage enhances the spectacle, attains

and provokes more amazement? Objects have a

more beauty

plastic strength that

nothing can disturb.

Man, with his nerves and his imagination, breaks down and loses his The directed object ofi"ers up its plastic maximum without

willpower.

any waste.

It is

the fixed value.

The domination of the object the shop-spectacles have multiplied

The

everywhere

is

in

in

contemporary

life;

the cities.

pretty salesgirl behind her lottery booth at the fair fades before

the bright multicolored ferris wheel the attraction

— each one has

its

—

it

is

the beautiful object that

time.

Bulletin de I'Effort

Moderne,

Paris,

1925

is

Popular Dance Halls

There are male and female dancers

French choreography

M. Rouche's Dance,

France. There would be a

in

anyone wanted

if

to take the trouble

or Claridge's that you should go to find

like all the

other national qualities,

is

—

it's

not to

it.

exclusively the

domain

of the masses. Paris and the provinces are

and look

for

it

to find

its

four corners of France and

original source, but

quite difficult. Since

It is

it.

in

you must go out

is

scattered in the

the Paris dance halls,

you must have

it

perseverance and a particular taste for those things. All these places are very closed, hostile to strangers

They

sensitive

Most of

the

their

mask

is

very simple and human.

there are young; they have the look of

white

shirt,

without a

stiff collar,

cuts off

I

observed men's profiles; the

girls,

are accentuated

too,

because of the severity of their flattened hair and made-up eyes. they

are

dancing,

background straight,

workers

are

shoulder height. That gives the effect of a medallion. Only

at

there have

A

They too

atmosphere, and education. They

own, one that

men one meets

well-groomed workmen.

and spectators, often dangerous.

are protecting themselves.

matters of ambiance,

to

have an education of

the

They

are perfectly right.

—one

they are sees

them

backs to the wall, or

who

clearly as

a

sit at

outlined

complete

against figure;

the

When

bare-white

they stand

a table leaning on their

arms

very like

are resting their bodies.

The men's dances

are the most curious.

Head

against head, they

Popular Dance Halls dance

holding each other

stiffly,

the sides, their hands

at

/

75 their

flat,

necks glued to their bodies.

They

prize their elegance, they care for

but their style

is

wear neither a

to

they shiver in the winter,

it,

vest nor an overcoat.

Their clothes are neat and severe;

it is

and

this that creates the tragic

harsh atmosphere of the place.

They have

their style

and

shoes and caps; their hairstyle

choose their

their tastes, they carefully

as studied as

is

a very definite, simple taste; they are cold

any woman's. They have

and skeptical by the time

they reach fifteen.

Their precocity

a result of their environment;

is

natural that they begin to

They

"work" the suburban

certainly go into the factories at the

reared in an environment where nothing

is

men

the truth about everything, they are

villas

it

is

completely

by age

sixteen.

They have been hidden. Painfully, knowing same

age.

before their time, and this

explains their decisiveness and their sense of purpose. Their eyes saw

everything from the minute they were born. In that school, one

young for long. They make judgments quickly and

well.

It

I

knew

admired

a

gang

in the

dance

halls of Crenelle

and

a perfect

is

world that a faulty literature prevents us from seeing as

I

not

Their likes and dislikes are

decided instinctively in a matter of minutes.

war,

is

who

total

Before the

it is.

did shoplifting.

their operating procedures.

The chief, a little sixteen-year-old with dark hair and hard eyes, made the judgments and decisions. There were three of them. One was to serve

as

"decoy" for the grocer, and the two others to

They were

merchandise.

stanch discipline. that everything in "the

An

a

homogeneous

"invisible" tactic:

trio

street" in

broad

the

lift

intelligent

and

they had accurately observed

depended on decisiveness and

rhythm of the

with

discretion.

daylight; their ploy

They worked was

to avoid

any glances by making no unusual gestures that might cause a passerby to stop

and look. Their admiration for one of

like this:

"He's an ace

The whole world

—

is

It

is

a

word

—the

life,

ingenuity, charm,

expressed

who compose

and

wit.

A

only right one, not bookish, un-

hundred times superior

sionals" of the salon,

own was

he's transparent."

teeming with

wit ready with the right translatable.

their

to

our lamentable "profes-

their witticisms in

advance and

—— 76

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

bore humanity. Their strength they do what they do very well, I

saw them

and stupidly

in the

is

their purity. Their sense of truth

it's all

over, well done.

war, most of them misunderstood by the officers

would have

sacrificed; in the right spot, their effectiveness

been astonishing.

So go

to

one of

their

dance

ately the target of every eye.

weighed with

Once

The door opens, you The man who is entering

halls.

are

immedi-

is

watched,

infinite subtlety.

as far as the door,

you gauge whether

the situation

feasible

is

or not.

my

In spite of to a standstill

great familiarity with these places,

and

I

have to leave.

No word

I

sometimes come

or gesture

is

but by the looks alone or the pause in the conversations,

clear that

and you go away. Not that the situation would be

"things won't

jell,"

dangerous

can be), but your aim

(it

exchanged,

it's

is

frustrated; the spectacle stops,

changed; you break the fragile atmosphere that makes

is

it

worth

seeing.

But once you are loyed,

where

imaginative

are frank and lively,

augmented with perfectly suited

frills.

The couples touch each other very dance

have the very

will

pure Frenchmen, absolutely unal-

the traditions are preserved.

all

The dances

you

inside without a scratch,

distinct feeling of being with very

lightly,

little.

Whether slow or

fast,

they

without any sexuality. The American dances and fash-

ionable aberrations have had very

little

effect

on them

(at least in the

very remote dance halls).

These places have a beautiful and

charged with

tragic atmosphere,

open with

intrigues of passion that are veiled or break out into the

incredible swiftness.

The

orchestra

is

simple: an accordion and

to the musician's ankle.

The one-man

wall in his shirtsleeves.

He

lar tunes of the

He

is

No

some small

orchestra

is

dominates the dancers.

He

moment, which he embellishes with

a perpetual inventor

who

is

attached

plays the popu-

his

own

creations.

loves his work.

two of them play the same way, but

rhythm, and their music

bells

stuck up against the

all

of them have a sense of

essentially for dancing.

Several times I've seen this happen:

a couple

—often

two men

Popular Dance Halls

The orchestra

thrusts itself forward.

Those men must have been

They have watched what

instinct for

that

is

in

the dances on earth. Their timing

I

down

a rapid

progressively

it

until the

rhythm

it

gathers

knees touch the

and

their

speed

floor,

— then

gradual

then stretching up.

begins again, the whole performance adorned at the

become monotonous. This dance was

dance

for them.

met the inventor of the "whirling dance." Begin-

a slow waltz,

with acrobatic embellishments just to

them and plays

over the world as sailors or outlaws.

French produces a perfectly balanced arrangement

is

years ago,

crouching

With

sees

77

very disciplined and without exoticism.

Two ning

all

all

/

moment

the dance threatens

a favorite in the

Convention

halls.

Those are the places where we must look for the sources of a new French choreography.

It's

nowhere

else.

Bulletin de I'Effort

Moderne.

Paris,

1925

The Street: Objects, Spectacles

Should the

any

considered as one of the fine arts? Perhaps, but

street be

case, the present element, the central element of the street,

in

the

is

object rather than the poster, which fades into a secondary position

and disappears. The

direct accession of the object to decorative vahie

does not displease Jean Cocteau and comes painter friends.

no

as

surprise

to

his

belongs to the realm of pure plasticity, the sculptural

It

and constructive realm. If the

modern

Paris street has a style,

certainly

is

it

due to

this

new

taste for the object itself, for form.

From

the day

when

a

woman's head was considered an oval

object

emphasized, hair has disappeared and more care than ever

to be

taken with make-up. the eye, the

mouth

mannequin has followed the trend. The age of the naked, of light. There

.

.

is

.

is

and, naturally, the store

no longer a fondness for

dubious mystical-Oriental seductiveness, for chiaroscuro.

The lated

indiscreet spotlight, the studio klieg light. Sun.

and enlarged

a

Economic pressure has brought merchandise.

have beauty. his

He One

has discovered fine day.

the it;

A

without

drum

fine arts, for

style

merchant

is

iso-

to his knees before his

he put a shoe or a leg of lamb on display taste

was born, very contemporary

or trumpet. it

detail

he has perceived that his objects

shop window, getting a perspective. His

the rest.

The

thousand times.

Then

in

and imagination did

—

a

revolution

made

the store can be considered one of the

majestically dressed by a thousand hands that daily

The

make and remake no longer

Cadum

modern

the

that

The Cappiello

persists.

on the white wall ...

Go

with religious neurasthenia.

and go

to the end,

and you

to see,

and the continuous

billboard object,

is

the

An

automobile chassis, com-

along the

street. Start

from the center

will see the reel unroll.

This aesthetic of the isolated object

amusing

79

a harsh, exact age, incompatible

difficult.

is

only around the Opera and the Champs-Elysees. it is

/

poster remains the classic ex-

ample of the mural billboard mistake. pletely bare, put

The one enormous

stores' pretty scenery.

match for them. Only

a

Baby,

Street

It

on the sidewalks and everywhere efforts that are

being

made

is

As one

fully realized strolls along,

else, the

research

achieve this aes-

to

thetic.

The

lower-class sections of Paris have not been able to follow the

trend; they have kept their taste for diversity, intensity. There

minimum

the most possible in the

space.

you

find

In spite of this, they get

results.

Let us go to the Temple

realm of shoes and

ties.

.

.

district .

on the

Jack, from

seduce you with his poetry of caps.

will

Every nuance

tune.

is

have something to

You Their

you

a

tell

bit.

Belleville,

as pretty as an accordion

Go

in

on the

which range from pale pink

This district

and watch a

fitting,

in this

and you

me.

will find cubist slippers

shirts,

It is

you enter the

York, Rue de

melodiously orchestrated. The gentlemen

section are very uncompromising. will

outskirts; here

New

is

feet of the

Chapelle dancers.

to yellow-orange, will

dismay

very late-eighteenth-century. There, style

is

dead.

All the great ages have striven for the vertical arrangement of the isolated object to obtain a decorative or plastic value.

This lar

is

the

framework of the seventh-century mosaics, of

the popu-

engravings of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.

With

the Italian Renaissance the taste for the subject drove out the

taste for the object

The

and destroyed

beautiful pharmacies

meat shops on the Rue de

la

style.

on the Boulevard Sebastopol, the horseRoquette, and, trapped

in all that, over-

8o

/

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

whelmed and absorbed by it, the good can move you to tears, hidden as it equine hind legs lined up

like soldiers,

old store from the i88os, which is

in

the

shadow of

according to

a

size, as if

hundred

they were

on parade. Cahiers de

la

Repiiblique des Lettres, Paris, 1928

Abstract Art

Color

a vital element, like

is

water and

It

fire.

is

unquestionably an

essential requirement.

One

cuts flowers in

the garden

in

order to have them

one's

in

apartment, along with pictures. Pictures are art objects in which color counts for 60 percent.

Every

pictorial

school has utilized color.

How

it

is

used

is

the

distinguishing factor.

"Local color" reigned

The

until

impressionism.

impressionists began to theorize openly about the division of

color (complementary colors), and they applied the principle toward a

new

plasticity.

Every impressionist work rally, the

that venture; little

is

based on a

scientific observation.

Natu-

neoimpressionists appeared, tendentious and logical, to end

and the impressionist school quietly faded away with a

theoretical

game about complementary and

constructive colors.

Cubism, born out of the need for a reaction, started out with monochromatic tones and did not become colorful

But

more

local color

is

regaining

forceful color.

green, did not color;

itself

until

some years

later.

[former] place. Local color produces

Impressionism, which juxtaposed a red with a it

constructed. This delicate construction could

not do two things at once; blue by

its

remains blue

it

if

produced "gray." For example, a pure it

is

next to a gray or a noncomple-

82

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

mental y color.

If

put next to an orange, the relationship becomes

is

it

constructive but does not color.

Too much

then the question. This

is

work and

cubists'

no color.

color,

Local color

the

work of

The latter are right own inquiries do.

their

to say that cubists'

Personally,

ever involving myself totally

word

They ity is

his

is

the last

half open; they have

is

complete. External activ-

simplest expression. Evolution had to go that

its

far.

indisputable plastic fact. Neoplasticism had to

done.

Whether one I

as far as

"edge" without

will go.

are the true purists. Their analysis

reduced to

It is

the

own work.

They have created an exist.

it

at the

concept, which

The door remains

followed their experience as far as

To each

into

works cannot go

have stayed

I

in their radical

tendentious research.

in

what intrudes

is

the neoplasticists.

likes

homage

offer

it

to

or not these

is

not the question.

northern

for

artists

their

and un-

faith

selfishness.

Confronted with the dubious pressures of "no matter what it

sells," these artists

as long as

remain standing and continue their work

of the almost total lack of comprehension

shown by

are right, for they deal with certain concerns of their period,

so complex

in its

in spite

the world.

They

which

is

aspirations.

Being antiromantic and deliberately inexpressive themselves, they

have

tried

to

"compensate" with

They have daringly used

as the

a

strict

and traditional technique.

"main character" the colored plane,

which has obsessed painters since 19 12; the geometric shape rigorously limits it, it cannot escape. Color is locked in and must remain fixed and immobile. Neoplasticism signifies an almost

concerns through the

torial

artists'

total liberation

from ordinary

pic-

sense of reduction and restriction

and through constraint of the chosen elements.

The

cult of the equilibrium of

far that

it

now

geometric color has been pushed so

gives the impression

it

has stopped, that nothing moves

any longer.

That It

is

is

a

how

it

seems, but that

mute, essentially

is

static

not art.

how

it

is.

which

will

always function for

Abstract Art

some

who have

initiates

/

83

freed themselves from the ordinary and are

apt to be satisfied by a coefficient of beauty that does not change and

does not even seem It is

visible.

interesting that this

problem of a new

plastic rationalism

should

be resolved by northerners, whose recent traditions are madly romantic

and

full

of vagueness.

The contemporary worry about restlessness domain is a delicate matter

precision and exactness in the pictorial resolve;

worry has any

if this

tastes that

now dominate

future,

game

Neoplasticism

Abstract art

that

is

is

this

new

to a it,

demand,

is

most important, the most interesting of the

this

is

it

differ-

twenty-five years.

last

an art that has an

is

an art that has come into being and that responds

for a certain

proving that

limits,

it.

an experimental curiosity;

definitely not

intrinsic value. It

outermost

spirit to its

ent plastic trends that have developed during the It is

to

go against the impressionist

must be played.

proof of

the

will

the contemporary world.

Pure abstraction, pushed by a dangerous

it

of

number

tendency

Perhaps the future

will

"artificial paradises," but

I

of collectors are enthusiastic about

exists in life.

rank neoplasticism among the number of

doubt

it.

This direction

dominated by the

is

desire for perfection and complete freedom that makes saints, heroes, and madmen. It is an extreme state in which only a few creators and

admirers can maintain themselves. The danger of

this

formula

is

its

very loftiness.

Modern

life,

tumultuous and rapid, dynamic and

going to batter furiously that calmly emerges to be done;

it

at this frail

from the chaos.

full

of contrast,

structure, luminous and

Do

not touch

it,

it

is

is

delicate,

done;

it

had

will stay.

Cahiers d'Art, Paris, 1931

Hovf York

The most

colossal spectacle in the world. Neither film nor

nor reportage can dim the amazing spectacle that night, seen

from the

fortieth floor. This city has

the vulgarizations,

all

scribe her,

copy

her.

all

photography

New York

at

been able to withstand

men who have

tried to de-

She retains her freshness, her unexpectedness, her

surprise for the traveler

The ocean

the curiosity of

is

who

seeing her for the

is

liner, cruising slowly, shifts

first

time.

the perspectives gently; one

looks for the Statue of Liberty, France's

gift.

It

is

a

unpre-

small,

tentious statue, forgotten in the middle of the port in front of this

daring vertical lifts

new

continent.

You

her arm as high as possible.

faintly illuminates

enormous

don't even see her, although she

no

light,

she

and

majestic, that cover her with their shadows.

Six o'clock at night. tall,

liner

use.

.

.

.

moves slowly forward.

A

mass, erect,

elegant as a church, appears in the distance, shrouded by fog.

blue and rose, style, thrusting It

The

Like a night

things that move, forms, indifferent

It's

Wall

is

smudged skyward

Street,

like a pastel, closely

like a challenge.

which dominates

compressed

you

and

elusive,

arrive in front of this steep mountain, the

its

ordered rows of windows,

its

vast

moving,

work of men,

which slowly emerges and becomes sharper, takes shape, with angles,

It is

Gothic

What is this new religion? this new world from its

height. After six days of crossing the water, fluid

yielding,

in a

metallic color.

It

its

sharp

rears

up

New violently above the level of the sea.

The boat

turns

.

.

York

.

/

85

the buildings

slowly disappear, their profiles gleaming like armor.

This

the apotheosis of vertical architecture: a bold collaboration

is

An

between architects and unscrupulous bankers pushed by necessity.

unknown, unplanned elegance emerges from this geometric abstraction. Squeezed into two metal angles, these are figures, numbers that climb

stiffly

A new

toward the sky, controlled by a distorting perspective.

world.

Brooklyn!

.

.

.

massive

Its

piers, a

play of shadow and

with their vertical, horizontal, and oblique

York city.

in the light that increases little .

New York

.

.

with

by

lines.

as

little,

.

.

light, the bridges,

The

.

birth of

millions of lighted windows.

its

many windows? What German

will calculate that

Astonishing country where the houses are

where the window washers are

millionaires,

New

one advances into the

odd

taller

where

.

.

.

How

statistic?

than the churches, football

games

are

organized between the prisoners and the police!

The

architectural severity

colored

lights.

The

is

broken up by the myriad fantasy of

great spectacle begins

when they go

radiant vision has that special something that no spired, has captured, nor has any theater director

one has "managed"

action. This

its

houses inhabited by tenants that astonish

us

like

are lighted

unrewarding daily

jobs.

sive

stories

on, and this

however

had a hand

in

by people

it.

in-

No

performed by the

is

you and me. Those thousands of

who work humbly

Those huge buildings are

rational; their vertical thrust reflects

Those

moving play

artist,

strictly

at

lights

their

utilitarian,

economic reasons.

have been erected because land

is

limited and expen-

and cannot be increased. Builders are compelled to construct There is no romantic sentiment in all this, no shadow of

vertically.

misapplied pride. All tarian.

an

The most

astonishing orchestration

is

is

strictly

utili-

not the work of

artist.

New York trees,

has a natural beauty, like the elements of nature; like

mountains, flowers. This

madness it

this

beautiful spectacle "in the world"*

to think of

humbly, and

that's

is

employing such all.

* In English in original.

—Tr.

its

strength and

its

a subject artistically.

variety.

It

is

One admires

86

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Within

is

and the

like a doll,

it

city:

an unbroken chain that

doll

runs a character indis-

It is

makes speaks, rings, and

this

ties

life

the telephone.

The American

part of the family.

trains

and organized

this multifarious

pensable to this limitless

child

the leading actor. it

laughs.

It

It

He

his plaything.

constitutes

whole swift-moving crowded world

together like mountain climbers. If

it

suddenly died one day, there would be no one

at its funeral

because no one would be able to find out what day and time

it

was

going to be held.

New York

and the telephone came

on the same boat, Mechanical

life

mark

overshot the

American

.

apogee here.

at its

is .

on the same day,

into the world

conquer the world.

to

It

has "reached the ceiling,"

crisis!

.

pushed

a succession of adventures optimistically

life is

as

far as they will go.

They have

risked everything, tried everything; their achievements are

the ultimate. Naturally architectural

thing that

is

seen, above

all.

their plastic expression. In the

New York if

volume had

to tempt them. Every-

Architecture and light are the two poles of

baroque

style they achieve monstrosities.

and Atlantic City have cinemas that are hard

to describe

you have never seen them: an unbelievable accumulation of every

European and Asian the

fancy,

street."

advertise

Hugeness

chaos on a colossal

style,

in the

scale, in

order to strike

and do "more than the one across the

itself,

game

of "I'm richer than you."

who

Useless staircases, incalculable numbers of employees to astonish you, attract you,

the whole dizzying show, I

adore

this

virulence that

is

all

there,

my

eyes,

I

at the

sense

gant dynamism, but Letters friction

thrown

They have

I

all

fire

if

the tragedies that lurk to look

and

I

are there

the aim of

and Beauty.

To swallow

very young.

extreme. Naturally,

came

is

that unrestrained vitality, the

in mistakes. It's

into the mail chutes

and catch

with snow.

even

to both nausea

all

the while, to cut off a finger because

America

That's

which extends

overloaded spectacle,

sword smiling close

and take your money. That

I

it's

dirty.

.

.

stop to reflect,

around

if

I

this extrava-

go on looking.

on the

fiftieth floor get

hot from

by the time they arrive on the ground

to chill the mail chutes

a

.

— too cold,

and

floor.

the letters will arrive

New Everyone smokes

New

in

York, even on the

maintain that smoking during a meal

you from

getting

fat

— an

street.

will distract

York

/

87

Some young

girls

you and thus prevent

unexpected connection between cigarettes

and elegance.

New York

During the day is

gray,

Why with

It

and

lacks color,

if

the sky

Why

not put color on the houses?

this oversight in the

country

these inventions?

all

Avenue could be

Fifth

Why

too severe.

is

a city of lead.

it is

And

not?

Madison, blue; Park Avenue, yellow.

red;

the lack of vegetation?

New York

has no

cine decreed a long time ago that green in particular

indispensable to

We

life.

necessary as water and

must

trees.

with color around us;

live

Medi-

a color that

is

it

is

as

is

fire.

Clothing manufacturers could be compelled to put out a group of green dresses and green

suits.

.

.

.

Every month, a dictator of color would decree the monthly or quarterly colors

—the blue quarter, the pink fortnight! Trees could

out for rides

who

the street for those

in

Moving landscapes decorated with

can't get

be taken

the country.

to

tropical flowers pulled slowly along

by plumed horses.

Two

all alike,

.

.

Avenue

rows of

in

motionless

.

light.

A

Nothing

discover the horse, iron silence. feeling his

.

.

.

is

I

...

He

movements ...

lower-class for trucks,

for a parade, like elephants, a

and look around ... a

go

in

in

the back, off to the

is

left,

I

the only living thing in this

pleasure of touching him, of seeing

him move, of

in contrast that

to absorb every noise that a horse resting could

tiny sounds, never varying.

delicate his

bells

if

warmth. This beast takes on so much value

would have been able

make:

moving.

harnessed up.

all

The

or

polished as

six,

sound of ridiculous harness

I

random ... a B ... an immense garage

o'clock in the morning, streets at

neighborhood

his ears

I

listened to his breathing

...

his

... his black eyes ... a white spot on

forehead ... his shining hoof and his knee that slowly shifted from

time to time.

The

last

carriage horse.

dow on Sundays and the world

Soon he

will

children will be

moimted on

that.

be exhibited

amazed

that

in a

display win-

Napoleon conquered

88

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Visit the office of Corbett the architect

He

one of the greatest figures

is

man,

natured

tall,

20,000 people living

He

tells

one building, that

in

with [Friedrich] Kiesler.

American

in

uncomplicated.

think that the solution

''

is

building.

my

A

fine,

good-

"Accommodating

me:

current work." Don't

only a question of the floor space! No,

is

it's

more complicated; it's a matter of the elevators. Maneuvering this army vertically! Bringing them down every day to the four dining rooms that are located sixty-five feet underground and making all that work at the desired times. The second thing is like a game, nothing more. Getting them outside .

without stopping

...

traffic.

.

.

months of work. Ten

Six

specialized

engineers haven't found the solution yet.

A in

specifically

American problem

mass production,

make

in

the whole comfortable.

They

A New

—

in reasoning, in

order to

World!

give the impression of never lingering over anything; a

where one thing follows another

York

—they are unbeatable

numbers. Starting from numbers

it

will

buildings,

be

targets!

possible that Marshal Petain

What

it.

question of war,

isn't

succession.

swift

completely differently.

rebuilt

what wonderful

second, to do

in

was not tempted for

a magnificent job for

it,

my

Furthermore,

To demolish New York!

dear general?

I

an

was

those

It's

not

a second, a half-

artillery barrage. at

life

New

Destroy

Verdun under

A his

command, it's enough, but for the sport, for love of the profession! The Americans would be the first to applaud, and then what would you see? A little while later a new town would be built. Can you guess how? I'll give you the answer in thousands! In glass, in glass! Their latest invention is this. Engineers have found a way to make glass out of milk curds;

the problem! All the

it's

cows

in

cheaper than concrete.

America

You can

imagine

are working for the reconstruc-

tion of the capital!

A

transparent, translucent

floors!

An

streaming through

The *

New

all

that

light

unleashed by

lower-class neighborhoods are beautiful at any hour.

—Ed.

Edison

and pulverizing the buildings.

Harvey Wiley Corbett was one of

Center.

York, with blue, yellow, and red

unprecedented fairyland, the

They have

the principal architects of Rockefeller

New a crudeness. such

York

/

89

raw materials. The Russian, Jewish,

a wealth of

and Chinese neighborhoods. Third Avenue, on Saturday night and Sunday, it's like Marseilles! Italian,

Pink hats for the Negroes. Windows where a bicycle

above a dozen eggs stuck

Plucked chickens hung

background

A

rows

in

in

in

vigorous decorative

suspended

is

.

a black

The

on

gives infinite value to the object

life

sale.

unemployed: nothing distinguishes them from

the

more

Huddled

slowly.

parks, they don't talk to each other. These

little

silent.

.

half light, displayed against

a

other people except that they walk the

.

— a danse macabrel

The demeanor of in

green sand.

side

by side

crowds are

individual remains isolated; he doesn't communicate.

He

reads or sleeps!

Wall Street during the day: see

it's

been described too often, but go to

it!

Wall Street

Wall Street

night,

at

two o'clock

at

under a cold, dazzling moon. The silence

narrow

the

in

streets,

and perspectives

choked by

A

Where

you were

in a vast necropolis.

we?

are

moves. Overwhelmed by tiny headstones so

exuberance of the

cemetery

is

life

forest of granite,

that surrounds

certainly the

...

beginning part of the

its

of

life.

sleeps. Let's

work, work

additions,

it.

It

if

cemetery with

continue our

like a resting place,

multiplications,

—Tr.

a

hear a

faint, regular

drill that is

harmoniously

stroll.

it's

a

I

like a termite's. There's

that really sleeps.

In English in original.

The property occupied by that in the world. The "busi-

solve death, the ultimate problem!

It

no

noise.

It's

the only

has to digest the day's numbers,

the financial

these thousands of individuals focusing

''-

a tiny

remains there

To

Wall Street snoring? No,

New York

oppress you as

most expensive

it.

in that torrent

Is

may

humble, so modest. Death becomes tiny before the

nessmen"* haven't touched Wall Street

nobody

Steps echo on the pavement. Nothing

break

murmuring.

is

toward the sky. What a

feeling of solitude

this

morning,

the

in

There

the violent projection of sharp lines

that are infinitely multiplied

spectacle!

little

absolute.

is

and abstract algebra of

on the great problem of gold.

90

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Wall Street sleeps soundly. Let's not wake ground,

up.

it

A

hundred

under-

feet

the bedrock, the steel vaults of the Irving Bank.

in

At

the

center the safes with magnificent shining locks that are as complex as

room, where a few men keep watch. Ultrasensitive

a police

life itself,

microphones carry the

sounds

slightest

up any noises from beneath the .

.

.

they hear

but

A

fly

also

it

old

descends into those microphones that quietly

Southern song.

register the old

Wall Street

them, and pick

modern bank.

Negro ambles through the streets, sweetly Southern tune. The song rises, losing itself among the flying.

it

singing an old buildings,

An

in the street to

steel vaults of the

is

not sleeping.

.

.

.

Wall Street

is

dead.

cemetery again. These are not the greatest banks

in

I

pass the

little

No,

the world!

they are the proudest tombs of the families of great billionaires. There rest the

Morgans, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies. Like the pharaohs,

they have built their pyramids. They will be buried standing up, like

And

demigods.

modern giants become legendary and imwindows have been cut out for them so that the perhaps they aren't dead, but that they breathe and these

as

mortal, a thousand

people

know

that

once again

will return

Wall Street

is

to

astound the world with grandiose

new

ideas.

the image of America's daring, of this nation that

always acts and never looks behind.

New York The two

.

.

.

Moscow! modern

poles of

activity.

.

.

Contemporary

.

life

is

con-

centrated there.

New York Moscow

.

.

.

.

.

.

Moscow!

New

York!

Paris the onlooker!

Georges Duhamel" came

Frenchman had

to

America with

the notions of an average

in his suitcase, and beside them, in the

his slippers.

Maybe he

same

he

suitcase,

couldn't use them, and that put

him

in

a

bad mood. They don't use them here any more. That's why Americans have pretty

feet

and arc queens. You must never

that sends your hat

fl\

ing as

it

speeds by

at a

get

angry

at the train

hundred miles an hour.

Colliers d'Art, Paris, 193 '''Georges

Duhamel (1884-1966) was

Salavin cvcle, a series of novels.

— Ed.

a

French writer best known for

i

his

The YiaU, the Architect, the Painter

The contemporary world

is,

more than anything

else,

drunk with

understanding.

A

human

pride born out of the astonishing achievements of the last

few centuries wants

to

understand everything through logic or deduc-

call a halt in the presence of the work of remember that our sensory "instincts" come into play there. The work of art is reserved for those who feel; it is their revenge on

tion. art

However, we must

—and

the intellectuals.

There

is

a tie

between the

artist

who

appreciates, a delicate atmosphere that

creates

hicle for the great affections that gather

plained, and

works

to

it is

around

us. It

is

the ve-

cannot be ex-

exactly this rather mysterious aura that enables these

endure and

to be

admired by men of other generations. The

permanent value of the work of intellectual has yet

art

is

been able to put

plain the reason for Beauty. Let's

never penetrate into

this

which

rises

the Beautiful,

and the amateur who

inexplicable, that

is

possible because

it

under

his

no scholar, no

microscope and ex-

hope that the analytic

domain because

it

spirit

may

would destroy that marvel,

above the melee of tumultuous moral

life.

The current trend toward "determinism," toward clarity, is difficult to check when it laps at the foot of the picture. But there are some ambiguities here that we must try to clear up. I am oversimplifying, but sometimes It

it is

necessary to dot the

has never been a matter,

in a

i's.

work of

art,

of copying nature.

It is

92

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

a matter of finding an equivalent for nature, that

taneously within the frame

assembling

lines, colors,

justifies

accurate resemblance to nature.

every good student

is,

capturing simul-

harmony created by

a

and forms, independent of representation.

The harmony of the work less

movement, and

life,

everything, and not

who had

Ecole des Beaux- Arts

at the

its

more or

was worth anything,

If imitation

supposedly

On

learned to copy nature would be able to declare himself a genius. the other hand, in the

same

you put several copyists

if

at the

light,

same

time,

show

cians call "Nature"?

It

same

So what

different results.

We

doesn't exist.

is

Each person

within ourselves.

every

is

form. Therefore that

makes

taste.

are

we must

intelligent

men

different

is

No

do the same

will

object, in the

same

this tale that the

see the objects that surround us through our

individual, as

of the same model,

none of them

thing; even several photographs of the tion, will

in front

subjective; that

all

own

posi-

Academi-

we

is,

eyes and judge them

inside,

every judgment

one sees the same object

in the

is

same

eliminate that famous point of comparison of judgment think

it

pare the picture with nature. That's worthless.

is

satisfactory to

com-

One cannot judge by

comparison. If

you have,

in front

of you,

"This one quality,

for example, a

drawing by Ingres and one by Delacroix

not a question of comparing them and saying:

is

it

They

better than that one."

is

but different, and done by subjectivity will incline

will prefer

one or the other,

is

two drawings of the same with contrary sensibilities.

you toward one or the other. You but you must refrain from saying: "That

Your own one

are

artists

better than the other."

The world

is

enormous mistake because of

victim of this

a

Italian Renaissance.

The majority

of

human

beings believe that

is

no

error

in

a greater epoch than the others, an epoch of progress. There progress

art

in

— and

judgment because

and

inferior.

The

it

the

made

Renaissance,

which created

this

the point of comparison possible,

it

the

was

is

guilty

great epochs before the Italian Renaissance are free

from the viewpoint of Imitation. They invented

their

Romanesque, Chinese, Indochinese, Egyptian, Aztec,

form (Gothic, etc.).

Rather

than being inferior to the fifteenth century, those epochs were infinitely superior to

it

in

plastic execution.

prototype of the grossest error

in

Michelangelo as a sculptor

is

the

seeking for the Beautiful by copying

— The

Wall, the Architect, the Painter

human muscular arrangement. A century

sensibility

make

through the

beautiful

contains than the leg of a statue by Michelangelo where

it

the left muscle to

93

poor, twisted Christ of the twelfth

more moving and more

infinitely

is

/

prescribed anatomical position. Try as he

in its

is

may

muscles swell to give the impression of strength, he

the

achieves nothing at

all.

man who wants

But the average himself: "That's

Even

it.

I

to understand everything says to

can appreciate a work of

Everything

art.

work is inferior." This attitude must be destroyed without delay. The academic schools naturally have pounced on that idea and teach from that position. It is so easy, but all the same a little too facile. that

not as well copied as Michelangelo's

is

A

whole reactionary tendency today proposes

of things.

They

admirable works of

to return to this order

have before us centuries of

Public buildings and cathedrals, architectural

art.

immortalized by the opinion of time, and they would

styles

blow

We

can't "let things be."

all

away with

that

For

a gust of reaction.

to

like

the contemporary

modernists are the faithful continuers of the pre-Renaissance periods that

you

know

all

our outposts

lie

about.

We

have borrowed our culture from them,

on their shores. Impressionism, which came before us

with names like Renoir and Cezanne,

they

make

perceptible,

our cradle.

is

We

we have never gone beyond

the liberation further, but

and our work

closely

is

have pushed

the areas that the

to

tied

earlier

epochs.

The economic and

social events to

what affected the scheme of

artistic

which we are linked have some-

achievement. Easel painting, born

with individualism, has become the current form for most pictorial

works.

It

To have

was

the advent of individualism that

the picture

you

gether individual collections, that's where In the past, pictorial art

mosaics, frescoes. tions.

was

closely

Of course the creative The extreme freedom in

takes, but also

we

this

form on

your house;

us.

to put to-

are.

bound up with architecture

painter-artist submitted to architectural limita-

This was the great order

revived. then.

The

imposed

like for yourself, in

in

antiquity,

position

is

which

I

hope

no longer the same

easel painting has permitted

as

to

see

it

was

some mis-

wonderful inventiveness.

Architectural necessities restrict us to a given dimension. Individ-

94

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

You must work

ualism must suffer.

and

rational architecture that

The

collaboration.

in

simplified

going to conquer the world must serve

is

as a possibility for reviving this collective art that created

masterpieces before the Renaissance.

new

tending toward this

ways survive

— but

The evolution of

may

be

—and

will

al-

order. Easel painting survives

can be broadened by the Renaissance mural.

it

Here we touch on

the essential point of this lecture.

The question

fraught with consequences and perhaps with argument.

and

that

I

closest contact with the

painter and

must

I

such. If they are

I

them

tell

"moved"

Right now, there

is

several small truths or

to respond,

America has gone too is

what

I

has the I

am

a

think are

cannot ask anything more.

I

worldwide catastrophe that

a

cxticmc excesses with which we are

dollar-value,

am

I

deeply admire their architectural and social work,

I

among modern painters. am perhaps the one who new builders. But do not forget that

that,

is

ask the dis-

I

remember

tinguished architects here to be kind enough to their friend, that

immortal

society

now

results

from some

struggling.

far in forgetting that

raw material, and not

its

important.

Ask an American:

What What

cotton?

is

the price of cotton?

How much What

don't know.

is

/

cotton

is

know.

/

there in the world?

are your profits?

/

Wall Street has i^one too far Wall Street

an

is

vertical architecture has

same

places.

slowest city

in

The modern

A

don't know.

in

turning everything into speculation.

amazing abstraction, but catastrophic. American

building must disgorge the

/

know.

gone too far

all

traffic

its

human

jam.

New

in

forgetting that a forty-story

content

at the

same time and

York, that colossal paradox,

is

at

the

the world. architect, he too, has

gone too

far. in his

He had

magnificent

The young men whom admire build, and it is new, with air and light these are their new raw materials. They have magically dispelled the feeling of weight and volume that we have always suffered under. The intoxicaattempts to cleanse through emptiness.

to

do

it.

—

I

tion of emptiness, revolution; for there

pride

—a

is

a revolution. Revolution

violent rupture with the previous state of things.

followed them. Every revolution has

its

elite

An

minority. That

elite is

and has

fine as

The Wall, the Architect, the Painter far as

goes.

it

It is

— they Be

involved.

want

up the easel

to give

Here

careful!

the

is

point. is

build, they are going to tackle the average

has surrounded

has lived

in the

thought dead

Modern

The revolution that They are going to

finished.

man, the crowd, which

bareness, a gigantic unexplored pile of junk that

coming back

is

until

to

was

life.

buildings have put the individual "ahead of the wall" to

and closes up;

it

socially

with knick-knacks and wall hangings, which

such a point that the furniture lows

become

decorative complex.

new

In this

itself

"Ur-

spreading.

is

position, to

tragic

and stripping clean

consists of destroying

now

95

an easel architecture, an individual architecture, that

responds to a limited demand. But the formula

banism"

/

its

The

the wall.

itself fits into

wall swal-

surface becomes smooth again.

The stripping away goes as far as that; they no longer tolerate even the volume of the furniture. So, no more volume, no more form; an impalpability of air, of slick, brilliant new surfaces where nothing can be hidden any longer. Even shadows don't dare to enter; they can't find their places any more. It is a modern minotaur, drunk with light and clarity, who rears up before the little modern fellow, who has hardly gotten over his knick-knacks and his frills, and thinks of them all the time.

"Nature abhors a vacuum." The average large

himself.

He

gets dizzy, he

is

not prepared.

catches him unaware. There he

before this

To

my

man

is

lost in front

dead surface. He gropes around, he looks for a way

pitiless

distract

friends,

I

new

reality

you from

am

is,

It is

a revolution

the average man, a

—the modern

this interior wall

to

of a

save

— which

human

cipher

wall.

over which

I

am

battling with

going to talk to you about the exterior wall, bordering

the roads of the world. In

many

countries, above

all in

the north, people have a tendency to I

prefer the

the southern countries,

where the

put color on the outsides of their houses. village walls in

my

houses show their age

The

country or

in

I

admit that

like people.

old French villages carry the marks of time on their walls and

their stones.

The

north,

young and

things ceaselessly.

It is

less individual, colors,

the decorative

life.

No

decks out, and restores

one admits

his age. It

is

96

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

less

moving but more enjoyable.

But the other wall, the

a kind of courtesy of the road, a

It is

pleasure that wants to hide reality,

training.

it is

large, terrible interior wall that waits for

once you close the door, we must go on talking about

want

architects It is

to

keep

it

the

way

responses can profit from Socially,

it is

account.

My

as

are going too far.

such

architect friends,

it

not

is

we should

work

it

is

a

work of

art.

that takes society into

be able to get together about

to forget that painters are put into this

order to destroy dead surfaces, to

and our

in the minority,

is

Artistically, bravo:

dangerous, because

You want

this wall.

it.

They

it is.

and

a revolutionary position

you

Many

that.

make them

world

livable, to spare us

in

from

overly extreme architectural positions.

Why

what was possible during

is

Man

possible today?

Objects change. Taste changes.

and twelfth centuries not

the eighth

has not changed.

It

is

terrible,

Food changes, but

there

but is

accurate.

the

famous

matter of quantity that doesn't change. I

think,

my

dear architects, that you have reached the irreducible

quantities.

Men

always eat the same amount, always sleep the same amount,

they always live and die after about the same lifespan.

They want

The

son."

selves. If

inside. The problem is when you are dealing with the "average perbecome evident; the necessities assert them-

their quantity of livable space

deeply human, especially "limitations"

you destroy,

in

time you must invent the famous "vahte of

substitution."

There

is

a

gap between the tendency of the new architecture and the

average, habitable city dwelling. at

It is

which the worst reactions may

empty space,

a dangerous

infiltrate

— and

a point

find reasons for de-

veloping.

The

elite

has followed you,

agreed,

that's

easy enough; but the

others, the average group, has not been able to.

You

set

off at top

speed, with heads held high, and a disdainful expression toward an ideal

end that

I

admire profoundly, but

in this

Beauty, you have to glance behind vourselves

race toward absolute

all

the same.

You

are

alone, they haven't been following you\

You have

to stop

and ask yourself

to

what extent

that world that

out of breath, which you no longer see behind you, to what degree

it

is is

The Wall, capable of

Out of waiting

the

foot

amazed

with your rhythm and this

you haven't wanted

pride,

at

fellow,

in

fJttitii^

at

of the

He

to

/

97

new standard of

U/e.

in

call

Nevertheless,

stairs.

the

painter

who

this

decent,

modest

your speed, would have served

between your theoretical

human

the Architect, the Painter

and

concept

to

imposed

waiting for your decisions.

is

The

He

painter, this

There he also has

enemy

of the dead

accepts the No. 2 spot; he

He

of the easel painting. Don't interfere with that. his pride, his "obstinacy"; //

my

with that, leave him atone. But with you,

is

God

much

as

haughty

slightly

My

50 percent. air,

here

Good, my dear

dear painter, you

would

I

architect, he

you don't want

iiM feet by 4

like

feet

—

part-

perhaps

in

will

I

to deal in

him with

will say to

would say modestly,

architect — the

be

painter.

You abandoned cause of the

must

achieved

split.

do

fight all together;

and some

wall

the

— the

possible to arrive at this.

slight difficulties

we must go

appeared be-

into battle.

when everything

is

me

Allow

to dispense color yourselves.

specialized, that

to

is

tell

you

a mistake

part.

The carpenter does

not

make wrought

that

iron,

have you to dispense color? The era of the

The

you.

agreement among

that

There has been a violent reaction against which we

that in an era like ours

right

an

would have been

It

the partner,

You have wanted on your

is

a

bright

for you.

What must

king

is

himself.

dear architect,

nership, he will accept your measurements, your limitations

colors.

by

limitations.

surface, can get along with you.

as

the gap

in

fill

obligations

the

is

contract

be adhered

among

know. What

I

specialist

the three of us, the wall, you,

condemns

and me, must

to.

Why have you broken I am not angry, and happen and

that,

it? I

am

waiting.

I

think the event

arm-in-arm, the wall, you, and

modern works that are to be done. The case will be even more certain when

I,

we

will

is

going to

achieve the

great

constructed: a

house?

a factory? a palace?

a public building

must be

98

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Three problems speed

—have you solved them?

much much problems? Carried away by your momentum, I

alike for these three

think vou have oversimplified a

The

public work,

who always run

people,"

account? desires.

It is

little

is

offered

Are you going

after you.

not a matter of lowering yourself

Never, the matter

on a higher

is

that requires that in

works or achievements

men who

direct or

the heartbeat of the masses. takes,

you must be able

breathing.

The masses

you

Get

think.

in

at

in

too

little

to

"average

the

them

to take

It is

a

It

human

least

are full of

listen to

the pain of risking the worst mis-

to

watch them and

good

touch with them.

not a

is

necessity

affecting the people, the

commission these works must

Under

into

order to meet their

than that.

level

matter of making "demagogic concessions," no.

masses, the

find a

I

too much.

building,

public

the

too

Isn't there a Mttle

which

the execution of your plans,

in

listen

to

them

more perhaps than members of society, my

intentions,

You

are

dear architects, and that enlarges enormously your position as

artists:

human. You must not be afraid of getting your hands dirty while pondering the vital and essential qualities that these people possess. I repeat, the "public building" is more

when one

than social;

says social, one says

it

is

for the people.

The Romanesque and Gothic ing plastic

mass has

stirred

consider them, their planes

cathedrals were for them. Their impos-

and held man and

in

their surfaces:

form simultaneously achieved beauty and a

past

Let's

centuries.

color and sculptural

collective meaning, for the

whole work is a unity. Freedom of detail, even obscene detail, was allowed; it had to be social, human, to combine laughter and seriousness. The Greek dramatists and Shakespeare understood this; their colossal but varied works mix the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the trivial. Have they lost their unity by doing that? I don't think so. The public building remains intact and fulfills the desires of the masses.

How

do you imagine the popular building? The day you decide, I'll beckon to you, and I'll bring my friend the sculptor with me, and I'll stop you. All three of us must enter into this matter together. That day painter rises to his feet and shouts truths

they won't interfere.

The

like these, truths that

should be written on the sky

Color

is

a vital element, as essential as

in letters

water and

fire.

It

of is

fire.

a

raw

— The Wall, material as useful as wheat.

my

dear architects?

It

is

A

the Architect, the Painter

red, a blue,

/

99

do you know what that and

the equivalent of a steak,

is,

just as neces-

sary.

Color

is

essential,

you

repeat,

I

responsible for dispensing color?

have made planes seem to be

That us to

in

can't live without

We

are.

You've

But

it.

tried to

do

Our

cathedrals, as

I

have told you, are the

They

is

you

it,

motion through the addition of tones.

no longer the question. Color demands more than that, activate color, working in a close relationship with you. is

sensitive collaboration.

who

it is

result of intelligent

are the achievement of

many

people.

for

and

We

must redraw the contract. Color vital.

is

not merely a simple, skin-deep satisfaction.

Even animals

are sensitive to

it.

I

reject that;

it

is

Experiments have been made

with certain insects; they were put in cages with colored surfaces these insects choose their

own

them, they come back to their

color

own

—when

they are taken

colored cage.

with his original instincts repressed, more or

Man

less

is

away from

like that too,

admittedly

in

love

with color. This vast problem has not yet been fully explored in is

Its

all its

depth.

It

a psychological concern rather than a matter of plastic satisfaction.

action in society

is

as

important as that of music;

it

must be

developed.

Unpublished,

1933

Speaking of Cinema

Cinema

thirty

is

traditions. This

years old;

it

strength.

is its

is

young, modern,

sprouts

It

in

like the brats of the poor, like the bistros;

the street, with is

life;

in shirtsleeves.

is

it

it

and has no

free,

every corner of the is

district,

on an equal footing with

Mass-produced, ready-made,

it

collective.

The American

now

studios

build auditoriums

doesn't yet

seem

adjust. It

becoming wealthy, but

is

and forward.

Next

to

It's all

it,

in

same

the

The cinema and is

because

it

is

Let's

street,

little

is

is

it.

It

going to

"nouveau-riche"

.

.

the theater appears to be a slow,

musty, tired out and going on foot.

arm

in

arm through

life.

They were

.

winning because scrapped

belatedly

it fits

at

it

is

the

swallowed up

is

rapid

junk in

and quick. of

It

is

winning

programs and curtain.

one gulp without the blink of

very naturally into the contemporary rhythm.

recognize that

squanders

extravagance

it

the law of the world.

Tragedy or comedy an eye;

a

aviation go

born on the same day.

Cinema

its

to order for

come,

very modern.

solemn old contraption,

Speed

made

to be at ease there; that will

random.

the image talks,

is

It

it

possesses astonishing means, riches that

has just been given a voice, the

colored, seems to be three-dimensional.

human

it

voice;

Speaking of Cinema

Every month

up of them.

It

new

a

invention

The

theater,

to the others; there

swallows things the wrong way;

pauper who has suddenly become

rich.

.

.

it

stuffs

is

itself

cinema

the theater and the

romantic, sex with

must astonish,

it

its

is

it

young. ...

accentuated

with mouths a foot wide and

.

.

who

stop in the nick of time

on the story

in the

.

Only romantic deeds

Cinema has

top

at

naturally

It is

make us laugh and cry; it is full of handsome boys who embrace each other

to enable imagination to put the finishing touches

darkened theater.

a

like

distress,

beautiful girls and

in a close-up

face;

its

a pile-

traditional

its is

every day; the theater remains stationary; the cinema runs on speed, at the risk of falling on

loi

.

modest and without hope, stays with

The gap between

heritage.

added

is

/

wholesale quantities can

in

to be popular in order to

an earthquake, a beautiful

stir

the crowds.

win the game, popular

like a

war,

ship, a victorious general.

Cinema must be in this class of events off the enormous sums of money

pay

and

in

order to be able to

it

owes and consumes every

live

day. In the theater, the character total responsibility for the

is

everything; the actor or actress has

performance, with

all

the chances or weak-

nesses that the situations involve. If the performer has a head cold, the

play

is

postponed. Fragility!

Can you imagine

the Screen at the

mercy

of such petty calamities!

The cinema: here are complicated machines with the lighting fixed and the and planned. They put the little fellow in a certain position It is going to play beautiful glittering machine comes into action. ... with him, catch him full face, in profile, from above, below, and inside (X rays), in detail, in fragments, lying down, standing up, out of focus or sharp, any way you want. This will be swallowed, digested, and put on the screen in a tragic, comic, or plastic form; you can choose. The cinema is the machine age. The theater is the horse-and-buggy age. They will never understand each other, and let us hope that they .

.

.

.

don't, for the mixture

In spite of

machines, still

all

its light,

its

is

.

deplorable.

strength,

the

.

its

methods,

cinema has not

standing. Heyerhold has proved

it

its

banks,

killed the theater. at the

its

calculating

The

theater

is

Theatre Montparnasse and

I02

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Crommelynck

in his

own

controversial works. These two

men have

not

mixed things together; on the contrary, they reacted against them; they

They understood

weren't afraid.

and secure

The

if

they avoid contact.

theater continues.

.

remain beautiful

that their life can .

.

going to become invaluable and restful;

It is

people will speak more softly there than on the screen. Cinema wants to

swallow

up:

it

it

will

swallow nothing. They are not of the same

world. Film swipes actors from the theater, but the actors turn to film

only to "make a buck,"" once, that"s

about

for they realize that they are

it,

They don"t not made for

all.

damn" new gadget

"give a this

designed for spectacles. They act badly and sloppily. With

their

all

vanity and pride, they are in their element only before the footlights in flesh

it

and blood.

Cinema could be the worse for going and looking next door for what should make itself. It ought to put up its own factory for silent and and not

talking actors

try to use theater people.

Why

don't these rich

corporations have experimental studios where they can look for talent, so they could carefully avoid individuals

theater people; where they

trained,

wholly new

would use an

traditionally

rod to train

iron

material.

strength of the silent comedians like Chaplin and Buster Keaton

The is

human

who have been

wonderful ignorance and their powers of

their

that opening their

They sensed

instinct.

mouths was stupid from the moment

failed to record their words,

and because of

this

that

cinema

they have become the

most popular.

Now The

A

that the

"aces,"

patience.

little

cinema

anything from .

another story. Wait a

will come to human animal

.

while.

little

us from Russia or America, is

from the old and noble Latin

possible

It is

it's

Thev

countries where the

^aise.

talks,

hope, are going to emerge and show us something new.

I

those

ladies

"raw material," traditions.

and gentlemen

at

from

remote as

as

But don't hope for the

Comedie Fran-

.

the race for the "average"

time to time

make

make money by whatever means, about success.

It

and the

financial pressure that

the film industry not give a it

is

damn. Because

too anxious about

doesn't dare take "risks." Since they

its

know

it

from must

audience,

that

if

they

Speaking of Cinema have an attractive boy and success,

they gamble on

scenario

is

is

a

charming

the stars, they will have a

girl as

The

win.

to

103

rest

important;

isn't

patched together, and the trick has worked. All the same,

even the "average" stoops below the vulgar.

little facile;

theater never

production

a

them

/

is

"falls"

same

the

to

extent.

The "average"

.

.

a it

The

.

theatrical

superior and often closer to true emotion.

True emotion, the thing the stage, for

is

it

that strikes

home,

convey on

difficult to

is

the opposite of the decorative

life

we

that

cultivate in

order to hide and cover up the truth.

Diplomats invented the monocle

and thus admitting something. "A

to prevent their faces

pair of pants

Manners were invented

creases."

is

right

on

order to "cheat

in

from reacting

when

has no

it

the

mer-

chandise."

Fear of the truth tive life" suits

is

it

involves,

and yet the cinema

when you want.

ing truth

and

up everything

light

conceals

It

is

is

it

live in a

and people love

like the truth,

go to relax with

all

the

produc-

a diabolical invention that can unfurl It

can show a detail

know what

a foot was before

hidden.

shoe under a table, on the screen?

face. Before this invention,

to

a terrible invention for

that has been

magnified a hundred times. Did you seeing

it,

Very few people

in this deceitful situation.

risks

"The decora-

the basis of the social organization.

like a glove,

it

It is

as

moving

as a

you never had the shadow of an idea about

the personality of fragments.

Cinema

gives "the

fragment" personality;

it

sits

thereby creates a "new realism" whose implications

a

frame, and

may

be incalcul-

in

able.

A

collar button, put

becomes object

under the projector, magnified a hundred times,

a radiating planet.

comes

A

new facts, on this new truth. To feel the truth and to dare I

to express

is

going to be built on these

it.

have dreamed of doing a film of "twenty-four hours," about an

ordinary couple paratus makes it."

brand-new lyricism of the transformed

into the world, a plasticity

They

it

in

an ordinary trade.

possible to film

are subjected to

.

.

.

Some mysterious new

them "without

their

ap-

knowing about

an acute visual inquisition during those

twenty-four hours, with nothing escaping the camera: their work, their

3

104

/

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

silence, their private

no

editing. I think

would

flee

life, it

their love

would be

life.

Show

the film unpolished, with

a really terrible thing that

from, scared to death, calling for help as

if

everyone

confronted with

a worldwide catastrophe.

Cahiers d'Art, Paris,

1

93

Leger

in his studio

about 1935. (Photograph courtesy of Editions des Trois

Collines, Frangois Lachenal,

106

Geneva.

)

Leger

at his

desk about 1937, photographed by Maywald.

107

The

New

During the past

Realism

fifty

years the entire effort of artists has consisted of a

struggle to free themselves

from certain old bonds.

In painting, the strongest restraint has been that of subject matter

upon composition, imposed by the Italian Renaissance. This effort toward freedom began with the Impressionists and has itself until our own day. worth following, worth being studied and closely

continued to express [This battle

observed, for

is

it is

always very contemporary.

It is

a kind of revolution

with extremely important consequences. The feeling for the object

—

is

works of the high periods of Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, and Gothic art. The moderns are going to develop it, isolate it, and extract every possible result from it. already in primitive pictures

Allegiance to the subject

dominates

all

is

in

no longer honored. The framework that

Renaissance art has been shattered.]

—

carried their attempt for-

The Impressionists freed color we have ward and have freed form and design. Subject matter being at last done for,

Town {La

painting The

Ville)

we

was executed

in

are

free.

19 19 the

In

pure color.

It

resulted,

based on a lecture delivered by Leger at the Museum of York. Part of the lecture appeared in Art Front in 1935; sections appearing in brackets were drawn from the unpublished French text. Ed.

*

This essay

Modern

is

Art,

—

New

— no

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

according to qualified writers on

art,

world-wide

birth of a

the

in

publicity.

This freedom expresses It

is,

every sense.

itself ceaselessly in

therefore, possible to assert the following:

reality in

itself,

reality in itself,

a life of

its

own;

independent and

Hence composed works of

that a geometric

that color has a

form has

also a

plastic.

art are

known

as "abstract," with these

two values reunited.

They

are not "abstract," since they are

colors and geometric forms. There [In total

this

new

is

real

phase, compositional freedom

cased

emerge and develop. This

subject matter,

in the

asserted

character

independently in

the

new

is

values:

becomes unlimited.

freedom, permitting compositions from the imagination

creative fantasy can

becomes

free;

object,

in

A

which

which was en-

pure color that could not be

going to emerge.

It

becomes the leading

pictorial works.]

Subject matter being destroyed, the

composed of

no abstraction.

it

was natural

movie scenario should be taken up

next.

Two

that the

problem of

art films

were com-

and 1924. The Ballet Mecanique and Entr'acte.

pleted between 1923

—

Freedom was achieved in every realm the Ballet Mecanique set out it was possible to find a new life on the screen without a scenario, through making use of simple objects, fragments of objects to prove that

of a mechanical element, of rhythmic repetitions copied from certain

commonplace nature and "artistic" in the least possible Montage is purposeful contrast through slow motion and speedaims to work out in the movies an interest in the isolated object

objects of a

degree. up.

It

on the screen,

as well as in painting.

Entr'acte likewise expresses the will toward freedom. pression of the

Dada

era.

solemn, respectable, too

The

much

It

is

the ex-

desire to flatten out everything that

taken-for-granted, too indisputable

is

— and

thus to open the door to the freest fantasy.

These two

films are a

landmark

in the history of plastic revolutions.

This analysis of the isolated object can go beyond simple pictorial relations.

I

artistic

and

should maintain, for example, that, from the dra-

matic viewpoint, a single hand which slowly appears on the screen and reaches toward a revolver

whole

actor.

is

more dramatic than

if

one beholds the

1

New

The [A foot

becomes on a

shoe, under a table, projected

in a

a surprising fact that

new

a

reality,

back of your

Realism

/

It

when you look

does not exist

leg unconsciously while

1

and magnified ten times,

you have never noticed before.

reality that

i

you are walking or

takes at the

An

sitting.

isolated cloud, alone in the blue depths of the sky, often has a pattern

and

you might not discover when

relief of a richness that

it

is

part of

the landscape. Scientific research also has enabled artists to isolate this

new

reality.

with

Underwater

drop of water

plants, infinitely tiny animals, a

microbes magnified a thousand times by the microscope, can

its

become new

pictorial possibilities or permit a

development

in

decora-

tive art.

[One then understands that everything

human

human body

face or the

is

of equal interest, that the

of no weightier plastic interest than

is

a tree, a plant, a piece of rock, or a pile of rope.

compose that

It

is

enough

to

a picture with these objects, being careful to choose those

may

best create a composition.

artist's part.

An

example:

It

compose

if I

is

a question of choice

on the

and use as an object a

a picture

piece of tree bark, a fragment of a butterfly's wing, and also a purely

imaginary form,

it

you

an abstract picture? No,

it

will

nor a concrete one. There is

ferent.

the picture that

A

does

A

poem. Reality

it

"What does

that represent?'" Is

What we

There

exist. is

is

moves you and

neither an abstract picture

begin?

infinite

Or end?

itself,

like a

and richly varied. What

How much

of

it

you indifmore or less

the one that leaves

picture has a value in is

it

call

a beautiful picture and a bad picture.

picture can never be judged in comparison to

natural elements. like a

not recognize the tree bark or

will

ask

a representational picture.

is

an abstract picture does not

There

you

likely that

is

the butterfly wing, and

should exist

in

is

musical score, reality?

Where

painting? Impos-

sible to answer.]

A

hand

—

a

leaf

—a

revolver

—a

mouth

— an

eye

—these

are

"ob-

jects."

The sentiment of beauty hensive faculties

—emotion,

is

completely independent of our compre-

admiration, belong to the realm of sensi-

bility.

"What does

that represent?" has

no meaning. For example: With

brutal lighting of the finger-nail of a

well-manicured, very

brilliant,

shining

—

woman — a modern I

make

a

move on

a

finger-nail,

a very large

112

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

scale.

I

project

it

enlarged an hundredfold, and

Or

criticizes

of the

it

— "Fragment of

"abstract form." Everybody either admires

it

Finally

it.

little

call

I

call

I

the truth

tell

finger of the

woman

—what you have

just seen

me and

any more of

am

I

is

it

or

the nail

sitting next to you.

Naturally the audience leaves, vexed and dissatisfied,

having been fooled, but

my

1934." Everybody admires

a Planet, Photographed in January, planet.

1

because of

sure that hereafter those people won't ask

won't repeat that ridiculous question: "What does

that represent?"

There was never any question representing anything.

moving, or dramatic If

—

It

is

this

is

in plastic art, in poetry, in

music, of

making something by no means the same thing.

beautiful,

a matter of

isolate a tree in a landscape,

I

approach that

if I

bark has an interesting design and a

plastic

tree,

form; that

have dynamic violence which ought to be observed; that decorative.

Locked up

in value." It

is

I

see that

its its

its

branches leaves are

"subject matter," these elements are not "set

in

here that the "new realism" finds

and also behind

itself,

scientific

microscopes, behind astronomical research which brings us

every day

new forms

we can

that

[One does not explain

art.

use in the movies and in our paintings.

It

is

which can and must be developed. the

French doctor Perrin, and he

our

scientific

is

told

come from

discoveries

Deductive logic

the

in I

domain of

the sensibility,

had an opportunity

me: "For the

us, too,

to talk with

80 percent of

realm of pure sensibility."

cold and has never given us anything other than

solemn and academic professors. [Education

is

possible.

exists.

It

There

is

proof of that

in the

evolu-

modern decorative art. The merchants and the manufacturers that this famous object had advertising value. They arranged win-

tion of felt

dow light

displays showing the objects of their trade

—

5 pairs of stockings set

effect than

most favorable

in their

on a colored backdrop made more of an

200 pairs piled up on top of each other. The whole com-

mercial world understood; they use the advent of the object.]

The commonplace turned out

many It

in

a

objects, those of the

series,

are often

things called beautiful

is

also

"new realism"

more

and given

to

a

Ballet Mecaniqiie, objects

beautiful

in

proportion than

badge of honor.

know how

to

employ

materials such as marble, steel, glass, copper, etc.

in

decorations raw

The

At

this point,

mean

— a French

Radio

from the viewpoint of

interior decoration. It

which belongs somewhere between the and the [It

113

/

modern

as

creations.

steamship Normandie, and an American

feat, the

The Nonnandie, unfortunately,

City.

Realism

cannot refrain from commenting upon two recent

I

which possess considerable importance

feats

New

fails is

!

feat.

our hopes

to fulfil

a retrograde conception

taste of the eighteenth century

taste of 1900.

seems a shame

have to say

to

audience, but] the French,

who have

this

in

heavy

a

American

front of an

behind

artistic tradition

them, often make such errors. They forget that they constructed the Eiffel

Tower

years ago

fifty

— and

that's just

too bad! Naturally,

always easier to look backward, to imitate what to create

it's

already done, than

is

something new.

Radio

on the other hand,

City,

is

the true expression of

America. Apart from certain decorations which, to architectural, the rest

is

absolutely perfect.

The raw

my

modern

mind, are not

materials

I

spoke

of above are used there with a great deal of talent and appropriateness.

The steel door is very much in place in a marble frame. America knows how to make things luxurious while making them

And

simple.

circulate. It

To that

it

a social luxuriousness, luxury through which crowds

is

—

was necessary

and it has been done. to discover that means of complication and piled-up decoration, To create luxury with simplicity, that is the modern

create luxury by

is all

old

art.

problem, and Radio City has solved

new powerful

Color, being a

whenever

lance,"

it

comes

in

it.

reality,

ought to be kept "under surveil-

contact with architecture.

overflow nor encroach upon the walls, as of the Italian fifteenth century. against the painter

Once

these

who

The

in the

It

ought not to

case of the

monuments

architect ought to defend himself

has too great a tendency to "slap

conditions can be taken for granted,

it

it

on thick."

ought to be

possible to achieve the unity of three arts: architecture, painting, and sculpture.

We

shall see

some day,

I

hope, vast

modern monuments

that will

stand as the Acropoles of tomorrow.

Art Front,

New

York, 1935

(Translated by Harold Rosenberg, unpublished in France)

The

Each

Realism Goes On

NeiMf

has

art era

its

own

to preceding epochs.

To

is

The

thing

is

why and

possessed of a beauty that

is

is

filled

more or

is

certain

is,

it

own

Such

is

with doubt, there

is

His loneliness

drama

would

is

out of the

likely is

muddle

no one era

typical, a higher kind of beauty,

criterion, basis, point of

risks.

the

other times a

that there

comparison.

When

which

the creative

nothing to justify his seeking to

tach himself to some standard of judgment set up

run his

relation

less, in

at

the wherefore

obvious; the reasons for

What

artist

it,

a reaction,

not that of the Renaissance, and that

is

rather than clarify matters.

might serve as

is

diametrically opposed to that of Ingres.

undertake to explain the

question.

invents

this

line.

realism of the Primitives

of Delacroix

it

Sometimes

continuation of the same

The

realism;

is

lived through

at-

He must

in the past.

great.

by

all

men upon whom

has been

laid the destiny of inventing, creating, constructing.

The mistake of

the schools

lies

in

having sought to

set

archy of quality (the Italian Renaissance, for example);

up a

this

is

hier-

inde-

fensible.

Realisms vary by reason of the fact that the

ways

living in a diflferent era, in a

artist finds

himself

new environment, and amid

al-

a general

trend of thought, dominating and influencing his mind.

For age,

a half-century

one rich

in

now, we have been

scientific,

living in

an extremely rapid

philosophical and social evolutions. This

The speed has,

Realism Goes

think, rendered possible the precipitation

I

new

tion of the

New

realism,

which

On

/

115

and the reahza-

quite different from the plastic con-

is

ceptions that have gone before.

was the Impressionists who "broke

It lar.

Cezanne

the line."

The moderns have followed by accentuating

in particu-

We

liberation.

this

have freed color and geometric form. They have conquered the world. This

new

realism wholly rules the last

fifty

years, in the easel picture as

well as in the decorative art of street and interior.

As

mon

for those pictures which

reproach

is

made

up by the dealers and the

big collectors and that the people have no access to them.

That of the present

it?

is

way among

their

the people, the fault,

it

works

in question.

is

Under such

I

Whose

fault

our works have not made

social order. If

repeat,

human

not due to any lack of

order;

com-

possible this evolution, the

that they have been snatched

that of the social

is

quality on the part of the

a pretext as the

they would have

latter,

us burn our bridges, coolly pass sentence of death upon that painting

which brought us our freedom steps backward,

Rubens

— a freedom so hard

God knows

won

— and turn our

where. The names of Rembrandt and

are evoked.

Under

we

the pretext that

admirable masses, whose to grasp the

new

verity

are to attempt to win at once the wholly

instinct

is

so sure, and

who

are merely waiting

— under such a pretext, they would have

us start

same masses backward from century to century, traveling at first by rail and, later on, by horse and buggy and by cart, until they end up

those

"going

in

for the antique"

on

new world, who ask nothing ward.

It is officially

of that

new

to

foot.

This

is

an insult to these

better than to understand

pronounce them incapable of

realism which

is

their age

— the

and

age in which they

le

moderne

is

not for us;

specialized art, a bourgeois art, an art that

is

go

of a for-

rising to the level

which they work, and which they have fashioned with hands. They are told that

men to

is

it

false

live,

their

in

own

for the rich, a

from the bottom

up. It

/,v

we Our

art;

to realize a

new

are merely waiting for social evolution to permit tastes,

in

collective social it.

our traditions incline to the primitive and popular

of before the Renaissance.

ualism

and

possible for us to create

It is

painting dates; and

from I

this

same

artists

Renaissance that individ-

do not believe there

is

any use

in

Il6

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

looking

we

in this direction, if

art,

one that

age

is

shall be at

desire to bring into being a fresh

sufficiently rich in plastic materials to furnish us with the ele-

ments. But unfortunately, until

brought about, the people 1

mural

once popular, collective and contemporary. Our

should

like to say a

new

word

as to leisure

tion of leisure for workers. That,

I

discussion. Everythint^ depends

it.

At no period

social conditions shall

in the history

on

take

— the

creation and organiza-

the cardinal point of this

is

it,

have been

from those elements.

will fail to benefit

of the world have workers had access to

have never had the necessary

plastic beauty, for the reason that they

time and freedom of mind. Free the masses of the people, give them the possibility of thinking, of seeing, of self-cultivation

—that

all

is

we

ask; they will then be in a position to enjoy to the utmost the plastic

novelties

which modern

has to

art

The people themselves every

offer.

day create manufactured objects that are pure in

in tonal quality, finished

form, exact in their proportions; they have already visualized the real

and the potential bals-musettes,

plastic elements.

you

Hanging on

the wall in the popular

aeroplane propellers. They strike everyone

will find

and they are very close

as being objects of beauty,

modern

to certain

sculptures.

would require no great

It

and

masses to be brought to

understand the new realism, which has

to

itself,

effort for the

phenomena of

the continuing

its

under the

life,

feel

modern life influence of manu-

origins in

factured and geometrical objects, transposed to a realm where the

imagination and the real meet and interlace, a realm from which literary and descriptive sentimentality has been banished,

such as comes from other poetic or bookish tendencies.

tization

Modern ing, offers

rior

and

Lur^at's dent.

architecture,

light.

possibilities of

rational,

compared

communal

And

it

school

to

into the

here too,

we

ings, the wall-papers,

The working

make

at Villejuif

use of

afforded

that

is,

an altogether different

is

world with modern paint-

an existence that

Le Corbusier's two great

Let us learn to

that,

which came

them the

possible by

it

all

drama-

all

as

life

I

by

see

infinitely supe-

to cherish

forms.

previous

a hopeful prece-

for workers that

gifts to us:

all this,

it,

is

is

made

the white wall and it,

and

take no backward steps by putting

let

us see to

up the hang-

and the gewgaws of the year 1900.

class has a right to all this.

It

has a right, on

its

walls.

— New

The to

Realistn

mural paintings signed by the best modern

and

and

leisure,

and

learn to live with

What upon

itself at

the masses, to

with

which provide an art

art,

may

I

ask,

would you impose

in quality

— based

never understand anything about

will

enter into

would be unworthy of them. On the contrary, sought, in an art that is interior and easy to for a field of plastic beauty that

quality

upon the anyway

art,

the thing to be

is

We

live with.

quite different

is

mechanics,

very high degree?

character but inferior

in

How

tremendous resources of modern

art popularized to a

excuse that they

time

it

with such paintings, will

photography and advertising?

the

popular

Give

artists.

117

compete with the daily allurements of the movies,

large-scale

the radio,

home

/

to love them.

kind of representational

competition

An

make

will

it

Goes On

must look

from the one

just

described.

This does not

mean

disposition of those

that painters

who

get

may

up popular

not place themselves at the affairs

—by

way

of arranging

the color scheme, for instance, unleashing color where this

—pure

color, dynamically laid on,

brings joy;

it

may

also bring madness. In a

be a curative agent.

water and it

may

fire. It

may

It is

may

well stand

up

the latter. There are

desirable

is

visually destroy a wall. Color

polychrome

hospital,

an elemental force, as indispensable to

it

may

life as

exalt the impulse to action to an infinite degree; to the loud-speaker, being of the

no

limits to

its

use,

from the

same

slightest

stature as

shading to a

dazzling burst. In this domain,

where

it

is

a question of manifesting

life's

intensity

—

some wholly new possibilities scenic, musical, in the way of color, movement, light, and chant that have not as yet been grouped and orchestrated to their fullest extent. The man of the people comes into the world with a feeling for beauty. The ditch-digger who prefers a blue belt to a red one for holding up his under

all

its

aspects, there are

—

is making an act of choice. His instinctive judgment passed upon manufactured objects is esthetic in character. He will say "the pretty bicycle," "the nice car," before he knows whether or not it will

trousers

function. This in

itself

indicates an

acceptance of a fact:

windows where the isolated prospective purchaser to halt: the new realism. All men, even the most stunted, have in them realism. Seductive shop

the

new

object causes the

a

potentiality

of

Il8

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

meeting the beautiful half way. But

poem,

picture or the

if

permit them to cultivate

forming

ment by comparison is

insist

Bouguereau

not valid; every art

is

making such an

in

—does

not

their lives,

Bouguereau

will prefer

work

an individual

calls for

men

if

man

it

all

the better imitator. Judg-

is

are given assistance,

The human masses,

appraisal.

their place in the sun. the

upon

they will go on,

an independent whole; and

they will succeed

demanding

must

I

judgments by comparison. They

their

it

—

this potentiality,

to Ingres, for the reason that

appraisal,

presence of the art work, the

in the

their leisure

of the people

—

us not

let

forget that they are poetry's last great refuge.

The man of

the people

He

form: popular speech. invention. While his

ahead, inventing

hand

who

is

it

is

tightening a bolt, his imagination runs

new words, new

poetic forms. All

down

the people have gone on inventing their language, which

form of Slang

realism.

This

language

popular singers make use of are the masterly inventors of

of realism petually in

And

unbelievably

is

the finest and most vital poetry that there

is

is

it

it.

the

in

rich is.

neighborhood

in

and imaginative transposition;

to be refused "their

Popular actors, theatres.

it

is

a

new

of

mankind

to be excluded, then,

chance" of

art

work can

give?

per-

realism,

Are

is

inexcusable.

domain of

the people

rising to a higher plastic level,

new language that They have the right to demand

time's revolution be carried out,

to

They

from those joys

they themselves every day are inventing a

them up

own

substance.

movement.

this class

to enter the

the ages, their

is

This verbal form represents an alliance

and satisfactions which the modern

new? That

new

invents that mobile and ever

an atmosphere of incessant verbal

lives in

and

is

when

wholly

that

the

that they in their turn be permitted

the beautiful,

which has always been closed

now. Art Front,

New

York. 1937

(Translated by Samuel Putnam, unpublished in France)

to

Color in the World

Color

is

a vital necessity.

water and

It

is

raw material indispensable

Man's existence

fire.

is

to life, like

inconceivable without an ambience

of color. Plants and animals are naturally colored;

man

dresses himself

in colors.

His action nected with

is

not merely decorative;

light,

it

becomes

intensity;

it

it

is

also psychological.

becomes

a social

Con-

and human

need.

Feelings of joy, emulation, strength, and action are reinforced and

expanded through

color.

Color functions

in

the defense of animals by camouflaging them.

Grimacing and violent on a Chinese or an African mask, ing. Its useful

and

vital effects

The world has always been concerned with Middle Ages

frighten-

color; the clothing of the

dazzling.

is

The eighteenth century grasped the towns remained gray

and

all its

colorless.

nuances, but the countryside,

Suddenly

after the war, walls,

became brilliantly colored. Houses were decked out yellow, red. Enormous letters were inscribed on them.

roads, objects blue,

it is

have hardly been explored.

It is

modern

How did

life,

this

shattering and brutal.

come about?

Let us go back before the war.

in

I20

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

At that time, there were few colors on The countryside had its trees, its plants, home; they were part of the

into the

was calm.

the walls; the street flowers; they

its

A

family.

were brought

yellow canary, a red

flower were colored events.

The war came. The war was gray and camouflaged; were forbidden on pain of death. life;

A

life

light, color,

tone

of silence, a nocturnal, groping

everything the eye could register and perceive had to be hidden

and disappear.

Nobody saw colored

was a

—the

vast

the

—hidden, disguised, creeping on

war

all

fours, earth-

saw nothing. Everyone "heard" the war. It symphony that no musician or composer has yet equaled: useless eye

"Four Years Without Color." Peace.

1918:

Man, exasperated,

and rediscovered

his taste for life.

A

depersonalized

tensed,

opened

years, finally raised his head,

his eyes,

frenzy of dancing, of spending

able at last to walk upright, to shout, to fight, to waste. forces,

now

unleashed,

.

.

.

the red flower are

still

comes

.

.

but one no

there,

longer sees them: through the open window, the wall across the violently colored,

.

Living

the world.

filled

The yellow canary and

four

for

looked around, relaxed,

into

your house. Enormous

street,

figures

letters,

twelve feet high, are hurled into the apartment. Color takes over.

going to dominate everyday

life.

One

have to adjust to

will

The man of 192 1, having returned

to

normal

life,

retains

himself the physical and moral tension of the harsh war years.

changed; economic struggles have replaced the battles

It is

it.

inside

He

is

at the front.

Manufacturers and merchants face each other brandishing color as a

weapon

An curb,

of advertising.

unprecedented, confused

no law has come

to

shatters the retina, blinds us,

Where

are

means

of color explodes on the walls. this

which

Moreover, the child adapts himself

known

we

simply,

life,

it

are going toward a rapid

will

are exhausted, until something else

well; he evolves in

No

overheated atmosphere that

and drives us mad.

we going? Quite

evolution in external plastic

riot

temper

is

develop logically

to this

like a fish in water.

until

its

discovered.

new environment very

He was

born

in

it,

he has not

the nuances of tone on tone, the sweet grisaille of the prewar

years; the atmosphere of Corot

is

strange to him. Color

is

before him

Color

while he

adorn the cinema, seem completely natural

figures that

must acclimate himself

adult

The need

for a rest

I

in

and

There

town: a red

On

him. The

the upper hand.

one could organize

to,

a possible plan

street, a

some polychromed

to

for a while to the quiet countryside,

intensity regain

life,

one wanted

if is

121

You

down.

settle

think that,

colors.

/

in turn.

makes us go

but for only a few days;

plunge

World

and the photographic montages, the giant

his cradle,

in

is

in the

yellow

this

whole

for distributing colors in a

riot

of

modern

blue square, a white boulevard,

street, a

buildings.

ocean voyages, while leaning on the boat's

immense monotony of the how astonishing it would be if

water's surface,

the

railing, I

confronted by

have often thought

suddenly spied a sea serpent, a hun-

I

dred yards long, luminous and colored.

The world

courts intensity. Speed

over us and dominates us;

this

is

is

contemporary law.

the

a transitional era;

let

It

us accept

it

flows as

it

is.

But

let

new

us recognize that a

plastic life

is

born out of

this chaos.

A

new order is trying to emerge. In a certain way, the street organizes itself. By the street, I mean the shop windows, the window displays that become spectacles. There a desire for order is set up. Instead of a thousand objects piled up on top of each other, ten are shown, well presented, to best advantage, and the arrangements are attractive, as

more

well,

so than the old style was.

Quality replaces quantity.

The shopkeeper has understood that the if he knows how to make beginning of a new plastic order, a new

object he sells has an artistic value in itself the most of

popular

it.

This

art. It is a

is

The development of sance of mural

the

supremely important event.

art.

the art of

window

display precedes the renais-

Murals turned out to be one of the very new

aspects of the 1937 Exposition.

Modern fifty

painters,

who have

all

years, are invited to tackle the

It

event

must be acknowledged is

among

significant because

three

arts

toward more or

produced

easel pictures over the last

problem of the mural.

that they are hardly prepared for it

means

— architecture,

less social goals.

it.

The

the resurrection of collaboration

painting,

and sculpture; teamwork

— 122

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Like the painter, the architect

know how

A

state of discipline, of

longer avoid

it.

Will he

It

a great

is

restraints, will

have

gamble, and we can no

have always thought that the architect's profession

I

was incomplete insofar

An

new problem.

mutual concessions and

to operate in three directions.

among

facing a

is

to resolve it?

as

has

it

not

resolved

the

interconnection

the three fundamental plastic elements.

is composed of live surfaces and dead The dead surfaces are reserves of repose; they will not be touched. The live surfaces are organized for form, for the painter and

architectural structure

surfaces.

the sculptor.

The

architects of the Italian Renaissance lacked willpower

lowed painters and sculptors to encroach on

Roman

palaces

their

and buildings are unbearable because

and

al-

Certain

terrain.

of

the

cumulation of paintings and sculptures that took over every

ac-

restful

surface.

Nevertheless, the problem color

—which

workable enough, since volume and

is

can be regulated and distributed

— are

reduced or

in-

creased according to the demands of light or surface.

A and

very well-lighted section of a structure will have subdued colors

a dark section the opposite.

the

If

columns, utilized,

facts reliefs

of

construction

voluminous

necessitate

masses

—then a rather unassertive accompanving color can be

an architectural liaison that

is static

or dynamic, depending on

the need to be fulfilled.

One needs

to spread colors

around

you

want

Let us avoid,

if

really

expressive educational or social

a building. to,

the question of pictures with

of which,

significance,

I

fewest possible will be seen. Let us take up the problem at point: the need for color.

Man

ness and blank walls. That walls.

But

as

much

starting

loves color and has a horror of empti-

we know. People

as possible

hope, the its

it

are going to cover the

should be done simply, through the

application of color with no significance other than color itself (per-

haps evocative objects can operate within reality. It

A

is

a

new

it);

color

is

in itself a plastic

realism.

highly organized plastic order, the opposite of the confusion seen

in the advertisins that

mangles modern towns.

Color

The

ideal

would be

in the

World

123

/

to reach a sensation of "beauty," of balance, of

physical and moral satisfaction.

Because of the encounter among the three I937» perhaps

am

I

it

would be

well to talk a

little

arts that

about

took place

in

it.

addressing myself to comrades, to friends who, with us, have

modern for twenty years: same formula of art, it is possible

led the battle for the

Under

the

to devise concepts for

housing, factories, public buildings.

Some

painters for

whom

I

am

speaking here think that this

simplifying the question and believe that the three aims different concepts.

The

Let us follow him.

He

office,

is

architect addresses himself to the average

home, he goes

leaves his

over-

demand very man.

to his factory or to his

and he passes a palace or a public building or a factory.

able, with difficulty, to conceive that these three structures

He

is

resemble

each other.

Among

the intimacy of his apartment, the rational organization of

and the probable need for the spectacle of the public

the factory, building,

I

believe there

room

is

for three different styles. This

is

the

question.

The modern monument

will certainly

as far as the exterior goes.

and balanced

tranquil,

ful,

except

in certain

be spectacular and magnificent

One can conceive

—a

result

that

of the interior as beauti-

has never been

achieved

primitive periods.

Color can enter into play with a surprising and active force without

any need

to incorporate instructive or sentimental elements.

A

wall can

be destroyed by the application of pure colors. This can be simply illustrated.

A

wall can

be

made

advance or recede, to become

to

visually mobile. All this with color.

As

I

said before,

one can create a

colored accompaniment.

The composer Erik that

Satie

was haunted by the

would be an accompaniment,

along undemandingly, that

is

a

desire to achieve

music

music with no purpose that glides

heard but not listened

to.

He

said that

would be considerably improved if we knew how to problem of acoustic possibilities, for example, in a restaurant

social contact

solve this

dining room, a public place, or in a household.

Two all

people are seated

the time.

at the

They did not come

same

table, they chat together but

not

to the cafe to listen to music, so

one

— 1

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

24

must devote oneself they don't feel like

and

it

from

the silence

when

to "furnishing" their silence, preventing

becoming embarrassing, keeping them from breaking it.

background music

that flows over

vou with-

out involving you too much, that allows vou to talk or to be

silent in a

Intelligent

fugitive

nondeliberate atmosphere.

Background music is

that

is

not listened to but

is

present

anyway and

responsible for "furnishing" the embarrassing silences.

was

Satie

right.

The problem can be the same in architecture if you want. Incidental painting. It is a new arrangement. There are others. The question is not resolved, but one can imagine a real satisfaction from this new and modern procedure. Contemporary industry puts remarkable ornamental and decorative

absolutely

—colored alloys— aluminum,

disposal

sically

cement,

multicolored

glass,

duraluminum. and

have considerable

materials

at

our

bronze;

all

the

These materials

others.

plastic vitality,

modern

ness that can be used in

steel,

intrin-

an active and decorative rich-

architectural interiors. That

is

part of

the realm of "incidental art."

The work

of art will be the orchestration of

all

these plastic elements

harmoniouslv grouped together.

The modern machine ornamentation. They

will

creates

simple

beautiful

Let us not forget that the popular judgment on

down It

objects,

without

be put to use. this

was handed

a long time ago.

says spontaneously, "the beautiful airplane." "the beautiful car"

because of the practical form and beautiful

materials

that

I

have

mentioned. It is

somewhat precious

the masses

Having

"The

is

to

to obser\e that the instinctive

judgment of

always an e.xpression of beautv.

know whether something can

beautiful bicycle!"

Popular judgment

is

Why? That

is

be of use to them, they say:

not explained.

free only at the

moment when

it

is

confronting

the everyday object.

The

education. There

profound tragedy here that separates the modern

artist

is

a

rest of the

time

it

is

falsified

from the people who are nevertheless so

creative.

The people

are

a

poet.

Poetrv.

by traditional

instinctive

and so

abandoned bv the ruling

Color

in the IV or Id

/

125

refuge with them. There the people invent freely.

classes, has taken

Every morning they invent

which

their language,

is

slang. Slang

is

spontaneous poetry, the mobile and elusive verbal poetic image.

The people

live in a

They

continually poetic atmosphere.

live in the

middle of modern objects that they judge beautiful, pretty, magnificent: cars, airplanes, machines.

day

modern

to understand

art?

Why couldn't they be Why won't their need for .

.

.

qualified

one

beauty reach

that far?

There

is

a difficult

and agonizing problem for modern painters freed

from the representational

who own

elite

their

subject,

whose pictures are understood by the

works and by museums; these same

artists

are

currently confronted with the invitation to express themselves and to

work

new

for

collectivities.

These masses, who are centuries of struggle,

around,

reflect,

.

.

What

finally

are they going to do?

going to attain leisure time after

these masses

what are we going

to

who

will

Children

school.

and beautiful

ought

to

pictures, so that

much

formation will be

be

by

become

they

easier. Children's

must be

First they

ought to begin

surrounded

when

be able to stop, look

do with them?

time to cultivate themselves. They

given

tiful

.

in

beautiful

grade objects

adults their artistic

drawings are generally beau-

and always very inventive. Children do not copy nature. They

comes the intelligence that destroys and they copy, and nothing of quality remains.

invent until the age of eight; then the creative instinct,

The masses must educate themselves. They must be able to go to museums.

A

classification will be estab-

lished in their minds. Slowly they will evolve .

.

.

provided that the contemporary

inferior art for readily.

them under the pretext

You must have

gradually.

It

faith in the

beautiful

is

and

will

be understood more let

them climb very

and

civilizations. It will be difficult, for as

no example of the masses having had access to

its

The people of

to

the

expression.

the ancient worlds were never able to liberate them-

always a cultivated works.

it

masses and

selves sufficiently to be able to enjoy

artistic

that

toward beautiful things

do not rapidly turn out an

be long, for the plastic arts are the result of the

will

cultures of different races

yet there

artists

elite

works of great

quality.

It

was

alone that had the right to the advantages of

126

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

The people have submitted to and accepted the Egyptian, Roman, the Gothic; the whole Middle Ages, so rich in collective

the arts,

have entirely eluded them.

We

are reaching a period when,

possible;

is

it

decorative

art,

a

mural

of tomorrow.

art

An

a beginning.

art, will

But

this

event will become

A

about to be born.

be achieved. This will be the collective

new

this

believe,

I

artistic culture is

will

art

still

depend on individual

creation.

Easel painting dominates and will dominate the contemporaneous artistic

The

evolution for a long time yet.

an individual creator, will control

plastic occurrences for a long time to

proper means of expression.

whatever they

its

is

man, insofar

mav

embodies the

more than

a

is

his

is

valuable in

is

movements,

social

be.

organized

plastic life

restricted emotion.

jewel,

he

as

and the

come. The easel painting

the art object that

depending neither on architecture nor on

itself,

It

It

isolated

the direction of the arts

It

in a

frame, with

its

limits

and

the rare and precious object, more than a

is

diamond, more than gold or

silver;

it

is

a

throbbing

essence, enclosed in a frame. In every country of the globe,

immense palaces have been

built to

preserve and receive these pictures. Churches of Beauty, a religion of the picture wherein the history of a country, a race, a civilization

inscribed in an infinitely

books

filled

marked by

more

just,

more profound manner than

with battles and generals. their

works of

art.

The

is

the

frontiers of civilizations are

Latin expression will never be confused

down

with Nordic expression. Geography lays is

in

the law.

and geography

immutable. If a

foreigner wants to

know France,

I

would advise him

to visit the

Louvre rather than the Military Museum.

The

easel picture always

All the

minor

arts,

dominates

decoration,

are entirely dependent on

it.

The

its

epoch.

window easel

the tendencies of a country's sensibilities.

display, publicity, fashion,

picture profoundly expresses

For example,

if

one wants to

survey French painting from the fourteenth century to the present,

two currents, two

schools,

are distinguishable:

one

classic,

starting

with the primitives and including Poussin, David, Ingres, Corot, Rousseau,

who

express themselves through a technique utilizing local color.

Color

The

other,

more romantic,

current,

World

in the

which begins

the

in

/

127

eighteenth

century and includes Delacroix, the impressionists, and the surrealists,

employs diffusion of color to express

upon

built

The

a

tendency opposite from that

local color.

battle

is still

taking place and always

the School of Paris,

which

is

The modern

will.

school,

very individualistic, nevertheless reflects

one or the other of these two tendencies; they overlap, intermingle,

and react against each

other. This collision of the

plastic vitality that saves the

that this duality will always exist, that

hates

Behind

interwoven

this closely

game

for the

it

an assurance of creative

itself. It is

two trends creates

clashes, that

it

struggles,

minor

battle, the

arts wait patiently

may

the winner. In this realm of the arts of taste that will

A hall

common

behind

make-up

will

or why.

be transformed in the types of

street will

revue,

start

stamp an epoch

of perhaps half a century, a hair style, a hat, a kind of

how

even

vitality.

to be decided so that they in their turn

appear without our really knowing

a

Let us hope

country's creative genius.

an international exposition.

Its

its

spectacles— a music-

appearance

will

have a

make this whole production harmonious. Where does it come

standard; a governing idea of taste will

immense and very varied from?

Look

for

its

origins,

rummage around

a

little

among

the individual

productions, the key works of painting, sculpture, music, which saw the light several years earlier and were exhibited or presented in expositions or in galleries.

Look

carefully

and you

will find in

some

picture by a creative artist

Ten years earlier, maybe was achieved, shown; the minor arts and took maximum advantage of it. Only

the origin of, the solution to, this problem. five

years earlier, the

initial feat

saw, absorbed, and used

it,

then were they able to begin the conquest of their epoch.

For

fifty

years they will be responsible for decorative ideas, taste,

and fashion.

For example, where should we look works of the

last

This tradition

You

for the tradition of the pictorial

twenty years? is

very far from impressionism, which gave birth to

it.

must go further back, skipping the nineteenth, eighteenth, seven-

teenth centuries, to the sixteenth century; that begins to link up.

Our

128

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

traditions

—

one

if

really

name them

needs to

—are

the high periods,

the primitives, the Egyptians, the early Greeks, and the popular arts.

The reason its

for this

counterpart

modern liberation finds same situation of

that the state of total

is

the periods that flowered under the

in

creative liberty.

The

Renaissance, which imposed imitation upon the art of

Italian

imagination, weighs heavily on the average taste.

Naturally

is

it

easy to judge by making comparisons with

it,

but that

proves nothing.

Very much

to the contrary, the sensuality

and the spectacular quali-

of fifteenth-century works do not destroy

ties

have instructed them

in

beauty.

Time, which puts everything

in

its

works

that

much

very

higher

in

the

the

place, ranks a picture

hierarchy

of

values

preceding

older,

than

by Poussin picture

a

by

Fragonard. a Memling higher than a Rubens, a Piero della Francesca higher than a Veronese or a Titian.

But time and duration are necessary

in

order to rank these works

definitely.

Let us take our time. In this fast-moving

up,

we must have

and complex

beyond the disintegrating elements life in its

life

that shoves us around, slices us

the strength to remain unhurried and calm, to

work

that surround us, to conceive of

unhurried and peaceful sense.

The work

of art needs a temperate climate in order to be realized

fully.

mounting speed

In the

work out

that

is

fixed points, stick to

the law of the

modern world one must

them, and work slowly toward the work

of the future.

We

live

in

portuned from If

a

magnificently dangerous

man

is

im-

all sides.

one accepts everything, one

one's abilities and take only

choose,

period where

how to resist when momentum.

is

what

lost. is

One must know how useful

and necessary:

to

weigh

how

necessary, to withdraw, to halt before

to this

universal

We stops,

A

live

in

day and

a very rich period with an

night, that offers

you

its

overflowing

life

that never

monstrous temptations.

crazy speed sweeps the world along and carries

it

into a whirlpool

Color

where

thousands

individuals

of

be

will

World

in the

129

/

drowned

hopelessly

like

butterflies.

A

dangerous and magnificent chaos as

this beautiful

if it

for those

life

were the sea

— "not

who can swim letting

it

through

swallow them

up."

A

world of men, of the shadows of men. swarms around

rejected, they

have not been able

forces that every society carries within I

want

pay homage

to

who

prisoners, those

who wanted

to

all

to shout the

all

its

—

lies

not want to to strike out

on which

who

specimens of admirable and fallen humanity cross

average,

that

bourgeois class erects across through.

Some

reasonable,

liberty

as those

and truth

led

am

have

I

just

them toward

sure, these

barrier

stifling

in

the

that

crossing the barrier; these

and achievers; through energy and

have asserted themselves, but mark

same family

I

did not have the

order to prevent them from going

life in

of them have succeeded

are today's creators

to live free,

societies are built.

are found in prisons, in asylums, under bridges,

strength to

paroled

They wanted

victims.

against the facade of hypocrisy and

They

—those

who wanted those who did

those

dangerous truth

who were

take to the streets and

broken,

itself.

those unhappy people

are abandoned,

us;

and destructive

to resist the negative

it

well that these

mentioned. their goal,

.

.

.

men

they

talent,

from the

are

The same

desire for

and they attained

it.

They

asserted themselves and reign in turn over a world of enemies obliged

and accept them.

to recognize I

as

know

that collective forces are

on the march, that the individual

king must be swallowed up, must

egotism has often taken advantage of

fall

into

line,

this situation;

but

individual

that

in the

marvel-

ous sphere of creativity where the state of genius functions and realized by individuals,

The honor

of a

I

say:

modern

is

"Take care."

society will be evidenced by

its

being strong

and generous enough to proffer the luxury of not interfering with individuals

whose work

Never mind the bad. artists.

By

will

be recognized and

the few mistakes that can slip by; the that

This way

I is

mean

that a

free

admired

good

way must always

the one that leads toward Beauty

work of art that is above social and economic The artists of the Middle Ages had to produce

later

will

be

on.

pay for left

for

—toward

the

battles.

instructive, historical,

130

FUNCTIONS OF FAINTING

/

and dramatic works. The epoch demanded

descriptive,

no printing

presses,

Our epoch

no

possesses these three great

propaganda and partisan

from these

there were

it:

no cinema or radio. means of social expression

circulation of books,

So

struggle.

let

no longer have a

restrictions that

for

us agree to release the Painter

We

justification.

are in

the battle anyway. Let us encourage the people, the clerk, the worker, to liberate themselves.

Once

Fight for your leisure, your freedom; you are right.

freedoms have been acquired, you

your

to develop

of the

modern

Why

sensibility,

to appreciate the beauty

does a minority of the ruling class

Do

leisure time.

own our

them? Because they knew how

the

same

thing. Snatch as

us at the end of the

find

will

these

be able to cultivate yourselves,

and newness

arts.

the pleasure from

you

and

will

much

pictures and get to profit

from

all

their

time as possible and

road to organize

this

hard-won

leisure.

The work trary,

of art should not participate

in

the battle; on the con-

should be the resting place after the

it

struggles,

in

strife

of your daily

an atmosphere of calm and relaxation where your de-

veloped sensibility

will

enable you to admire the works, the pictures,

without compelling you to ask negative questions such as "What does

"What does that mean?" work does not explain itself.

that represent?"

A

beautiful

anything; is

it

a matter of loving art, not of understanding

What

is

It

does not want to prove

appeals to the sensibility, not to the intellect.

Above

all,

it

it.

Reality in plastic art?

—

Each epoch has its own Courbet's realism is not the impressionists', and ours is not the one that is coming after us. What that will be cannot be proved.

You you say

You

say "the beautiful bicycle" without looking

first

for the reason

it.

won't prove to

me

that

it

is

beautiful simply by demonstrating

it.

It is

the

same thing with

a

work of

art.

A

beautiful sunset cannot be

explained either, and art does not consist of copying that beautiful bicycle and that beautiful sunset.

The

natural

phenomenon or

the beautiful object cannot be copied;

Color

must make something

the artist

in the

beautiful as

as

World

nature,

/

131

but not by

imitating nature. Is

slang, the poetry of the people,

listed

in

Not

the dictionary?

at

all;

it

a is

copy of the standard terms the opposite,

its

words are

invented. It is

the

Your

same thing with

pictorial art.

leisure time will allow

to love the

new

art that

now

you

still

to develop yourself, to appreciate,

baffles you.

Have

patience,

you

will

be helped and guided.

We

are the present.

The

future belongs to you.

Europe, Paris, 1938

The Human Body Considered as an Object

As long value

human body

as the

in

painting,

possible. Its

is

considered a sentimental or expressive

no new evolution

pictures

in

people

of

be

will

development has been hindered by the domination of the

subject over the ages.

But for the

last six years, plastic

impressionists were the

courses have been liberated.

to reject the fetters of noble subjects

first

The

— and

they gradually allowed interest in the "object" to appear. In contemporary

modern

painting, the object

must become the lead-

ing character and dethrone the subject. Then, in turn, the face,

and the human body become

be offered considerable freedom. At this to use the law of contrasts,

which

is

objects, the

moment,

it

the person,

if

modern is

artist will

possible for

the constructive law, with

him

all

its

breadth.

This law of contrasts

can observe that even

had an inkling of Giotto,

with

architectural

it

a

if

is

nothing new.

in the

one looks

one

at the past, it,

at least

they

composition of their pictures.

decorative

structures.

If

traditional painters did not use

sense,

Poussin, in

opposes

his

The Rape of

human the

figures

Sabines.

to

and

The Entry of the Crusaders into Jerusalem, both prosame way. But in all three cases, the emotional significance of the subject, the fetters of the subject, obliged them to sacrifice the surrounding composition and to give special prominence Delacroix,

ceeded

in

in

the

to the figures.

The

Human Body

/

133

Poussin came closer to dealing with the problem because of his propensity for the classical. The

movement

strong dynamic is

opposed

radically

abstract language,

for

its

Rape of the Sabines has extremely The concentration of figures

period.

geometric elements of the architecture. In

to the

The Rape of the Sabines

is

a "battle of straight lines

and curves."

We

own epoch. The subject is no longer the leading new element, the object, replaces it. At this moment, to the mind of the modern artist, a cloud, a machine, a tree are elements as interesting as people or faces. So new pictures, important compositions will be made from an entirely different visual angle. The law of contrast dominates human life in all its emotional, arrive at our

character; a

spectacular, or dramatic manifestations. In literature

and

in the theater,

has already achieved some fairly

it

advanced developments. Shakespeare uses

it

quite overtly in a

number

of plays (contrast by inserting a rapid burlesque scene into a dramatic or sentimental plot). All work, in any area at

purely decorative value

Naturally

is

it

if it

a disruptive

resides the difference

all,

involved for the most part with a

is

does not resolve

this constructive conflict.

and antiharmonious device, but

between major

plastic art

in this fact

and decorative

art.

All great periods of painting have always been followed by a minor,

decorative period that they

known how

inspired.

Without wishing

to play the role of a prophet,

out for the future except a powerful,

brace

all

human

guided by a tranquil

will that

I

see

this

knows where

constraints,

been born. everything

It is

is

in

prowls

in

Out of

Is

tried.

Above

all

very seductive; the streets have no more sidewalks,

thrown

it

going.

unlimited freedom, a plastic anarchy has

in together;

it is

dazzling and imprecise.

In the midst of this romantic confusion bearings.

within an abso-

it is

Every curious and surprising experience has been traditional

no other way

painting that can em-

methods, both old and new. All

plastic

lute order,

Industry and decorators have

to popularize them.

a beginning?

Is

it

it

is

hard to find one's

an ending? "The ghost of David

these parts." the ranks of

minor

these past five terrible years,

artists

some

who have will

risked their necks during

emerge

to settle the question.

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

134

/

They

are to be trusted. People are capable of infinite possibilities

When

they have suffered pressures and constraints. relaxed, there

when

those bonds are

an accumulation of energy and potential that bursts

is

out with a wholly

new

God knows who,

will

made by

strength. Perhaps astonishing pictures,

be found in the back of a barn. They are to be

trusted.

One

of the most damaging charges that can be

temporary modern initiates.

artists is that their

work

made

against con-

accepted only by a few

is

The masses cannot understand them.

There are several reasons for

The minority of privithese works is made up

this situation.

who can be interested in who have the leisure to

leged individuals

exclusively of people

see

and look,

to

develop

They have free time at their disposal. In 1936 and 1937, I had an opportunity to talk about these issues in working-class and community centers. "You work for the rich," they their sensibilities.

shouted bluntly

me, "we're not interested

at

Their objection was wrong because is

a

little

The ers

in

you."

was too

simplistic.

The matter

more complicated.

situation

is

created by the existing social order. Factory work-

and clerks have very limited

spend their Sundays shut up

seums

it

in

They cannot be asked to museums. Private galleries and mu-

leisure time.

close their doors at the very time

when

the workers leave their

shops, their factories.

Everything is organized to keep them away from these sanctuaries. Time must be made available so that this majority of individuals can be interested in modern works. As soon as they have time, you will be able to

watch the rapid development of

The people have

who are

invent that ceaselessly renewed verbal poetry

endowed with

reality."

the

their sensibilities.

a poetic sense in themselves.

What

same

On artists,

a constantly creative imagination.

then do

thing.

forms, and colors.

will

modern

poets, artists,

are the

if

see that

men

These men

"They transpose

and painters do? They do

Our pictures are our slang; we transpose Then why don't we meet each other?

the other hand,

you

They

—slang.

objects,

you examine the backgrounds of creative all

or nearly

all

of them

come

out of a

working-class or lower-middle-class background. So what? Between

The two

these

poles,

however, there

is

Human Body

135

/

does absolutely noth-

a society that

ing to bring about this meeting. All the same, painting, like everything intellectual, requires a period of

time for adaptation. There

is

a pre-

liminary period of quite painful confusion, during which taste and

choice must be formed and exercised. This does not happen minutes.

It

takes longer than choosing a necktie.

do with

special preparation. Education or instruction has nothing to artistic

arrangements. Art books can no more give

vocation than they can

manage any longer

five

in

not a question of

It is

rise to

an

artistic

to control the restlessness

of our young workers or clerks seeking the satisfactions and emotions of

art.

who

People

are very intelligent and rich often fritter

Those who are

leisure time.

away

motivated by need and not by curiosity. The masses are rich satisfied desires.

They have

that can be sustained ing.

in the direction

see, to look, to stroll

that after five years of war, the hardest

around.

war of

all,

in

un-

and enthusiasm

a capacity for admiration

and developed

Give them time to

their

instinctive are closest to the goal; they are

of

modern

It is

paint-

inexcusable

men who have been

heroic actors in this sad epic should not have their rightful turn in the

The coming peace must open wide for them doors that until now. The ascent of the masses to beautiful works of art, to Beauty, will be the sign of a new time. sanctuaries.

have remained closed

Of

the various plastic tendencies that have developed during the

past twenty-five years abstract art interesting. It

an

is

not at

all

is

the

most important, the most

an experimental curiosity;

it

is

an art with

one that has come to fruition and that responds to

intrinsic worth,

a demand, because of certain number of collectors are enthusiastic

about

this art.

I believe

This proves that the abstract tendency

nevertheless that

Creatively speaking, Its vitality

it

it

has contributed

seems to

was proved by

its

me

all

that

is it

part of

life.

can contribute.

to be at a standstill.

utilization in

commerce and

For almost ten years we have seen issuing from

industry.

factories linoleum

printed with colored rectangles crudely imitating the most radical contributions

made by

those works.

It

is

a mass adaptation; the cycle

is

complete.

Perhaps the future dises," but

I

doubt

it.

will

rank

this

This tendency

art is

among

the "artificial para-

dominated by the desire for

136

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

makes

perfection and total freedom that

able to hold their own.

The danger of

formula

this

are very pure, very precise relationships,

some

empty spaces without depth. Respect

for

vertical plane.

house.

It is

of Reason

Modern

in

It

it.

indisputably a religion;

is

tumultuous and

life,

to be done,

If its

full

of speed,

was

its

possibilities

pictorial

developed

fully

a cold green-

has

own

its

saints,

dynamic and

Do

not touch

me

at

it;

it

is

of

full

and luminous

edi-

done;

it

remain.

will

it

creative development seems to

case with

it

to batter furiously at this delicate

which emerges coolly from chaos.

fice,

some sharp

heretics.

comes

contrasts,

lines,

rigid,

true purism, incorruptible; Robespierre draped the goddess

and

disciples,

narrow,

a heroic attitude that flourishes in

is

It

very

its

What remains

some

colors,

the

in

lies

Models, contrasts, objects have disappeared.

loftiness.

had

and madmen.

saints, heroes,

an extreme state where only a few creators and their admirers are

It is

in the

in

an end, this

architecture.

Mural

is

not the

which

art,

Middle Ages and during the Renaissance,

has undergone a decline. Easel painting dominates the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

appears from certain social and

It

sance of mural art utilize this

new

The young will

architects

great structures. in

who

contrast

is

to

static

a

to

way. This

through

its

can and must

art

it.

going

are

at things in this It

artistic indicators that a renais-

on the horizon. Monumental

conception, and expand

have to look

wall,

is

rebuild shattered art

very expression.

dynamic conception

Europe

must be placed

that

It

itself

in the

respects the

destroys

the

wall. It will

be the measure of balance.

Montreal,

1945

----,

/

Leger

in his studio

about 1947. (Photograph courtesy of Editions des Trois Geneva.)

Collines, Frangois Lachenal,

137

01)

c

/

^Q&.

Mural

140

at the University of

Caracas, 1954.

The Painter's Eye

necessary to live in intensity, not day by day, but hour by hour;

It is

new event just at the moment when the searchThe eye must be quick and sharp. There's no flutter your eyelids, or then it's too late. The choice among all the numbers that pass by.

necessary to seize the

sweeps

light

in

on

it.

time to bhnk or to difficulty

is

to

The time tunity, a

make

a

to choose, here's the

chance that

is

like a

the eye and the ear function

chance

sequence as

a

to wait for the right in

machine. The specialists

understand that the study of these two major organs

seems that no two ears are

you are

If

be

made

and you

is

finally

important.

(It

alike.)

a solidly established, functional fellow,

instantly,

oppor-

slow motion during which

will

be the winner of

this

youf choice

will

sacred lottery.

Quickly grab what you need; quietly swallow and digest the morsel of your choice and quickly take off to shout about something, some-

where

that's

good

for you.

That operation terial, full

joys

all

the one that refines riches, unparalleled

raw ma-

appearing and disappearing by turns.

In the past a time,

had

Now

objects are

the

is

of overflow and squandering, trampled beauties, astonishing

trip,

a book, a reader, a catastrophe, a sunset required

a length, a breadth, a volume.

It

no more than fragments of

was completely objects.

satisfying.

They take

part in

great sentimental or descriptive subjects only with the help of

violence.

142

/

The city in

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

New

World? ...

A

America three nice

little

five-and-ten-cent store. In a provincial

salesgirls greet

you

—a

Chinese, a Negro,

and a white.

The year

is

1946, a dangerous year, burning like a starting point.

Varietes, Paris,

1946

Art and the People

Making contact between that

is

in the air,

people,

the People and the

everywhere; but

you must be

close

work of

art

is

a

problem

order to be able to talk to the

in

them. Very few of us are close to

to

them. I

have had one occasion to know them, not

but in the war. Perhaps

war was

lucky.

completely.

I

It

it is

me

allowed

had the luck not

or unhappier than anyone

or in

in Paris

my

studio,

cruel to say this but, for me, the 19 14-18

else,

and to change was no happier could watch everything that was

to discover the People

to be

and

knocked around, I

I

going on around me. I was drafted into the engineer corps, and, as you know, it is made up of workers, laborers, miners. Imagine the shock: I emerge from my studio, from the frontiers of art, and I land in the midst of my laborers (and don't think that they keep open house), and I worked with them

for the whole campaign. It is

was there

.

.

.

that I truly understood

a very orderly guy, so

much

what

so that

I

a

man

of the people

discovered that

I

is.

He

myself was

completely messy by comparison. Let's take, for example, the simple act of packing a knapsack:

my

could get only 17 into mine. ... I

boys put 33 I

assure

you

also learned their language, for they

lbs. in their

bags

that I learned a

had

when

I

lot.

a language, a slang.

Each

144

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

activity has

that are our It is

its

own

slang.

We

own, but our slang

because of

this that a

words and expressions

painters have

is

mostly our pictures.

way must be found

for us to understand

each other.

So the problem

renew the

to

is

have prevented us from being

in

Now, what

ties.

are the reasons that

contact until today? First, there

You know

very bad education they have received.

the

is

that the evolution

of painting led to a period called the Renaissance. Before that, there

was an "invented," imagined painting (Romanesque ample,

is

painting, for ex-

not an imitation of nature, and the Egyptians likewise in-

vented their forms in their period). In the Middle Ages, there were no statues of Saint Sulpice; there

an

elite

were only

by

"five things" appreciated

and "accepted" by the People.

The problem has become more complicated since the Renaissance. Because the Italian Renaissance came up with the idea of copying, of imitating the human form. Then what happened? Judgment "by comparison" was established: from that time, what is well copied

Why?

is

beautiful.

The poor Douanier Rousseau, although he himself was an ordinary is

said to

artist,

even more

me

once: "David

Have you seen

terrific.

staggering, but

is

his reflections

thing depends on education, and education, the schools, is

at the

the highest point our civilization has reached.

thing bad

comes from

Egyptian statue

is

There

that assertion.

on water?" Every-

the education given in

all

"Look

bad. All the teachers say:

is

extra-

Bouguereau

It is

Renaissance.

no progress

is

It

progress!" Everyin art.

An

by Raphael or a canvas by

as beautiful as a picture

Michelangelo.

The People then

flung themselves at imagination,

and you know

When you have you know he w to do a

very well that imitation contributes nothing.

months all

Ecole des Beaux-Arts,

at the

the Ecole pupils

know how

to

do a

That doesn't prove that they have any

The Renaissance middle

class,

who

style in

was

portrait of their

or less sensual

still

by money.

in

their dining

people.

Before

It

own some

turn wanted to

life

portrait:

grandmother.

talent.

assisted

their portraits done, their mistresses' portraits

the rupture with the

spent six

was the

art of the

They had done; they put a more pictures.

rooms. Easel painting

all

those

ratified

Renaissance pictures,

Art and the People

/

145

there had also been larger mural paintings that the people could see.

From

the Renaissance on, "only" rich people have had pictures, which

have been shut up more and more

Now,

seums. o'clock

At

—exactly when the workers get out of we

the time of the Popular Front,

mu-

private collections or in

in

you know, museums are places

as

their

said:

that

close

at

six

workshops.

"Something must be

done." There was the eight-hour work day, the forty-hour week,

We

said to

museums

M. Huisman,

He

evening."

in the

for the guards." Finally the

people flocked to get

Now

more

me

with the cost

museums were opened, and

in

the evening

in.

is

Con-

time must be created for the workers.

leisure

temporary society

"You'll ruin

replied:

etc.

"Open your

the director of the Beaux-Arts f

very harsh, and the workers do not have the

indispensable freedom to see, to reflect, to choose. If they have gained several hours so that they can get cleaned up, dressed,

errands,

and do a

of

lot

does not seem that they have gained enough time to come

it

as far as us.

Above

man red

all,

don't start assuming that the People don't care.

When

of the people gets dressed, he chooses: he chooses a blue tie.

He

spends a

must be permitted

At

lot

of time

making

to develop this taste.

that time, Vaillant-Couturier*

on Fine Arts;

at

any

rate,

.

.

his choice.

He

has

tie

taste.

was President of the Commission

something could be hoped for from him.

never able to catch anyone more than the third-ranking

examine." Yes, draw. I

the problem of childhood that

I

was

but

we

we must

re-

official,

school the children must be given the opportunity to

in

You know

is

He

.

Unfortunately, he was always very busy, and he died too soon.

talked things over: "It

a

or a

that children

make wonderful drawings. In America that outshone the work of profes-

saw drawings by Russian children

sionals.

There

Beautiful

is

pictures

an

unparalleled

and

good

freedom

reproductions

in

children's

must

be

drawings.

hung

in

the

schools; every year there should be a competition for the best draw-

Paul Vaillant-Couturier was a cultural spokesman of the Communist Party founder of the Maison de la Culture, a left-oriented meeting place that organized support for the Spanish Civil War and other causes it shared with Moscow. Editor of L'Humanite, a Party organ, he died in *

in France,

1937.

— Ed.

146

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

ings,

which should be reproduced by

and hung on the

stenciling

walls.

Can you understand the pleasure the children would get from seeing their own pictures on the walls? Besides, we tried this experiment in 1937. in Le Corbusier's pavilion. dren's drawings;

We

found some very charming

had them enlarged by some students, and

I

chil-

it

was

magnificent! I also made a curious experiment nephew who liked to make drawings

and so

freer!),

Normandy.

in

like

my

had a small

I

much

(but

paintings

of his drawings.

in turn, I redid a picture in the style

That was very useful for me. In the end,

pays

off are

confirm do; I

I

was able

I

to

America. The Americans have more curiosity than we

this in

when

What

think that courses and lectures don't help much.

the pictures themselves, seen in slides.

there

an exhibition

is

at a

museum, they go

to

it

on Sunday.

saw one Van Gogh exhibition. People were beating the doors down

to get in;

you saw

chaufi'eurs,

Speaking of exhibitions, that

happened

me.

to

It

all

I

kinds of people there.

have an amusing story about something

was

in

Chicago.

I

had some canvases on

museum that were pretty strongly colored. One day someone telephoned me to tell me to come to the museum where some people were clamoring for me. I made my way down there, and I exhibition in the

found myself faced by

six

York band. They began

to

to

buy one

to use

as a

it

very elegant blacks, musicians in a

dance

backdrop for

In other respects, the radio does

does for music. present time

popular.

It's

it

You

Excuse me, but

I

am

some

their jazz band.

much

less for

us than

it

evidently

all

the

famous composers have become

First

I

all

brand-new material.

that

I felt

one

And

I

there.

began with some drawings. Then

most violent ones

living in so

I

pals and find myself faced with those guys,

hope: to be inspired by the objects that surrounded me.

went on from

New

and wanted

going to return to the 19 14-18 war. So

those cannons, those airplanes,

the

pictures

harder for us painters.

arrived there with

last

my

hear great musical works on the radio. At the

can be said that

much

of

in front

much

I

had ever used.

I

I

put

needed

grayness during that war,

in

so

in

colors, definitely

it: we had been much mud! It was at

to

do

Art and the People period that

this

happened:

With Robert Delaunay we object in

—one

we worked

to liberate color.

blue was the sky, etc.

After us color

led the battle;

tree,

today you can use a blue square, a red

itself;

square, a green square.

revolution in this

this

to liberate color.

Before us green was a

became an

14-j

pure color; at the same time

started to use

I

managed

I

/

...

I

think that there

quite an important

is

that gradually manifested itself in advertising

—

and in the art of window display and that in this way we have somewhat influenced the decorative art of our time. By the 1925 Exposition an enormous struggle was already over. Do

you remember

the extremely simplified structures

which we ex-

in

had already

hibited our pictures with their pure colors? Architecture

been cleaned up;

was

it

a purist epoch.

think that the workers and the masses have no idea of the

I

we have

culties that

time

we had

in creating.

They have no

when we were

1908, 1909, and 19 10,

in

diffi-

idea of what a hard casting about for

a "way out." In conclusion the joy

I

plunged into the a

I

want

have had

to tell

last five

my

felt in

returning to France,

country.

You who have been

I

may have

dreadful years

lost

your perspective

bit.

We

landed

were only

a

other: "This

at

seven

in the

is

pretty bad."

He

tance. "That's a restaurant.

Then

We

It

has to be little

it's

not closed yet."

was a

said to us: "I don't

There

city.

said to each

I

was

It

little

know

very carefully." Well,

Of

we

stew

closed.

left

if it's still

over

any

can assure you

course, none of the exteriors looks the same, but

The Children of Paradise.

and for me, fed up with American movie

velous thing.

we

asked a railroad clerk: "Where can

Maybe

warmed up

see a poster for a film:

in

Le Havre, a dead

stew was astounding.

get to Paris.

film,

at

the streets, and

the clerk took us to his house. There

that this I

in

gestured toward a small light in the dis-

from the noon meal, and he good.

evening

few French people

get something to eat?"

I

you what

in rediscovering

The

film

was magnificent and

full

I

went

stars,

it

of poetry.

I

to see this

was I

a

mar-

think that

1937 the poster wouldn't have stayed up for more than three weeks. assure you that the people have made a great advance in France. I

148

/

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

assure you that a magnificent evolution has

who have

stayed here don't feel

painting there fully.

Me,

I

is

still

it.

Me,

I

a lot to do, but poetry

have faith

in

France, and

I

come

about.

have faith is

in

Maybe you France. For

already going beauti-

swear to you that

I

am

not

wrong. Arts de France, Paris, 1946

Modern Architecture and

Color

Colored Space Color

is

a

human need

water and

like

pensable to

life.

associated

with his joys, his

it

fire. It

is

acts,

—

clothes, hats,

Inside and out vertising has

is

it

embraced

ing preoccupation, [and it is

or destructive

The

it is

color which

objects are

calls for the

deco-

of the principal interest.

is

and the roads are framed

it,

A

it is

decorative

life is

in violent colors

born from

this

dominat-

imposed on the whole world].

the function of color

—upon

has

everywhere triumphantly imposed. Modern ad-

that break the landscape.

Therefore

common

make-up. In everything that

rative impulse in daily life

man

and pleasures.

Flowers are brought into the house; the most colored

a raw material indis-

In every period of his existence and. history,

—

architecture which

possibilities for a re-orientation of

static is

or dynamic, decorative

the purpose of this essay.

mural painting should now be

utilized.

A

blank wall

is

a dead,

from shapes or colors that becomes a

anonymous will give

it

surface. It will take life only

life

or destroy

it.

A

colored wall

living element.

This transformation of the "Wall" through color will become one of the most exciting problems of the

new

proaching the modern mural, color must

architecture.

first

be

set free.

But before apBut how

is

one

— 150

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

to liberate color? Before the

developments

years a color and tone were

A

representational form.

obliged to be

command

it

—

from the objects in space.

Then

a

flower, that

that held

it

that

landscape was

a

architecture

become and

extricate

to

last fifty

an object, to a

to

— so

figure,

a

color.

became necessary

it

was about 19 lo

It

painting of the

unreservedly, so that the wall could

experience

for

dress,

of a certain

in

bound completely

could

new

a

field

color

isolate

prisoner.

Delaunay and

Delaunay developed

in

I

own

his

began to

liberate pure color

individual way, keeping the

complementary colors (it was really the continumore abstract approach than that of the neo-impressionists). 1 was seeking my own way in the opposite direction avoiding as much as possible complementary relationships, and devel-

relationships of pure

ing of a larger and

oping the force of pure local colors. I

obtained rectangles of pure blue and pure red

Woman

in Blue,

191

In

2.

into a geometric design

been

or dynamic

static

19 19, in

was

—the

The

the

in

painting

City, pure color incorporated

realized to the

maximum;

it

could have

important thing was to have isolated a

color that had a plastic activity of

its

own, without being bound

to

an

object. It

was modern advertising

of this

new

quality

—

roads and transformed the country-side. of yellow

triangles,

blue

curves,

motorist to guide him on his free;

it

understood the importance

art that first

the pure tone from the pictures took hold of the

had become a new

red

A

mysterious abstract symbol

rectangles

way. This was reality;

the

the

spread

new

object.

color-object

before

the

Color was

had been

dis-

covered. It

was

at this

time that architecture also learned

how

to use this free

color both inside and out. Decorative wall-papers began to disappear.

The white

wall suddenly looked quite naked.

An

obstacle, a dead-end

experience began to turn toward colored space.

The apartment that I shall call the "habitable rectangle" begins to emerge. The prison-sensation turns towards unlimited colored space. The "habitable rectangle" becomes the "elastic rectangle." A light blue wall recedes, a black wall advances, a yellow wall disappears. Three

appropriate colors laid out the wall.

in

dynamic contrast

will be able to destroy

Modern

Architecture and Color

/

151

Destruction of a Wall

New

possibilities are

unending.

A

black piano for instance

in

front of

a light yellow wall produces a visual shock which can cut the rectangle in half.

The

visual

and decorative revolution

arrange the furniture

Our

visual education

From

a fixed

if

we

domain.

metrical tradition, and the middle class

(fig.

—

is still

We

have

all is!

it

completely tied to

I

antique furniture on which

I

had

in

in this

sym-

— along

with

been educated

The

proletariat

this traditional order.

my room

day.

When

I

between us which could have gone on

my

more

it

is

novel.

always en-

had

a

in

maid who used the evening she

It

was

indefinitely,

and

a silent struggle

because she con-

ornaments were "in disorder."

would take

destruction of the wall."

which

I

largest in the center

the others symmetrically placed on either side.

it

I

came home

had always re-arranged the objects with the

Perhaps

I

— the most important object on the

the others in the center and on the right.

room every

When

a very large piece of

arranged some ornaments.

joyed placing them unsymmetrically

sidered that

we

2):

simple anecdote will demonstrate the force of this habit.

to clean the

if

Modern decoration

i).

(fig.

use a-symmetry

how heavy

lived in the Paris suburbs

left,

stronger

still

dead arrangement, without play or fantasy, one comes

into an entirely free

A

symmetrical

is

can become entirely new

be

will

apartment unsymmetrically.

in the

a

round house

The angle

is

to obtain "space

and the

visual

a geometrically resistant force

hard to destroy. Externally the problem

is

vaster but also

152

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

The

external

volume

in

become

bridge can tion.

Thus

wall.

Why

whole

augmented through the use of

color.

A

and weightless through color-orchestra-

invisible

the "exterior block"

open

is

was the

to attack as

interior

not undertake a multi-colored organization of a street

—of a

city?

During the

world

first

Montparnasse where

war

happened

I

Moscow; siasm.

the need

in the

is

it

of color

Nothing has so

meet Trotzky and we often talked

to

He wanted me

city.

far

housing-projects, where the workers

strongest

is

in

go

to

to

of

It is

free color that

all

urban

is

and

essential to

space.

center:

a

These are the

light.

feel

art-work on the wall. They are

fine

necessities of

life.

urban centers.

gathering

colored problem inside and out.

of

A

1,500

A

inhabitants.

graded arrangement of

cades leading perhaps to a pleasant court court possibly

that

live,

artificial

been attempted. The poor man's family could

interested in color

first

of

creation

the

for

freedom of space, even with a

An

furloughs

used

the idea of a blue street, a yellow street aroused his enthu-

think

I

my

spend

I

to

about the thrilling problem of a colored

the

and

architecture, the sensations of weight

distance, can be reduced or

the center

in

multi-

static

— and

in

some spectacular monument, moving and luminous

fa-

this

— as

important as the church which temporal Catholicism has imposed so well

upon every

modern

village.

materials,

and

Free color

will

play

part with the

its

and color can exert untold psychological influences. in

modern

factory

Rotterdam furnishes an instance. The old factory was blackened

A

new one was completed,

and

sad.

was

as follows: without

became

quite altered

light

and many-colored. The

any remarks to the workers,

— neater

and more

tidy

— they

tant event had occurred of which they were a

created this

new

evolution.

rational development,

Paris, the

to

A

new

whole. Light

light will violently orchestrate the

think

is

I

unemployed

point

—some

summon

had

several artists

spectacular

effect

that

and permeate the memories of strangers long

I asked for 300,000 and scrub the facades. Create a white and lumi-

suggested Paris Completely White; to clean

it

light

can, through

society.

1937 Exposition. The organizers

in visitors

that an impor-

felt

—

result

appearance

Color and

not an external act

change a whole

up some sensational

would bring afterward.

It

part.

their

Modern nous

city

—

Architecture and Color

153

the evening the Eiffel Tower, like an orchestra-leader,

in

playing the most powerful projectors

have cooperated

could

(airplanes

/

in

world upon the

the

creating

in

Loud-speakers would diffuse melodious music colored world

.

.

my

.

was thrown

project

new

this

key with

in

The

out.

streets

fairyland)!

new

this

cult of the old

patinas, of the sentimental ruins, the taste for ramshackle houses, dark

and

how

dirty but

The age-old dust

picturesque!

my

recollections from history did not allow

The multicolored that has

begun

nervous and

hospital

to interest

sick, others

— cure

young

moving

that covers

project to be realized.

through color

—an

.

.

.

unknown world

Green and blue wards for the

doctors.

yellow and red to stimulate the depressed and

anemic. Color, like music, holds the magic which envelops truth.

who

love truth,

think of living with

are rare indeed. Creators of to use color, lies

in

how dangerous

truth.

imaginary

A

work of

art

is

to put

is

a

Men who

raw, without retouching,

how

denominations know

all it

in the

it

difficult

it

is

on too much. Expressive force

perfect balance

between

and

real

facts.

Pure color

more

is

than the half-tone: but most people

realistic

prefer the half-tone.

Color

is

a

two-edged sword: either

chained, without restraint, or of good taste that

The

we

it

lightly

it

runs

amuck when

is

— architecture,

painting,

sculpture.

No

of the three

period

since

the Italian Renaissance has understood this artistic collectivity.

our

own which must

un-

call the "'decorative life."

future certainly cries out for the collaboration

major art-forms

it

envelops objects with an aura

It

is

take up the problem again under a different aspect.

The successive liberations which, since impressionism, have allowed modern artists to escape from the old restrictions (subject, perspective, imitation of the human body) permit us our own realization of entirely different architectural

New

ensembles.

materials, free color,

the problem and invent

sickening

profusion

and

freedom

new

spaces.

heaping-up

to invent, can entirely transform

Above of

all

we must avoid that made

art-works

the the

Renaissance a period of unparalleled confusion.

Every day one hears the word "Beautiful."" "The Beautiful Bridge," "the Beautiful Automobile."" the attempts at beauty expended

upon

154

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

Strictly

We

art.

same word build a

structures

utilitarian

through

use the

show

the

same term

for natural beauty as for

monument

to the beautiful.

great

human need

escape

to

for a beautiful sunset; there

manufactured beauty; so

Why

not?

We

can realize

the

is

let

it,

the freedom acquired in the major art-forms: color, music, form,

have been liberated.

When we

It

is

unthinkable that our

popular temples. Architecture has sion to

most view.

result expresses only the past

own

at all times

will

not realize

most grandiose.

It

sensitive

at

is

it

our disposal with as

A

temple for contemplation

utilitarian.

much freedom

exaltation of 80,000 spectators at a football-match civilization.

—the

dominates perspective and halts the

can be aggressive or welcoming, religious or

It

each case

own

its

been the plastic expres-

which the people of the world have been most

visual, the

all

evoke former epochs that have pro-

duced so many magnificent temples the civilization.

us

using

is

is

In

The

as ever.

not the end of a

as authentic a

need as the

great sport-spectacles.

To

realize

a

"dazzling spot," to unite the sentiments behind the

brilliant lighthouses, the bell-towers, the religions, the cality, the great trees,

his

and

arms over free.

his

need for

verti-

and the factory-chimneys. Enthusiastic man

head

to express his joy in the height.

To make

lifts

high

To-morrow's work.

American Abstract

Artists,

New

(Translated by George L. K. Morris, unpublished

York, 1946 in

France)

—

How

I

Conceive

off

the Figure

Bunch of Keys in means

This essay could just as well have been called "The

Work"

Leger's

that for

me

velocipedes.

make

or perhaps "The Bicycle in Leger's Work." This

the It's

use of as

I

human body

that the pictorial traditions that precede us

the figure and the landscape the landscape

plastically valuable objects to

choose.

must be recognized

It

no more important than keys or

is

For me, these are

true.

—are burdened with influences.

where one has

that adorn the walls,

lived,

whose sentimental value

flowering of a considerable

Why?

It is

they are the figures and portraits at first

number of good,

made

bad,

possible the

or questionable

pictures.

In order to see clearly,

detach himself from

this

it

was necessary for the modern

sentimental bond.

We

obstacle: the object has replaced the subject, abstract art has

a total liberation, and the for

its

is

why

evolution of

the

know that this many people,

my

human

my work

great In

figure can

sentimental value, but solely for

This

I

human

latest

a tendency to

figure

from 1905

its

artist to

have gotten over that

now

come

plastic value.

remains purposely inexpressive until

as

be considered, not

in the

now.

very radical concept of the figure as object shocks a but

I

can't help

canvases, you

become

may

it.

find that the

human

figure will

have

the major object, taking the place of figures tied

156

/

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

to subjects.

The

future will

tell

if

that

is

plastically better or

mistake. In any case, the present structure

is

if it

is

a

always dominated by

contrasted values that must justify this evolution.

Louis Carre Gallery, Paris, 1949

A New Space

in

Architecture

In order to discover the start of this event,

1923 and 1924

arrangement

are,

think,

I

we must

the years that

and exterior architecture

in interior

return to the past:

saw

revolutionary

this

or at least be

fulfilled

born and take shape. The 1925 Exposition provided preliminary con-

had two

tact with the general public. This international public display

goals:

to

mark

the end of art nouveau, the

decoration), and to

quences

it

was going

make

1900

style

the white wall appear with

all

involved: a new, habitable rectangle or a false

happen on

to

this

(a glut of

the consestart.

What

white wall?

This habitable rectangle, though freed from decorative values, was a rectangle

all

the same,

with

precise boundaries; the

its

rectangular

it. The new atmosphere, became visiand volume. One became aware of

prison cell has always existed. Light had taken possession of object, the individual, exhibited in this ble, its

took on

At about It

its

total value, height,

true dimension within the four walls. this period,

had escaped from the

modern

painting also was constantly evolving.

subject,

even from the object, and a period of

recrudescent abstraction saw the light of day.

achieved the liberation of color color was free;

still

—"that

tied to a sky, a tree,

A

total

escape

—which

was the event." Before

an ordinary object.

Now,

this, it

a

was

a blue and a red had a value in themselves; they could be

arranged.

The white

wall

was

there, present.

Why

not?

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

158

We

are in

1925, the International

had asked

architect,

accepted

wall

Exposition.

Mallet-Stevens,

an

to put a wall design in pure, flat colors into

embassy.

his project for an

white

me its

had done

I

color; naturally the choice of colors

had

1923-24. The

think, in

I

it,

through

destruction

partial

applications

to be established. This

of

was

done, and the permanent, habitable rectangle of four white walls be-

came an elastic rectangle. I say elastic because each color applied, even when shaded, has a mobile effect. Visual distance became relative. The rectangle disappears, its boundaries and its depths eroded. Free color has found its application. The modern individual now finds himself

arrangement that

a vital

in

action has been set in motion by

entirely renewed. Psychological

is

itself.

An

interior evolution

is

taking

place slowly and unconsciously.

Color color.

is

began

a vital necessity, like

water and

advantage

The

can't live without

surroundings on nervous

to study the possible effects of colored

and neurasthenic urban

You

fire.

has multiple effects, and during this same period doctors

It

A

patients.

cure through color was on the way.

Its

terms of practical exterior application no longer escapes

in

architects.

idea of multicolored towns had

war. on one of

my

leaves.

I

come

enthusiastic about this idea.

He

me

to

had met Trotsky

during the 19 14-18

Montparnasse.

in

He was

envisioned the possibility of a poly-

chrome Moscow. But

if

you think of a town, a

street, a

house as a whole

in relation-

ship to a colored exterior effect, considerable possibilities immediately

present themselves.

For example, the coldness of the ground floor of is relieved if color comes into play, even the

an apartment building building's

volume

is

lessened. Sooty, grim outlying districts can thus

be transformed into gay and luminous sections. In 1937, during the Exposition,

unemployed

night, airplanes

only

Why

way

exposition. results

had' the idea of using the 300,000

to scrape every house in Paris.

an astonishing event" for

colors.

I

My

create

project

a

project

was

visitors to the fair. Paris, all

and spotlights inundating the

not?

to

The

was not accepted;

new event on

the

were worked out elsewhere

in

Europe.

city with vivid shifting

nevertheless,

scale

Although the "blow" was struck

to "create

white, and at

in

of an

France,

it

was the

international its

practical

A New Space The consequences

of the

the northern countries.

in

new In

in

rectangle were

Architecture

more

/

159

rapidly developed

Finland, the workers uncomplainingly

accepted the colored walls that had been built for them. In Scandinavia, Holland,

Germany some interesting we find ourselves

a general point of view,

color distribution

for a stadium

buildings were made.

where the disorder created by the

advertising signs that devour the walls can

We

order.

must

demand

the

strive for that.

for color.

Each individual has of

it,

ture,

We

must

fabrics,

and

his color;

style

become

a rational plastic

start to organize

and

classify

Ordered quality instead of chaotic quantity. whether he

of dressing.

is

conscious or unconscious

everyday appurtenances: furni-

asserts itself in his choice of

it

From

confronting the problem of

The new space

ordinary objects are going to function

is

itself

in

which these

going to be influenced

by the new environment. It is

today's

a revolution, one of the strangest of the peaceful kind given to

man

to achieve.

Art d'Aujourd'hui, Paris, 1949

a

Mural Painting

and Easel Painting

I

am

two

talking here about

painting,

i.e.,

which

that

is

essential orientations of painting:

mural

adaptable to architecture, and easel paint-

which came into the world with the Italian Renaissance. At the beginning of civilization, men decorated everyday

ing,

objects

with patterns, figurative lines (animals, images, trees). The further

back one goes into the origins of important as water and

fire.

There

more one The work of

things, the

concerning himself with figurative

art. is

no

discovers art

however remote

age,

man

seemed

as

in time,

without plastic expression. In

the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the

Christian era. Jesus

—

movement knew how to adapt

Christ was the force behind the most powerful social

The church, which informs

social liberation. itself

itself,

admirably.

When men do

not

know how

to read or write,

the visual image

takes on considerable importance; the cathedrals and the monasteries

were completely decorated. In this civilization, there were

no subjects other than the

Christ or of the Virgin and the Saints. Because of the illiterates,

When

it

was

of

of

a matter of explaining religion to them.

printing

The people

life

number

was invented,

society's

comprehension forged ahead.

are taught to read and write; the

the popular image.

book takes the place of

Mural Painting and Easel Painting

The book from

Art and makes possible Art for Art's sake, an escape

frees

The imagination becomes primary, and the subject means (a total reversal of the way things began).

reality.

more than

We

a

i6l

/

reach

the

Italian

kings, aristocracy,

is

no

The great social revolution: war with the individual, liberated

Renaissance.

and clergy are

at

through "new wealth." The Renaissance marks the birth of capitalism (colonies,

etc.).

From

then on, the

The

prince had been able to possess. portrait, or a landscape

The

religious

There

period.

is

can have what the

individual liberated

man wants

to

have

his

he loves.

subject

is

a change

abandoned

from

—

a

break

with

the

collective life to individual

previous

life.

Titian

and Veronese are models of the new sensuous painting. There

is

bourgeoisie

a loosening toward freer painting,

who

but

The bourgeois, who understands and loves them that is going to increase in value.

value.

it

is

tied

to

the

turned the picture into something with speculative his pictures, invests

capital in

Note

that this does not hinder or prevent the evolution of painting.

Art for Art's sake (that is.

is,

without a subject) and abstract

without an object) have been severely criticized, but

seems to the

as

if

their time

is

coming

people, tied down, bent over their

leisure activities, are completely is

an end.

We

art (that

certainly

are witnessing a return

broad subject, which must be comprehensible to the people.

The that

to

it

work

all

day long, without

overlooked by our bourgeois epoch;

the tragedy of today.

In our time, architects have produced a substantial revolution, of

which very few of them are aware: they have destroyed the architectural decor of the

Recently

I

"1900 Style" (the 1925 Exposition). large mural composi-

worked with Le Corbusier on two

no subject, in pure color. Then the idea developed of finding new space in architecture. Now we have moved toward a complete clean-up of architecture, and we find ourselves confronting a blank, bare wall. But such a wall is like a waiting room. Most people cannot live surrounded by white tions with

a

walls.

We

had the idea that some colored walls (yellow, red) would be a

"coverup"

— without

disregarding the visual effect of distance or close-

ness that color creates on the wall.

I

have called that "the destruction

.

1

62

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

of the wall" or "the elastic wall." In this

We

have returned

our painting

the difference that

new

creation of a

way another space

created.

is

mural painting of the Middle Ages, with

to the

no longer

is

was

space. This

but

description

a

the

1925, but the revolution was the

in

doing of only a few.

The only

place where

my

went there with

had been

has had an effect on the people

it

is

Finland.

I

Low-income housing

friend, the architect Aalto.

and workers. All the walls were

built there for technicians

colored. Well, the workers were very well behaved and did not touch the walls, but the technicians

the need to hide

felt

them

by, for ex-

ample, pasting wallpaper on them.

wake

In the path,

in

picture pursues

of the revolution, the easel

own way, without worrying about

its

abandoning noble

turn by abstraction (which

in

is

own

its

painting

which have been replaced by the

subjects,

which has been replaced

other

—by

object,

where we are

now). This

total liberation

has produced Abstract Art.

occupies such a place

It

in

our

even the easel picture

lives that

tries

to satisfy itself with abstract relationships.

can say

I

this,

having been one of those

return to the object,

believe and

I

do

I

who have done

it.

If

we

because the easel picture must be extremely

maintain that abstract art

easel painting.

the

In

is

and contrasted.

rich

to

it

But for the mural the

coming years we

will

find

is

in

trouble

when

it

tries

possibilities are unlimited.

ourselves

in

the

presence of

its

achievements. Social factors condition art, and society changes slowly, but surely. It

is

not having leisure

incontestable that,

cannot be

satisfied

activities,

the

worker

with pictures offering only relationships between

colors and objects: this

is

the tragedy

and

it is

very

difficult to resolve.

Before the war, at the time of the Popular Front, Vaillant-Couturier

came

to see

me. "This

is

a unique occasion to reveal the riches of

art to the people," he said. I

came

to

know

the people in

against

when

them (the

19

14,

I

discovered them with their

how can they achieve anything? Everything is museums all close at five o'clock, which is the time

admirable qualities; but

they could go to them)

Mural Painting and Easel Painting asked

I

if I

make

could go and

among

the north, in Lille,

163

/

reports, to give firsthand lectures in

the workers.

went

I

there.

There were about

a hundred in the audience, engineers, not a single worker.

The

result

was: nothing. Vaillant-Couturier insisted.

competitions enlarge

it

said to him: "It

I

and

to decorate the class with

necessary to develop best drawing, to

order to interest them

in

it

(Children's drawings are very free;

art."

is

award a prize for the

in the schools, to

we

in

are only at the frontier

with children's drawings.)

But Vaillant-Couturier died and nothing happened. I

went

to

my

Huysman:

friend

close at five o'clock."

but there you are. They looked in

line

Mona

before the

"It's

He opened them Lisa.

at

and the workers came;

only one picture: they had to wait

She was the

cinema. Consequently, nothing came of

At the present

museums

ridiculous that your

at night,

time, because of the desire to

workers, some painters, even some

as

star,

if

were the

it

it.

in

my

come

closer to the

school, have returned to

pictures with a subject.

But that

not enough to wish,

it is

extremely

is

it

is

necessary to have the power, and

difficult.

Certain mediocre painters quickly slap some large works together

and confuse everything.

The people judge by comparisons: "The hand closely imitated

is

the

most beautiful," which

Unhappily, one thing quality

is

movement It is

ways

who

difficult to

Russia, efficiency I

is

is

art,

which

sought rather than quality.

do not know about

is

We now

who

have the

serious.

this.

But for us

it

Perhaps

is tragic.

And

it

is

with

confuse everything.

Nevertheless, the people are a poet.

They have created

a language, a

authentic poetry (the middle class has never invented a

word of slang). As for our painting, other.

work of

direct the only interesting social

reach people through quality.

and that

these mediocre painters

slang,

most

of our time.

very

necessary,

that has been

false.

certain: in the evolution of the

secondary for those

to reach them,

In

is

is

it

too

is

slang, but

it

has no connection with the

1

64 I

I

/

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

will stop here.

believe

I

interest us all

have touched on a tragic and universal point that must

and that each of us must seek to

resolve.

Unpublished, 1950

The Problem

The problem troversial,

if

of freedom

one

is

Freedom

off

in

art

in

Art

can no longer be considered con-

willing to admit

that

expression of this freedom, has reached

abstract art,

the ultimate

highest point, where every-

its

be achieved in plastic escape has been achieved,

thing that could

where the very object that was valuable substitute for the subject has taken flight.

to the Cubist masters as a

We

find ourselves thus faced

with Art for Art's sake one hundred percent. This attitude of liberation, which was necessary, as neoimpression-

ism was necessary for impressionism,

is

played out. The subsequent

reaction and the possibility of creative continuity in the face of abstract art

seems

to be developing as a return to the subject. This

enough

to

Abstract art

is

natural

must

in

not diminished or rejected because of

become

turn

seems

me. this,

but

it

a collective architectural expression, especially as

the paintings of the great primitives were.

Mural

painting, one of the richest

past times

(fresco-mosaic),

companiment

in

means of

which abstract

art has

modern times. Freedom in

as

a

pictorial

ac-

an important place. The return

to the subject, rather than destroying the abstract,

the walls of the

plastic expression in

must be maintained

future and create the

greatest

the arrangement of lines, forms,

resolution of the architectural problem

must

join with

it

on

mural flowering of

and colors allows a

of supportive or destructive

— 1

66

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

A

colors.

melodious arrangement "supports the wall," a contrasted

arrangement destroys the

There are modern architectural impera-

wall.

tives.

The tion.

line offer us

The "new

tional

have succeeded

efforts of current painters

form and

place,

subject" finds

intensive discoveries

New

its

where

believe,

I

freeing color

in

extremely fresh possibilities for plastic applicaplace

this

in

new

must not be abandoned

—

order, an excep-

of

continuity

the

subjects, envisaged with the contribution of the

previous

experimentation

has

offered,

painting's

easel

quite the opposite.

must emerge

freedoms that

and

establish

themselves without any relationship to the old subject matter, not even to the best of

There

it.

modern primitivism

a

is

in

the intense

life

that surrounds

us.

Visual, decorative, and social events have never been so intense, so

involved,

Current forms.

so

much

the

covert suppliers

of

new

plastic

documents.

unknown plastic human fragment, the

scientific creations reveal a limitless field of

The cinema has confronted

us with the

emotive close-up of a hand, an eye. a face.

The contemporary

painter must disclose his sources in

all

that.

A

fragment enlarged a hundred times imposes a new realism on us that

must be the departure point classical

landscape

is

for

a

modern

pylons whose natural contrast

is

plastic

revolution.

The

transformed by those metallic

revolutionized,

the clouds.

All this loud and garish advertising can be rejected on the pretext of

"protecting the landscape."" But where does the landscape begin?

moment

a house or a telegraph pole appears, there

landscape.

And

Modern

life

contemporary

is

The

no more natural

so? is

art

so

different

must express

it

from

life

a

hundred years ago that

totally.

Unpublished, 1950

Modern

What

Painting

seduces the enlightened amateur and shocks the uninformed

public

is

the freedom of composition manifested in the

This freedom of composition

ture.

is

due

modern

treated the subject, that age-old crutch, with

no

respect.

pic-

we have

to the fact that

The Ecole des

Beaux-Arts, the Academicians, the Institute are committed to the subject

and

to the

most accurate possible representation of what they

reality; to the imitation and, if possible, the

Modern

painting,

on the contrary,

rejects

the

subject

and com-

poses without taking natural proportions into account. Here the present revolution It

call

copy of nature.

is

where

is.

was the impressionists who

started

it.

In i860, even in 1850, these

great artists were interested only in seeing the color relationships in

For Renoir, for Cezanne, a green apple on

objects.

a red cloth

was

only a color relationship between a green and a red. That seems like nothing, but this

little

was the beginning of the

act

pictorial revolu-

tion.

The

so-called moderns, the fauves, the cubists, the surrealists,

simply developed

Everything

Do

is

this

freedom and emphasized

connected; impressionism

not think, however, that

another.

On

the contrary,

internal reaction of

I

all

have

it.

made fauvism

possible, etc.

those different schools destroy one

repeat, they are connected, but there

one against the other.

I

say internal because

is

an

life is

1

68

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

made up

of contrasts

cubism of 1910

The

— and

is

it

completely

natural

for

the

strict

upon the exuberant colors of fauvism.

to follow

overrefined century of Watteau and Fragonard was followed by

David, dry and precise. The pointillism of Signac and Seurat was the

end of impressionism.

A

reaction had to take place; the grays, blacks,

and whites of cubism came Yet

in spite

this entire

as a contrast

So you see the

developing

plastic life

dominates the whole

The

subject,

plastic question

Italian Renaissance, in

created the confusion about

Raphael

Because these

through the centuries with style to another.

of the imitation of nature,

and creates anxiety

coming

the un-

muscle as Michelangelo did, or a

did, created neither progress

nor a hierarchy

in art.

human

forms,

of the sixteenth century imitated

artists

in

closest to this imitation,

it.

feat of superbly imitating a

face, as

all

and counterreactions of one

That famous question of the

The

a tradition that binds

is

French chain together.

sensitive reactions

initiated.

what preceded them].

[to

of these profound reactions, there

they were not superior to the artists of the high periods of Egyptian,

Chaldean, Indochinese, Roman, and Gothic stylized

On

form but did not imitate

the contrary,

Italian

Renaissance

art consists is

who

art

interpreted and

it.

of inventing and not copying.

The

a period of artistic decadence. Those men, de-

void of their predecessors' inventiveness, thought they were stronger as imitators raise us

—that

is

false.

Art must be free

above too much

reality.

This

is its

in

inventiveness,

its

whether

goal,

it

is

it

must

poetry or

painting.

The plastic life, the picture, is made up of harmonious relationships among volumes, lines, and colors. These are the three forces that must govern works of

art.

If,

in

organizing these three essential elements

harmoniously, one finds that objects, elements of into the composition, richness.

it

may

be better and

may

reality,

give the

But they must be subordinated to the three

can enter

work more

essential elements

mentioned above.

Modern work

thus takes a point of view directly opposed to aca-

demic work. Academic work puts the subject torial values to a

For us

others,

secondary it

is

level, if there

is

first

and relegates

pic-

room.

the opposite. Every canvas, even

if

nonrepresen-

Modern tational,

forces I

depends

that

on

—color, volume, and

repeat,

if

harmonious

line

—

is

a

Painting

relationships

work of

of

/

the

169

three

art.

the object can be included without shattering the govern-

ing structure, the canvas

is

enriched.

Sometimes these relationships are merely decorative when they are abstract.

But

if

objects figure in the composition

genuine plastic value

—

—free

pictures result that have as

objects with a

much

variety

and

profundity as any with an imitative subject.

Unpublished, 1950

The Circus

Spend your vacations with the same people.

away they have changed your

and stay a

bike,

Two hundred

the cut of their trousers, that's

little

while.

Turn

kilometers

all.

right, lose yourself

back roads, get to know the

local inhabitants; they are like

me, just as clever as you

maybe even more

The world

is

are,

down on

down

standing properly and

is

the

you and

but in other ways.

so,

round. There's no need to go to China. Don't expect to

find a generation of peasants that's

Everyone

So take

among

is

Open

to the rich; they are rich too.

arrival has long since

all

fours. That's over.

beginning to give up bowing the gate.

Now

go

in.

Your

been announced by the dogs. They are their

electric doorbell.

It's

It is

in

a story about plain metal seen in the sun or under the spotlights.

transformed into a kind of glittering animal, clamorous, dazzling,

motion.

legs,

bike

is

an object

in

action in the light.

arms, a body that moves under

Rounded rise

A

and

becomes exposed

thighs are incorporated into

fall

a

it,

beside

quickly or slowly. In the

colored magic that

is

like

it;

it,

they are

light,

the

above

it

It

commands

the

it.

its

loses

levers,

which

form and

its

breech of a 75 cannon

in bright sunshine.

When there are pretty girls on the who come straight at you or who

road or four acrobats spin overhead,

it

is

in the ring

a

complete

spectacle as graceful as the waltz of the Six White Horses. But four

The Circus legs are missing.

The

tour de force

lies in its

or the acrobat can't be stopped. This

mad

accurate,

Lightly

it

and

left,

it

little

is

very instability.

171

The

bike

the risk, the adventure of this

mechanism.

brushes past the car on the road; a hair to the right or will

be destroyed by the four-wheeled beast.

made

ceptible slip on the circus platform or in the turn

above the

/

floor,

and

it

The acrobat becomes

is

on the ground with a

human

a

little

An

imperfeet

fifteen

blood around

it.

serpent who. standing or lying, above

or below, rides through, rises up, goes backward, rears up like a horse,

wheel

in the air.

The

bicycle seems to be alive; an animal

or back, a will that

maneuvers of

man must

refuses to go forward

is

reduced to two extremely

bike rides on those points. Transparent and agile, well as backward, as well

down, resumes risky than

From

it

is

it is

in the

round,

same

as

it

is

certainly

more

family.

why do you want

to pretend

woman's body and

a man's head and a

fine points; the

must go down,

upward, and when the acrobat, head

as

his position while crossing the wire,

dance but

Since the world

In watching the

spectacular object, naturally dance comes to mind.

this

contact with the floor

Its

who

take into account.

are described by a play of curves, to the

hoop

it's

a tree's

square?

form, which

that rolls along

on the

sidewalk and the wheel a worker carries on his shoulder and the pie on the

baker's head,

little

winning the corner

Under

we pursue

the fabulous adventure of the circle

lottery.

the sun and under the

moon,

in

the gently shifting clouds,

everything turns in circles, and here are the children singing rounds

and the Tour de France bicycles

[the

bicycle

race around France]

and

its

and the eyes that watch them and guide them on the roads, on

the roads of France that unroll aimlessly, winding through the wheat,

plump cows, and birds. The wheelbarrow rolls on

oats,

its

wheel; thanks to Monsieur Pascal,

it's

already an old story.

Everything

is

round.

The head meets

the

tail,

the beginning touches

the end. Life

is

a circuit.

starting point.

You want

to

go on a

trip,

but you return to your

172

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

The

straight line

round, and the longest

is

way from one

point to

another.

The merry-go-round revolves in mushroom, the horses turn, the rider

of the circus,

front

huge

a

like

toward

turns, the churches ascend

the sky in Gothic arches. Birds,

insects,

a mosquito,

airplanes,

on

pockets of the sky,

its

everything that

background or

blue

the

in

flies

background of

its

clouds, roll up and unroll through the branches of a tree, in free space.

The machine makes

things geometric; as a worker

ing his job on the assembly line said: "Here,

You have no

square.

see

why

round building, of

a

technology couldn't

There

and

a visual

is

evident that the circle

moved more

quickly;

the difficulties

it

playing with a

ball,

it

make

make

the

The

One

nicer.

rolls. If

and

you notice

Water, the mobility of the

it.

—

a

of

Go is

Nothing

I

don't

there

if

is

it

really

can be

a square box, with

a kid beside

is

It is

that

all

you who

human body

in water, the

play of sensuit

up,

round shiny objects are the ones that child

is

as

round

which circular forms

choose a round piece of

will

this

demand. as the circus. It

Nothing

unroll.

is

an enor-

stops, everything

connected. The ring dominates, commands, absorbs. The audience

the

moving scenery;

it

sways with the action

raised, lowered; they shout, laugh. shifts his position, the

throws

in the ring.

The

The horse goes around,

is

faces are

the acrobat

bear jumps through his hoop, and the juggler

his rings into space.

animals, and objects.

is

it!

The

passersby stop.

in

round form.

advantages

its

round pebble on the beach, you pick

stores that sell

to the circus.

living in a sphere.

you are pushing

candy, and the manufacturers cater to

mous bowl

explain-

this possible.

tactile satisfaction in a

is

involves,

ous enveloping curves touch

who was

comes out round or

choice."

dreamed of

I've often

it

The

The

circus

is

a rotation of masses, people,

angle, unpleasant

and sharp, looks badly out

of place there.

Go and go It

is

to the circus.

Leave your rectangles, your geometric windows,

to the country of circles in action.

so

human

toward freedom.

to break

through

restraints, to

spread out, to grow

The Circus

The

ring

two tightrope walkers

The

light.

finely

from below

as

173

has neither a beginning nor an end. High above

free. It

is

/

in close-fitting

yellow and pink tights catch the

shaped human body, functioning

in

foreshortened,

framed by moving

delicately

turns,

every sense, seen

shadows.

may

It

may

or

A

greater.

not be dangerous. If there

spider stirring in

movements of

their eyes riveted

the pink tights.

space,

hand

a

hail

that

on a

anxiety

on

light

out,

is

their

all

point.

those round faces,

There

is

a

mounts, and dies away

was concentrated on

blurs. It

single

a

is

like the

empty It's

sound of

the end of a mass

point.

acknowledges the applause, bowing politely from

of

roll

in

probes space, barely catches another hand.

The audience melts and

roof.

that

audience,

the

has begun. Three perilous somersaults,

it

Applause bursts

finished.

net, the attraction

is

side to side, caught, hanging onto

The

on the small, dangerous

drums, then silence;

no

is

web. Below

from

lighted heads slowly turning,

the

his

The performer

his trapeze,

which

gently rocks back and forth like a boat on the water. In the

Barnum

aerialists spin If

one

Circus, in

New

more than a hundred

falls,

York, which has three feet

rings, forty

above the ground.

more

the music swells and grows

intense, the spotlights

and while he tumbles through space, you are already watching

shift,

the next attraction in another ring.

A

minor accident

that

must not

interfere with the rigid organization

of the spectacle.

The acrobat disappears nimbly, with no the shadows, he

mouth

that

is

noise, as he appeared.

an upside-down figure that gently balances

becomes the center of

itself;

In

a

a face, the eyelids beating in that

anguished face, an arm, a foot, a hand that searches for something to hold on

To

to; all that in a

space with no protective restraints.

escape from the ground, to leave

possible, the farthest tip.

To

it,

to

touch the

inhabit upper space

means

tip as little as

to

have wings,

a half-measure, an ambition to leap across space in a single bound.

What

grace

is

in the

assemblage of curves and softened angles. Static

and not interfering with the scenery, the dance blends with the colored background. Carefully studied movement,

its

fixed phases,

where

a leg prudently

returns to the floor after having risked space, lifted at arms' length, the

174

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

two round and pleasing limbs, the dynamic aggresmass that assaults the spectator. Speed, elevation,

free balancing of

sion of a collective

the instantaneous return to the floor color,

and departure again;

that with

with lighting, with music to support the agile mass of

hands, and bodies. Light

the mistress of the forms;

is

feet,

them

dissects

it

or outlines them, mixes them, halts them.

The speed captures action

is

what

came

it

furious.

the motionless audience.

It is

most

still

when

the

luxuriates in this rapid, frothy interplay. This

It

is

for.

Man's most beautiful conquest goes placidly round and round the it makes its way without noticing the numerous feats accom-

ring;

plished on

its

back.

It

can perch very well;

a

is

it

warm and moving

springboard where feet

A

a rich, silky luxurious carpet.

is

horse

is

a

beautiful thing.

—

The horses at the old Medrano six white ones so you had to climb way up with the masses into the highest seats to grasp the spectacle: a white ballet against a yellow background where their elegance

was

lessly unfolded. It

a parallel play of six white spots.

turn in disciplined circles,

some behind

effort-

They loved

to

the others; to meet, return, fan

out again in response to the subtle signal of the whip that didn't touch

them, but seemed

to.

Discreet signs, completely understood, graceful

maneuvers, interplay of

legs,

departure; only one remains.

performer. The music: The Horse

s

It is

the star

Death. Sentimental and mournful

music.

The

beast

is

slowly diminished, elongated, swallowed up by the ring.

He stirs again — his head command of the whip, he aware of

is

the last part to obey. Abruptly at

rears up, rising

follows the

hind

legs,

man who, walking backward, whip

encourages and supports him. The horse tiny;

his

the

he walks

his efi'ect.

The horse is

on

he knows

it;

is

at his full height

the horse dominates the arena

and

held high,

—the

exits

man

showered

with applause, which he understands.

"The white ballet" is one of my most lively memories from the time when we spent our evenings at the Medrano, with Apollinaire, Max Jacob, and Blaise Cendrars.

A solve

painter confronted by this spectacle feels really powerless to reit

on

his canvas.

i

The Circus

The

ring

is

invaded. Neuter masses, creeping;

who

majestic clowns

fill

is

it

between two

the interval

awry, everything rider

all

is

A

a sight walking

He

backward

To make

shuffle

horizontal,

hangs by one hand,

falls,

gets up, an

that raises a storm of laughter.

multicolored face, an eye, a nose, a

A light that

They

It is

come after the beautiful The acrobat has left the trapeze;

mouth

nose, a mouth, an eye any longer. Pants that

up.

it.

too wide or too long; they

ablaze on her clever horse.

the clown mimics his work.

makes

175

the Augustes, the acts.

along the ground, touching the audience, attacking

/

fall

that doesn't look like a

down and

are hitched

appears on top of his head. That's the clown.

the feet talk, to

make

a knee laugh, to

sixty-five feet

fall

without a scratch, to create ugliness, something not human, a surprise, that's the

Clown

again.

Mr. Dependable, always

there, leading the fun.

Furious music suddenly erupts and overwhelms the noises of the

crowd. This nebulous, inconsistent crowd suddenly assumes meaning, direction; a current

is

set up, picks

up speed, and

casts those

who

are

undecided onto the sidewalk. The collective march moves toward a goal: the circus parade. It

begins.

The

gate

money

is

tied to this parade, so

and dynamic. The instruments are making

The huge

bass

drum defends

as

much

is

persuasive

trombone, and the

against the

itself

it

noise as they can.

cornets are against the small snare drums. All this hullabaloo jected

from a raised platform.

chest.

It's

like a

disappearing

—

magic

spell.

It hits

you

is

pro-

right in the face, right in the

Behind, beside, in front, appearing and

faces, limbs, dancers, clowns, scarlet throats, pink legs,

a fire-eating Negro, the acrobat

who

walks on his hands, and that

music associated with the glare of the spotlights that sweeps over the whole, aggressive bunch, that makes staring eyes approach,

them to

all

those white faces with their

become caught, and climb

to the ticket booth,

and on with the music!

the steps that lead

And

swallow up the undecided. The sweating bodies, the

no longer pink, a roll of drums and cornets. And jump up and walk. The ticket booth swallows up the money. "Hand

it

begins again

tights that are

the hesitating figures

us the cash."

— 176

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

They keep on coming tent

and always

in

They scramble

will.

until the

in

ready to burst.

is

People are turned away. The parade has won.

Your

future

is

me your

your hand, give

in

Damia

Miskoreska,

will

tell

you your

In

fate.

hand. Miss Athena,

out

web

its

a spider;

like

it

waits patiently for

shadows of the

the

circus, at a respectful distance, the mysterious little its

booth has spread victims, they are

eternal.

Go

in

and look around: four

steps,

some hangings,

coal, a table, the waiting cards, the long hands,

betraying neither race nor country,

still

a stove with

no

an inscrutable face,

fixed in the silence of the

and

colorless draperies. Nevertheless an atmosphere, magic for four pen-

undoubtedly something

nies;

The Future

is

will

happen.

as old as the world.

Calculated silences, delays, the horoscope of your destiny.

A

young blond man

This dark-haired cards

fall,

— and

the cards slide softly on the tablecloth.

woman who

of meaning and

full

ace of spades, slowly they are

pitiless. all

defining your destiny. Is that the

minutes ago?

The

your dreams

fills

A

— and

geometric

the

king, the ace of hearts, the

pointing their route and

laid out,

same woman who went

a few

in

We do not recognize her.

eternal story of an anguished face searching for something to

hold on

to,

some bearings

in

a

life

that

no longer wants

to

hear

anything.

Children have always completely understood that the circus arrives in their village. Adventure

when

doesn't arrive at an appointed time. There

dom

of this structure that

and disappears

marvelous that arrived. of

my

tiny

Norman

is

moved and

I

is

a great event

further

a magic about the free-

built in a night, that

something miraculous,

like

is

it

—going

always remember

fugitive, it

free.

It

appears

was the

by a poster on the walls

village.

Children invented the round. Since the great natural spectacles such as clouds,

wonder,

my

bike,

I

waves, the sun, and the tell

myself that

which

rolls

I

am

in

moon

preside over our childish

harmony with nature when

I

am on

sweetly along, capriciously rocked by the curves

The Circus road.

in the

character.

dominant

Why

am

I

absorbed by

have accepted.

I

I

I

it,

am

all

a

177

revolutionary

have inscribed myself on the side of the

forces, effortlessly, naturally.

have eyes

back of your head when you can turn your

in the

head, this round head that moves, with

neck that

round

is

where the

space,

not at

/

like

a

All

tree.

its

that

a

in

its

mouth,

on a

set

a confined or unlimited

drawn, where birds and

air-

sky that slopes gently toward

the

straight line cannot be

planes circle harmoniously

eyes,

in

horizon.

We

man

space more than ever,

live in

He

tries to

set

up over the

pushes out

in all directions.

escape, to leave the ground of limitations; competition flight

from the

solid, the concrete.

moves and breaks

grips the world. Everything

free

Nervous from

its

is

instability

traditional

limitations. Fixed, stationary elements, resting places, settled situations

are shattered and abandoned.

Everyone stands with

from

longer looks for

its

limits;

domain of unlimited to survive

in

disappeared;

it.

it is

Nevertheless

A

action.

life

of

we would

in

front of us.

from hand

We

dangerous

the

and worried eyes that rapidly dart

shifting

behind and

right to left,

game like

to

mouth

plunge into life,

Our modern space no it is

we

it,

obliged to accept a live in

we have

it,

the acrobats' protective

net has

facing the hunter's gun. to

see

the

film

run

in

reverse:

the

sanctuaries shut again, the lights put out, the hierarchies and mysteries

resume

their

place,

and respect for the great natural forces

redis-

covered.

An oak to grow.

tree that

The

stripped of

can be destroyed

in

twenty seconds takes a century

birds are always marvelously dressed, progress its

is

a

meaning, and a cow that nourishes the world

word will

always go two miles an hour.

Lc Cirque,

Paris,

1950

Mural Painting

The

picture continues on

easel

creation. It

It

loses

was born

its

in

its

course.

public value and

is

It

a strictly individual

is

buried

in a private

apartment.

the Italian Renaissance, along with the advent of

individualism and capitalism. It

temporarily lowered the status of the primitive periods, which

were dominated by murals and

collective works.

Until our time, the easel picture has unquestionably been the witness in plastic terms of the subsequent periods.

But there form:

is

something that takes on growing significance;

"mural painting." This

call for

will lose

it

its

frame,

going to manifest

is

its

small

size,

its

quality in order to be adapted to the wall

who commissions

architect

He nence.

will consult It

it

is

the

itself in a collective

individual and portable

conjunction with an

in

it.

with the painter to decide

its

placement and promi-

can be either an accompaniment to the wall or a destruction

of the wall.

Once tively,

the plans have been

and the execution

is

worked

out, a decision

is

made

collec-

given over to artisans working in mosaic,

fresco, stained glass, or an adaptation in paint.

The or

history of this architectural collaboration goes back

1925.

At

cumbersome

this

art

time,

modern

nouveau (1900

architects

style) decor.

freed

The

the

wall

to 1924 from its

walls emerged, bare,

Mural Painting

179

/

and of the enthusiastic pro-

white, to the satisfaction of the public

ducers.

However,

who were

it

was very quickly demonstrated

going to

live in these places

most of the people

that

found white walls

difficult to

accept.

That

when

is

and painters became

the contact between architects

significant.

curious thing that Robert Delaunay and

It is a

"Battle for Free Color" in

I,

1909-12, were the ones

who had led the who entered into

the game.

down

After numerous experiments the battle came bringing about acceptance of a value-color a value in I

itself,

remember

had asked us

—a blue,

to a matter of

a red, a yellow, as

as value-object.

when

the 1925 Exposition

to execute

the architect Mallet-Stevens

two canvases representative of

this trend.

did

I

an abstract picture composed of pure colors within rectangles.

When

the architects decided to look for

white walls, they adopted colored walls colored rectangles were conceived (In

my own

picture.)

It

for

was,

me

new space was If

you

set

way

conjunction with

my

and

of color),

architecture.

believe, at the beginning of the adaptation of color

I

"an

new

habitable rectangle with

its

walls of color

elastic rectangle," for certainly the visual

of "fixed dimensions"

metrical

(walls

up those

to dress

mind, that canvas had never been meant as an easel

for architecture. This

became

in

ways

in

these rectangles

was destroyed by

feeling

color.

A

created.

up an arrangement of furniture or objects in this

new

the interior. This revolution

in

not only plastic in nature;

is

an asym-

you produce a genuine revolution

space,

is

it

in

psy-

chological as well.

This freedom,

this

new

can help, along with other social

space,

means, to transform individuals and to Let us leave the colored walls, in

let

alter their

order to avoid the word "abstract," which

realistic,

emotional

a tree, a flower. visual

It

in itself

way

of

life.

us imagine interiors in free colors

without having to

is

wrong. Color

tie itself

is

has intrinsic value, like a musical symphony;

symphony, and whether

it

is

harmonious or

true,

closely to a sky,

violent,

it

it

is

a

must be

accepted equally. The modern crowds have already been awakened;

l8o

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

through posters, shop windows, and displays, they are already used to objects presented alone in space. I

believe that the acceptance of these large mural decorations in free

which

color,

is

possible very soon, could destroy the cheerless sober-

ness of certain buildings:

Why

Besides, this question the easel picture. its

stations, large public spaces,

and

factories.

not?

path

is

full

is

completely separate from the evolution of

At the present time

it

return to "great subjects." That,

it

a courageous direction, for

is

of traps and difficulties,

seems

leaning toward a

distinctly

to

me,

is

the normal, logical

direction for the contemporary evolution of easel painting after the

whole gamut of explorations that have been

made

since

impres-

sionism.

On

the other hand, a comparative

ing, as I at

conceive of

it,

and

judgment between mural paint-

this easel painting

should not be rendered

any time.

These are two entirely different roads that contemporary painters are interested in exploring. easel

For

my

part,

I

can very easily see a large

painting enhanced by accompanying color

in contrast

with the

colored note of the developed subject.

Tapestry has

road

is

made

considerable strides recently;

it

is

a sign that the

going to be wide open.

Deniere

la

Miioir, Paris, 1952

—

New

Conceptions of Space

The problem

of mural space

is

the most important of the problems of

space.

When 1900

architects finally cleared

style,

wall

is

even

better.

this

we found

perfect for a painter.

Around 1925,

I

A

A

is

of the

blank white

white wall with a Mondrian on

painted abstract paintings and

kind of painting can find

painting. Abstraction

the walls of every vestige

ourselves confronting white walls.

its

logical

I

it

is

think that

development only

in

mural

an extreme position that you cannot maintain

make progress. But walls were not made only for Too many people found themselves out of their element, lost

because you cannot painters.

in the face of It

such a radical transformation of their visual habits.

was then

that

we

called in colors, with their property of being

perceived at a different distance by observers.

A

wall can be

advance (a dark wall), recede (a pale-blue wall). destroyed (a yellow wall).

The

It

made

to

can even be

habitable rectangle becomes an "elastic

rectangle."

This discovery had a practical consequence it

among

its

possibilities:

can improve the most humble housing by giving extra space to

cramped rooms. I

have used

rated objects

—

this solution for I

take

away

more

specifically pictorial space. Sepa-

the table that Braque and Picasso kept

which, depending on the color chosen for them, advance or recede on

l82

/

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

the canvas, and the background color as well, create a

through movement, with no ined space,

is

new space

effect of perspective; the space,

born of rhythm.

It is

for the painter to vary

an imag-

rhythms and

colors to obtain expression. Finally, a transparent space can be sug-

gested by preserving distinct lines and colors. In

The Builders

human

I

metallic structures.

anyway

tried to get the

most violent contrasts by opposing

figures painted with scrupulous realism to the clouds

that

it

was

I

don't

know whether

I

succeeded, but

and the I

think

a quarrel to provoke.

XX'- Siecle, Paris, 1952

Color in Architecture

The problem

not as simple as

is

might seem, because when

it

and done, the position of modern painters

all is

said

divided into two ten-

is

dencies: the easel painting and the adaptation of color to architecture. I

am

myself

make

trying to

between the two positions. think about

The

this,

but

travels,

that

distinction

painters don't

as

much

has

it

itself that defines its own home today in Tokyo as in Berlin. It own place, while architectural painting

a work, an object in

is

is

circulates,

it

becomes

and

precise

many

that a great

do.

I

easel painting

limitations

more and more

a

know

I

its

at

a collective art.

Imagine an architect who comes to see you and says: "There you are,

I

will

need color

my

in

building." If he

municate with, you accept the the colors that he

The

would

like.

is

fact that he tells

Now we

execution of the thing can even be

a

man you can com-

you the place and even

are in a complete collective. left to

technicians, whether

it

be for ceramics, frescoes, or mosaics. In the last four years,

of this

nature,

notably

windows and church

I

have had a certain number of commissions

— and

this

quite

strange

— for

stained-glass

facades.

Let us go back to the beginning. or 1923,

is

when modern

architects

The problem was had cleaned up

clarified in

—there

is

1922

no other

— 1

84

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

word

architecture

noiiveaii

art

(1900

We

style).

tound ourselves

The architects were delighted. But a house is not solely for them: it is made to be lived in by the owner and others. So the\ found a ver\ limited number of people willing to live with these white walls. Then what happened? Here I will tell you a story that involved me. for there was something similar between what I was facing bare walls.

doing

and the

that time

at

remember

that at the 1952 Exposition

about their walls.

anxieties

architects"

I

had worked on some abstract

I

pieces in pure color that were very rectangular, and Mallet-Stevens,

my

one of

friends,

dead), came to

done

my

(who

Belgian architect

a

He

in quite strong color, in rectangles.

embassy

ect for an

much

very

where

like to

was not

it

now

is

house and saw a big square picture

at this exposition,

have that picture

in

himself presented a proj-

and he said

my

unfortunately

totally abstract,

me:

to

house." So

I

"I

would

put the thing

but where at least

at all appropriate, in his house,

it

constituted an attack, a presence.

After that, contacts were established with some architect friends,

and

I

believe

it

was

at that

was born. That served had been

I

It is

certain that,

vou cover one

if

I

problem of color on the walls

thought that

I

found

term for

a

it:

you have a back wall

third with a color different

thirds, the visual relationship of distance

You

disappears.

who was alarmed

"It's a hospital!"

enlisted.

well as possible, and

the

as a transition for the client

bv the bare walls and said: Since

moment

it

had

to be carried out as

""creation of a

that

from

new space."

into thirds,

and

that on the other

two

you cut

between you

and the wall

create another distance that can be different

example, one part of the wall

is

if.

for

yellow and the other blue. The yellow

recedes and the blue advances. It is

a kind of law: colors

of view. Naturally,

if

advance or recede from the sensory point

you destroy the habitable surface, what

"the habitable rectangle," you

make

it

I

call

into another rectangle that has

no physical limitations and cannot be measured. If,

at the

example,

if

of putting

it

same

time,

you put the

you arrange the furniture asymmetrically, for fireplace a

little

to the right or the left instead

exactlv in the center of the wall, and on the

left

you have

an important piece of furniture while on the right a smaller one

—

in

Color of our

reversal

the

short,

create a complete

time I

/

185

grandmothers' eternal arrangement

—you

revolution

I

house. But

the

in

me this turned into a came home and looked at my

remember

for

had arranged the objects with the

was sure

to find everything in

on the

space,

was

—where

right, a smaller

—when

a very traditional

The

great

no longer putting the clock

this:

is

left

I

a maid. Every

mantelpiece, for example

largest

heavy, weighty.

is

hard to do.

is

one

returned,

I

I

an absolutely symmetrical order, with

the biggest thing in the middle. She

This tradition

it

game with

sort of

middle, and different-sized one on the

in the

Architecture

in

girl.

revolution,

the middle

in

new

the

and the

porcelain vases with candelabra on each side.

That

is

where we were when we

started,

unimaginable. The

is

something

the countryside, those impressionist land-

which were so melodious and pleasant, have suddenly seen

scapes,

Dubonnet up

streets,

—there

appearing everywhere. The melody got

signs

no other word

is

—

it

is

fucked

all

fucked up by those billboards and

We

high-tension wires that slice through the clouds and the trees. in a

landscape of total contrasts, which

We never

are

— not

now

become

—has

ing, everything

Do

it.

if

we admit

walls

—they

no longer

exist,

it

is

now.

everything

I

has

shift-

I

don't

know anything about

have said: "The Society for the Protection of the

all this

color." But

use very strong colors in

students working with

me who make

displays. Well,

my

It

is

going to blame Leger one of these days, for he

is

Of course

display in

believe that

destroyed.

guilty of unleashing

and window

I

that the stones were

the world been so full of color as

The

art critics

Landscape is

is

Middle Ages,

are

our new epoch.

hold myself responsible for this?

I

Some

who

in the

anarchic.

is

presence of an enormous event.

in the

even

multicolored

it.

Now

twenty years ago.

times have changed, and the spread of color in the world

life.

I

did not

I

my

their living

I

one

is

have had no hand pictures,

and

I

in

have

by turning out posters

have never made a poster or a window

know

that in the street

I

was

in

my own

world. It

can't be helped.

It

has nothing to do with advertising; advertising

promptly pounced on pure color and used faced with a situation so chaotic that

it

it

commercially.

We

are

makes me ask myself whether

1

86

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

there shouldn't be a kind of order to

subway, but there

is

none on the

walls.

There

all.

it

order

is

the disorder that

It is

is

the

in

part of

every revolution at the beginning. The time has come to try and bring order to this anarchy,

Let

me

I

believe.

return to the collaboration with architects. This

problem because, putting the exterior anarchy fronted at the present

moment

with a

is

we

aside,

the major

con-

are

for order in interior color.

call

Easel painting dominated the world absolutely during the whole period

Then there we saw the full

of the school of the 1830s and the impressionist school.

was

and immediately

kind of stagnation,

a

between

of collaboration

possibilities

began around 1925.

I

after

modern developments very

seriously,

and

architects

come

believe that the time has

That

painters.

to

examine these

because notwithstanding them,

everything must be done harmoniously, with appropriate relationships;

power must not be diminished, and his desire to destroy accompaniment to the wall must be taken account. We are in an extremely interesting period. I don't want

the architect's

the wall or simply have an into

to say, as certain people do, that

consider

I

an experiment;

it

is

it

a

very important plastic fact.

my

In

rations.

opinion, abstract art

I

have discussed

is

perfectly suited for large mural deco-

for example, as a possibility for the United

it,

Nations. Mr. [Wallace] Harrison said to me: thing from you for the

me

with his model, and

tures.

We

UN we

Building in discussed

New

more or

on something abstract, and

settled

about thirty-three feet by thirty-three, for the

major thing that

have created;

I

"We would like someHe came to see

York." less

representative pic-

did two large panels,

I

UN.

it

was something

to

create space

It is

most recent

the

that really

had

to be

done. I

believe

that

if

one wants

necessary to stay within

There we are

error of the past. I

we

given

in

architecture,

it

is

conditions of color distribution.

truly in partnership with the architecture. Architecture

cannot be considered as a

think that

troversial,

the

A is

foil

on which

state of collaboration

the correct position.

to

hang

must be I

and even most abstract painters

pictures.

That

is

the

established.

know that it is know say: "But

I

very connot at

all,

are doing easel pictures."

That

is

their concern.

I

just

go on doing

my

easel

picture with

Color

objects,

and

I

in

Architecture

idea;

it

a

is

who

same result as liberated, that becomes luminous and bright. I can give you as an example an old factory

renovation the

made

domain of

it

in

has his

matter of making our two ideas coincide.

inclination causes us to reach the is

187

conceive more and more of accompanying the mural

abstract terms, and always closely linked to the architect,

own

/

This

the architecture that

in

Rotterdam whose

extremely luminous and bright. Here we get into

the psychological

influence of color and

upon

light

individuals. In fact, the workers, without anything having been said to

them, became better groomed when they worked factory; they have even assured

me

this

in

that the workers talked

were gayer. Colored walls and clean walls produced

renovated

more and

very definite

a

influence on individual morale.

The same has been shown in Finland. A dozen years ago, the had some important commissions, and I went to spend two months there with him, where he built modern apartments for architect Aalto

engineers and workers.

He

thought about the problem of walls of

color.

What happened when the engineers or workers found them-

selves

among

neers, put

those walls of color? Well, our fine gentlemen, the engi-

up wallpaper with parakeets while the workers didn't touch

anything (of course, perhaps they didn't dare to). of color and

light affected

And

the influence

them; their clothing was better cared

Aalto was enthusiastic, and he said:

"All

in

all,

people

the

for.

aren't

bad."

Here, then, are two cases where observations have been

change

in

made

of a

men's clothing and even a psychological change that goes

quite deep.

While we are on the subject,

I

can also

tell

you

story

a

about

doctors imagining a medical cure through color. Five or six years ago, I

gave a lecture in Lyons, and afterward, even though

it

had

lasted

young men leaped on me. I said to myself, "They must be Lyonnais painters."" Not at all. They were medical students. They said to me: "'We noticed in a review that you mentioned a cure using color. That interests us." And I spent the rest of the evening talking with these kids. They proposed an experiment:

quite a long time, a group of

if

you put

a disturbed patient, a highly nervous person, in a red

room

with a movins licht for eight hours, he would become completely

l88

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

insane, they told me.

I

replied:

"Don't bother; we must produce the

opposite effect."

This world.

is all I

Its

have to say to you about the importance of color

in the

importance surpasses any limits yet conceived. Probleincs de

la coiileur, Paris,

1954

The Spartakiades

Lots of people, friends, had told me: "Leger, you've got to see The Spartakiades,

it's

for

you." So

I

went

to

it.

I

am

still

under the

influence of this grandiose public demonstration, the enormousness of this classic

achievement.

understood and actor in

felt

say classic because

I

it

is

an ordered event

by an entire country, a whole people

who

are the

it.

The morning parade, which

lasts

for four hours,

was

in

itself

a

popular collective achievement beyond the customary scope. I

too will

150,000

—

remember those four hours: 100,000 Czechs maybe and women, parading rapidly, effortlessly. Miles of raised arms, blond faces— the Czechoslovak Republic is

—men

thighs, feet,

blond

— smiling

ards

make

a

The hands holding the march

in the sun.

violent

contrast to

flags, flowers,

of this

or stand-

conscious col-

lectivity.

the different provinces are

The dazzling costumes from is

all

there. It

history in motion.

The groups

stirring vision of the athletic in their dark-blue

work

teams from

all

the factories, the

clothes holding their tools over their

some with unassembled parts representing their production in process. At moments, tied to the rhythm of the parade, they shout out

heads,

precise,

distinct slogans;

real

These are clear and simple will

do,

what they hoped

"spoken choruses" reach us head on.

truths: for.

All

what they have done, what they that

in

progress

on their own

ground, their land for which thev have fousht so hard, where they have

190

FUNCTIONS OF PAINTING

/

cleaned and restored everything. They are on their feet now;

work, and they make you realize

Look

carefully. They The whole country

them

at

their future.

it

is

their

it.

men and women You see the

are is

there.

confident of old

men and

women, very much in their proper place. They aren't old any longer; believe me, at this moment they are young, and that is deeply moving. I tell you that they are all there. The athletic teams from the military services in shorts, with their bronzed sculptural bodies,

mation of

You

life

plump,

even higher

higher,

in

athletes await us, 20,000

Here

it's

and laughing children,

something entirely

different.

opposing one another and changing

From

the start

it

is

abstract.

The most

in action.

A

massive geometry asserts

diamonds, and squares

circles,

in

A

an order of contrasts, a new geometry, whose con-

flexible

ductor

is

action,

however simple, of the bodies which

the sun.

of

full

order to go

in

toward the stadium where 20,000

the city,

men and women

geometry of curves, rectangles,

a

order.

this affir-

pass through the crowds that line the sidewalks, crowds

magnificent strong,

itself:

and

and hope.

astonishing thing for a painter rise

and

backs are red, their chests white, their legs yellow.

the

is

fall;

but their

all

begins to

It

become a vast melody of color and nuance changing gradually in ways you cannot anticipate. It glides, moves away, comes nearer in an organized geometric pattern that light,

like

is

never broken.

fog at moments, a colored fog that

It's

rises,

like

sinks,

water

and

in

dis-

appears without leaving a trace. Something that has never been seen,

never thought possible. always

in

It

flows to infinity, regroups, stops, divides,

an unbelievable order, precise to the second, to the thou-

sandth of a second. Only the great sports parade in Moscow can be compared with it. These two great events pinpoint the new values of a modern world, in their order, their discipline expressed with good humor and joy by these thousands of free

men and women.

This collectivity,

magnificently

political,

so

It is

a great event.

achieved,

from the economic,

or social viewpoint, has been able to produce, besides the

daily necessities, this spectacle,

the

most gigantic

to be

seen in the

world. Paris,

i960

Documentation

—

A

—

Bibliographical Guide

to Leger by Bernard Karpel. Chief Librarian, The

There has been

Museum

a selective

of

Modern

Art,

New York

and even exhaustive

series of

on Fernand Leger since the 1920s. In view of the documentation was prepared by

authoritative

Librarian

updated

Hannah Muller through

other

two major

in

hands

my

most

former Assistant

and subsequently

editions,

another

1966,

until

bibHographies

fact that the

comprehensive

restatement seems unnecessary. However, the versions of 1949^ I953» 1956, and 1962 are listed in the Bibliographies section, which provides

enough additional data Consequently,

my

to satisfy

even the Ph.D.

concern

has

whether amateur or scholar,

number of record,

been

useful citations to bring

and by

to

more recent

selective coverage to indicate the

tion of Leger's place

obvious bias of

this

in

the world of

series

those

direct

interested,

to the accessible sources, to introduce a

modern

materials into the

contemporary evaluaart.

In view of the

The Documents of 20th-century Art

—

emphasis has been given to English materials that should be available in

American

libraries.

References have been grouped as follows: Bibliographies: 1928-70 Leger Anthologies (bibl. 1^,-20) .—Articles by Leger (bibl. 1-12). Available in English logues (bibl.

(bibl.

21-51).

—Monographs

S2-^^)-— General References

and Catalogues on Leger

(bibl.

126-189).

(bibl.

and Major Cata^2-125) .—Articles

— 194

^

/

Guide

Biblioi>iciphical

Bibliographies: ig28-yo 1.

Thieme.

and Becker,

Ulrich

bildenden Kiinstler.

Continued 2.

(bibl.

pp. 566-67.

7).

Bazin, Germain. [Leger: notice biographique et bibliographique]. L' Amour de

I'

Art (Paris), no.

Also published Histoire de

I'

Muller.

Leger

New

by Arno Press,

York.

Fernand

— Interviews avec Leger. — Catalogues notices des exposi-

Propos de Leger.

into:

et

comprehensive bibliography supplemented by

first

the documentation in

Kuh

source for revision

(bibl. 5). Basic

and updating, sometimes acknowledged, sometimes 4.

ed.

1935. This edi-

Geneva-Paris, 1949. pp. 167-83.

Livres, revues, collections.

The

Rene Huyghe,

Bibliographic. In Douglas Cooper.

B.

et le noiivel cspace.

tions.

237-38, Nov. 1938.

edition:

art conteinporaine. Paris, Alcan.

Hannah

Grouped

9. pp.

consolidated

in

tion reprinted 1968 3.

Seemann, 1928.

supplement: Vollmer

in

Lexikon der

Allgeiueines

Felix.

22, Leipzig,

v.

Zervos. Christian [Bibliographic].

In

his

not.

Fernand Leger.

Paris,

Cahiers d'Art, 1952. pp. 90-92. 5.

Muller,

Hannah.

Leger. Urbana,

A

111..

selected

bibliography.

Selection of references from tions

Katharine Kuh.

In

University of Illinois Press. 1953.

before and since

Cooper

(bibl. 3), plus

consult both bibliographies." Classified groups

and updated,

Listings are included, revised 6). 6.

Guggenheim

new

"For complete coverage

1949.

same

in

cita.

.

.

as bibl. 3.

Mathev

(bibl.

(bibl. 9), etc.

Mathey, Francois. Bibliographic.

In

Fernand Leger.

Paris,

Musee

des Arts Decoratifs. 1956. Similarly

43-72, in 7.

in

i.e.,

his

Haus der Kunst, Munich

1957, pp.

chronological order within each section.

Vollmer, Hans. AUgemeines Le.xikon der bildenden Kiinstler des

XX.

Jahrhitndcrts.

v. 3,

Leipzig.

Seemann, 1957.

Supplements Thieme and Becker 8.

version,

Muller updated from 1949 to 1956 and rearranged

(bibl.

i).

Delevoy, Robert L. Bibliography. In his Leger. Geneva, Skira, 1962. pp. 124-32.

A 9.

Solomon

Bibliographical Guide

/

195

Guggenheim Museum. Fernand Leger. New York,

R.

1962. pp. 103-11.

Muller and Mathey, follows similar

Bibliography, based on

many

groupings but omits newspaper notices and

exhibition

catalogues. 10.

Nickels, Bradley

See

J.

[Leger dissertation. Indiana University, 1966].

bibl. 69.

Bibliography includes Appendix H. Writings and statements

Leger (pp. 379-84) credited to Mathey (bibl. 6). Delevoy (bibl. 8), and Guggenheim (bibl. 9). Also Bibliography, pp.

385-92, which includes references both by and about Leger. 11.

Tate Gallery. Leger and Purist Paris. London, Nov.

1970-

18,

Jan. 24, 1971.

106-107, includes not only Leger

Selected bibliography, pp.

references but also "contemporary texts." 12.

Paris.

Musee National d'Art Moderne. Fernand Leger.

1971-Jan.

10,

Expositions,

Oct.

16,

1972. 19 12-71.

— Bibliographie

selective:

textes,

mono-

graphies, articles, manuscrits (1969), pp. 189-93.

For Viking edition and

related variants, see bibl.

other bibliographies passim,

16,

i6a,

17:

e.g. bibl. 74, 79.

Leger Anthologies: Conversations, Essays. Lectures. Quotations 13.

Leger,

14.

Leger.

Fernand. Bekenntnisse.

Gesprciche.

Zurich,

Die Arche,

1957-

Propos

Fernand.

Presence.

et

Paris,

Gonthier-Seghers,

195915.

Mes

Leger, Fernand.

Voyages. Paris, Editeurs Frangais Reunis.

i960. 16.

Leger, Fernand. Fonctions de

Sources,

chronology,

century Art 6a.

Peinture. Paris, Gonthier, 1965.

Roger Garaudy. Thirty-four essays

theque mediations,

1

la

Preface:

Leger,

1971-

(

bibliography.

now

published

1973). See

Fernand.

Mensch.

bibl.

in

From

in

the

five chapters.

series

Biblio-

The Documents

of 20th-

Bern,

Benteli,

17.

Maschine.

Malerei.

196

A

/

Bibliographical Guide

und

"Title des Originales: Fonctions de la Peinturc. Ubersetzt eingeleitet

von Robert

Bibliography

Fiiglister."

(no.

1-33).

Chronology (1881-1955). 17.

New

Leger, Fernand, Functions of Painting.

York. The Viking

London, Thames and Hudson. 1973. Translated by Alexandra Anderson. Edited and introduced by

Press;

Edward

George

F. Fry; preface by

L.

K. Morris; bibliography

by Bernard Karpel. 18.

Chalette Gallery. Fernand Leger: The Figure.

New

York, Apr.

1965-

Edited and translated by Dr. Madeleine Lejwa. Includes

human body

propos of the

"A

considered as an object" and other

translated extracts (18 sources listed). 19.

Nickels, Bradley

See

J.

[Leger dissertation. Indiana University, 1966].

bibl. 69.

A-G

Appendices

(pp.

314-78) include French

English translations of fifteen Leger 20. Vallier,

Dora, comp. La vie

Propos de

fait

originals or

texts.

I'oeuvre

de Fernand

Leger:

Cahiers d'Art (Paris), 1954,

I'artiste recueillis.

v.

2,

PP- 133-72.

Condensed

in J.

Paris, Seghers,

Charpier and F. Seghers: L'Art de

la

Peinture.

New

York,

Descargues

(bibl.

1957, pp. 623-27 [English edition:

Hawthorn, 1965]. See also comparable citations following,

e.g.

60).

Articles by Leger Available in English 21.

A propos

22.

Fernand Leger. 1965 The aesthetic of the machine

human body

of the

Gallery.

Art, pp.

From

277-79

and the

artist.

Winter 1967.

(bibl.

18).

[extract].

In Theories of

Modern

(bibl. 89).

Bulletin de V Effort

23. Aesthetics of the

considered as an object. In Chalette

Moderne

(Paris), Jan.-Feb. 1924.

machine: the manufactured object, the artisan

Art and Literature (Paris), no.

11,

pp.

156-64,

A From 23a. 24.

Bulletin de

l'

Effort

Bibliographical Guide

Moderne

/

197

(Paris), Jan. -Feb. 1924.

Apropos of colour. Transition (New York) no. 26, Beauty in machine art. Design (Columbus. O.)

p. 81, v.

1937.

39,

pp.

6-7. Mar. 1938. 25.

Byzantine mosaics and modern

Magazine of Art (Washing-

art.

ton, D.C.), V. 37, pp. 144-45. Apr. 1944.

26. Calder. In

Towers.

Curt Valentin Gallery. Alexander Calder: Gongs and

New

York, 1952. pp. 6-7. v. 2, pp. 63-68. Jan. 1932.

27. Chicago. Plans (Paris),

28.

Color

in

New

Stamo Papadaki. Le Corbusier.

architecture. In

York, Macmillan, 1948. pp. 78-80. 29. The esthetics of the machine, manufactured objects, artisan and artist. Little Review (New York), v. 9, no. 3, pp. 45-49- Spring 1923;

V. 9, no. 4, pp.

55-58, 1923-24.

Translation: Bulletin de

Effort

l'

Moderne

(Paris), no.

22, 23. Also no.

no. 2, Feb. 1924. Similar to bibl.

i.

Jan.;

translated

i

by Nickels, pp. 343-46 (bibl. 69). 30. Film by Fernand Leger and Dudley Murphy, musical synchronism by George Antheil. Little Review (New York), v. 10. no. 2,

pp. 42-44,

Autumn-Winter 1924-25.

Also contents 31.

A

Nouveau

(bibl. 34).

Leger and Purist

Correspondance

Translation:

32.

title

letter [1922]. In

Nov. 1956. Dated Aug. letter,

85-86

2,

Quadruin (Brussels), no.

2,

The machine and the

34.

2,

artist.

aesthetic

—the

pp.

manufactured object

— the

artisan

In Leger and Purist Paris, pp. 37-92 (bibl. 76). I'

Feb. 1924. See also

Mechanical

pp. 79-80,

1955 (Lisores, Orne). French text and facsimile by J. M. Translation,

Translation: Bulletin de no.

L'Esprit

pp. 77-79. Brief introduction

pp. 79-80. 33.

76).

(bibl.

de

Bulletin

(Paris), no. 4. Apr. 1924.

[Letter to a friend. 1955].

of

Paris, pp.

[1922].

ballet.

Little

Effort

Moderne

(Paris), no.

i,

Jan.;

bibl. 23. 29.

Review (New York),

v.

10.

no.

2,

42-44, Autumn-Winter 1924-25.

Contents

title.

Dudley Murphy

Caption

title:

(bibl. 30).

Film by Fernand

Leger and

198

35.

A

/

Bibliographical Guide

Modern

architecture

and

American Abstract

In

color.

Artists.

New

York. 1946. pp. 31. 34-35- 37-38new landscape. In Gyorgy Kepes. The 36. The Art and Science. Chicago. Theobald. 1956. 37.

The new

realism. Lecture delivered at

Art. Alt Front

(New York),

New

Landscape

in

p. 90.

The Museum of Modern

no. 8, pp. lo-ii, Dec. 1935.

v. 2,

Translated by Harold Rosenberg. 38.

The new

realism. In Robert Goldwater. Artists on Art.

New York,

Pantheon Books. 1945: London. Kegan Paul. 1947. pp. 423-26. 39. The new realism goes on. Art Front (New York), v. 3. no. 1. pp. 7-8. Feb. 1937.

Speech read

at the

Maison de

Culture. Paris,

la

(bibl.

44).

Translation bv Samuel Putnam. 40.

A

new

realism

—the

object

plastic

(its

Review (New York),

value). Little

v.

and

cinematographic

11, no. 2. pp. 7-8.

Winter

1926.

Composed of Modern 41.

1925. Also in bibl.

in

Art. pp.

279-80

(bibl.

104. Extract in Theories of

89).

On monumentality and color. In Siegfried Giedion. Architecture. You and Me. Cambridge, Mass.. Harvard University Press. 1958. pp. 40-47-

42. Notations on plastic values. In the

Anderson

New

Galleries].

Fernand Leger [an exhibition

at

York. Societe Anonyme. Nov.

16-28, 1925. 43. Painting and reality. Transition

(New York),

no.

25. pp.

104-

108. Winter 1936.

Translated from "La Querelle du Realisme"* (Paris. Editions Sociales Internationales. 1936). Extracts of lectures by Aragon.

Le Corbusier. and Leger

at the

Maison de

la

Culture. Also

in

bibl. 39.

44. Painting

and

reality (contribution to a discussion

between Aragon.

The Painter's Object. Edited by Leger and Le Gerald Howe. 1937. pp. 15-16. 18-20. Myfanwy Evans. London. Arno Press. 1970. Text from Reprint edition: New York. Corbusier). In

Transition (bibl. 43). 45.

[Painting and realitv: no.

I.

pp. 87-90.

extract].

Winter i960.

Daedalus (Cambridge. Mass.).

A

Bibliographical Guide

Published as a "statement" here as well as

in

/

199

book edition

ol"

The Visual Arts Today, edited by Gyorgy

the magazine titled

Kepes. 46. Polychromatic architecture. /« Leger and Purist Paris, pp.

95-96

76).

(bibl.

Translation from L' Architecture Vivante (Paris)

no. [4], pp.

21-22, Winter 1924. 47.

Popular dancing. In Leger and Purist

Paris, pp.

Translation from Bulletin de l Effort

93-94

Moderne

76).

(bibl.

(Paris) no. 12,

Feb.; no. 13. Mar. 1925. 48.

1924]. London Film Programme Notes, No. 2. Feb. 23, 1933. Leaflet to accompany showings by private film group; text attributed to Leger. Reprint: London Film Society Notes. New

[Program notes for Le Ballet mecanique, Society.

York, Arno. 1972. 49.

The question

of "truth." Architectural

Forum (New York),

v.

70,

pp. 138-41. Feb. 1939. Also bibl. 133.

49a. Relationship between

Modern Art

in

modern

Advertising:

and contemporar\ industry. In

art

An

Exhibition of Designs for Con-

tainer Corporation of America. Chicago. Art Institute of Chi-

cago, 1945- PP- 4-550. Revival of mural art.

Aug.

pp. 403, 409. 51. This

how

is

11-13

(bibl.

In Beyeler Gallery. F. Leger.

1970. pp.

53).

Also note interviews:

Warnod

no. 450,

18,

v.

25, 1937.

starts.

it

The Listener (London),

fbibl.

187).

Howe

(bibl.

153), Pity usi

(bibl.

165),

etc.

Monographs and Major Catalogues 52.

Bazaine.

Jean.

Fernand Leger: peintures anterieures a 1940.

Paris, Galerie Louis Carre.

On

1945.

the occasion of an exhibition held Jan. i6-Feb.

5.

1945.

53. Beyeler Gallery. F. Leger. Basel. Editions Beyeler. 1970.

Contributions

Maurois.

by

Blaise

Cendrars,

Extracts from Leger:

"This

Rene is

how

Jullian, it

Andre

starts,"

pp.

200

A

/

1

Bibliographical Guide

1-13; notes passim. Chronology, sources of the notes, selected

bibliography. Trade edition of exhibition held Aug.-Oct. 1969. 54. Carre,

Louis,

La Figure dans

Galerie.

de

I'oeuvre

Fernand

Leger. Paris, June 6-JuIy 10, 1952.

Texts by Andre Maurois:

"Comment

je

congois

(1000 copies); 55. Carre,

Louis,

list

"Mon ami

la figure."

Leger," and by Leger:

Catalogue sur velin by Mourlot

of 15 paintings (1912-52) and 10 drawings.

Le Pay sage dans

Galerie.

de Fernand

I'oeuvre

Leger. Paris, Louis Carre, 1956. Includes "Entretien de Fernand Leger avec Blaise Cendrars et

Louis Carre."

56. Cooper, Douglas. Fernand Leger: contrastes de formes igi2-

191 5.

Paris, Berggruen,

Introduction no. 37.

May

(2

1962.

pp.);

16

Collection Berggruen

(col.).

illus.

1962.

57. Cooper, Douglas.

Fernand Leger: dessins de guerre, igi 5-igi6.

Paris, Berggruen, 1956.

Text by Blaise Cendrars:

44 facsimile

"La grand copine." Catalogue of

plates (pt. col.). Edition:

58. Cooper, Douglas.

Fernand Leger

et le

650

copies.

nouvel espace. Text

in

French and English. London. Lund Humphries; Geneva-Paris, Trois CoUines, 1949.

Usually cited, even by H. B. Muller, without reference to the English first

insert

and

compound

Presumably,

publishers.

printing lacked the English insert.

The

only chap. 2-4 (pp. 31-140) of the French tion includes illustrated books,

tion

list.

magazine

is

complemented by

text.

Documenta-

illustrations, exhibi-

Major bibliography by Hannah

standard reference,

the

translation covers

B.

bibl.

by Henry R. Hope. College Art Journal, no.

Muller, 5.

4,

now

a

Book review pp. 435-37,

1950. 59. Delevoy,

Robert

L.

Leger:

biographical

and

critical

study.

Geneva, Skira, 1962. Translated from the French Taste of

Our Time

series.

Bibli-

Descargues, Pierre. Fernand Leger. Paris, Cercle d'Art,

1955.

ography. Also European editions. 60.

Prepared

in

close

collaboration

with the

artist.

Preface by

— A Leger:

"C'est

comme

Bibliographical Guide

commence"

^a que cela

201

/

5-6).

(pp.

"Chariot cubiste, scenario pour un dessin anime" (pp. 17-18).

Summaries by Leger precede each chapter. Quotations passim. 61. Dusseldorf. 8,

Stadtische Kunsthalle.

Dec.

Leger.

1969-Feb.

16,

1970.

26 pp., plates (col.). Eight contributions, documentation, 149 exhibits, bibliography.

Frank. Leger: peintures igii-ig48.

62. Elgar,

Editions du

Paris,

Chene, 1948. Brief introduction; 16 63.

Fernand Leger:

la

mounted

forme

Also note

col. pi.

dans

hiimaine

bibl. 91,

109.

Montreal,

I'espace.

Editions de I'Arbre, 1945.

Eight contributions include Leger's considere

comme un

Couturier, S.

Maurice

M. Kootz,

J. J.

propos du corps humain

Gagnon,

Giedion,

S.

16,

18),

Francois

M. A. Hertel,

Sweeney.

On

Peter de.

64. Francia,

"A

objet" (translated bibl.

Leger's "The

Great Parade." London,

Cassell, 1969.

Painters on Painting;

In the series edited by Carel Weight:

32 pp., 65.

Garaudy,

ill.

(col.), notes.

Roger.

Pour un realisme du XX"^

posthume avec Fernand Leger.

"Un

Paris, Grasset,

Dialogue

siecle.

1968.

Fernand Leger" (pp. 225-44) is also titled: "De I'Acropole a la Tour Eiffel (conference faite par Fernand inedit de

Leger a 66. George,

The

la

Sorbonne)." Chronology, notes.

Waldemar. Fernand Leger.

series

Paris, Gallimard,

Les Peintres nouveaux; 63 pp.

incl.

1929.

illus.

Text of

14 pp. translated bibl. 144. 67. Jardot, Maurice. Leger. Paris,

Hazan. 1956.

Also his Leger Dessins. Paris, Deux Mondes, 1953, 8

pp.,

53

illus.

68.

Kuh, Katharine. Leger. Urbana,

111.,

University of Illinois Press,

1953Classified bibliography

Cooper similar

Art

by Hannah

B.

Muller complementing

Does not mention concurrent catalogue with documentation: Leger. by Katharine Kuh, Chicago, (bibl. 3).

Institute of

Chicago,

in collaboration

with The

Museum

of

— 202

/

A

Bibliographical Guide

Modern

Art,

New

Museum

York, and the San Francisco

of

Art, 1953. 90 pp. 69. Nickels.

1905

to

Bradley

Fernand Leger: Paintings and Drawings,

J.

1930. [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, De-

partment of Fine Arts, June 1966].

Ann

Arbor, Mich., University

Microfilms, 1971.

Xerox

edition of dissertation;

393 pp. including

vita.

Text

contains quotations, bibliography of writings and statements by

and general bibliography. Important ap-

Leger (1913-60), pendices

A-G

include selected texts and extracts by Leger.

Translations of

full

A

propos du corps

— L'art

—L'art —Citation (from

or partial texts include:

humain considere comme un objet. moderne devant le peuple. Causerie sur

—

Raynal, 1927).

Tart.

—Conference sur monde. — La couleur dans

abstrait.

I'esthetique de la machine.

— L'esthetique — Les origines de peinture sa valeur representative. — Pensees. Les realisations picturales actuelles. — Reponse a une enquete Couleur dans de

la

le

machine,

I'objet

la

sur 70. Paris. Paris,

le

fabrique,

la vie.

Partisan

et

Tartiste.

et

cubisme.

Musee

des Arts Decoratifs. Fernand Leger. 1881-1955.

June-Oct. 1955.

Prefatory texts by Leger, Jean Cassou. Georges Beauquier.

Chronology by Francois Mathey includes quotations. ography, based on Muller

enlarged

(bibl. 3, 5)

in

Bibli-

chronological

order by Mathey to 1956. Catalogue and illustrations. Similar catalogue issued by

Haus der Kunst, Munich,

for

Mar.-May

1957 show. 71. Paris.

Musee National d'Art Moderne. Fernand Leger.

Oct.

16.

1971-Jan. 10. 1972.

Major retrospective (195 pp. hundred paintings, ceramics,

ill.)

at

the

tapestries.

Grand Palais. Two La Grande Parade

(Guggenheim Museum) and Les Constructeurs (Leger Muare accompanied by all related studies. Texts

seum, Biot)

by Jean Leymarie and Jean Cassou chronology, exhibitions, bibliography. 72. Raynal, Maurice. Fernand Leger: vingt tableau.x. Paris, L'Effort

Moderne, 1920. Les Maitres du cubisme; 18 pp., 20 mtd.

pi.

Texts also pub-

A lished

73.

Nourcau, Jan.

L' Esprit

in

Bibliographical Guide

203

dc VEfjort

1921; Bulletin

Moderne, Oct. and Nov. 1925. Roy, Claude. Fernand Leger: les constructeurs.

/

Paris,

Falaize,

1951-

Booklet

show

{

16 pp. plus

73a. San Lazzaro, Gualtieri

published on the occasion of a Leger

ill.)

Maison de

at the

Pensee Fran^aise, Paris.

la

di,

Homage

ed.

to

New

Fernand Leger.

York, Tudor, 1971. "Special issue of the XX'' Siecle Review" based on 19 articles,

26 color

cal

75.

XX'

Siecle. Biographical

chronology.

Fernand Leger. Antwerp, Editions

74. Selection.

Cahier

150 reproductions. Also reprints 1952 Leger

plates,

lithograph from

5,

Selection.

1929.

Feb. 1929. Anthology of 10 contributions. Biographi-

and bibliographical note.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Fernand Leger: Five Themes and Variations. New York, Feb. 28-Apr. 29, 1962. Master Series Muller

Number

Extensive

exhibits.

(bibl.

3)

Text by Thomas M. Messer.

i.

bibliography

chronological

and Mathey

6), adding

(bibl.

iii

incorporates

new

selected

references to 1961. 76. Tate Gallery. Leger

and

London, Nov.

Purist Paris.

18,

1970-

Jan. 24, 1971.

Foreword by

Sir

Norman

preface by John

Reid;

Golding.

Major essays by Golding and Christopher Green. Includes

77.

translations

from Leger

Catalogue,

selected

(bibl. 31, 33,

1950 show see bibl. 184. Teriade, E. Fernand Leger.

800 copies; 27 pp. plus 93

notes.

Paris, Editions Cahiers d'Art,

For 1928.

plates.

78. Vallier. Dora. Carnet inedit de

un

46) by Charlotte Green.

bibliographical

bibliography,

Fernand Leger. Esquisses pour

Portrait. Paris, Cahiers d'Art [1957?].

Originally published in Cahiers d'Art, incl. illus.,

v.

31-32, pp. 95-175

1956-57.

79. Verdet, Andre.

Fernand Leger:

le

dynamisme

pictural.

Geneva,

Cailler, 1955.

In

series

Peintres

et

sculpteurs

d'hiers

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Chronology, bibliography, documentation. Also Leger. Florence, Sansoni,

1969.

(I

d'aujourd'hui. his

Fernand

Maestri del Novecento).

204

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Chronology, bibliography. Translated

in

20th Century

series

[Hamlyn Publishing Group, London, 1970]. Zervos, Christian. Fernand Leger: oeuvres de 1905 a 1952. Masters.

80.

Paris,

Cahiers d'Art, 1952. English translation, pp. 16-21. Bibliography. 81.

Zurich.

Kunsthaus. Juan Gris

—Fernand

Leger.

Cahiers

Paris.

d'Art, 1933.

Major double anthology of 23 contributions edited by Christian Zervos for successive retrospectives: Apr. 2-26 (Gris). Apr.

30-May 25

(Leger).

Drawn from Cahiers

d'Art material but

published separately with Kunsthaus cover.

General References 82.

Apollinaire, Guillaume.

The Cubist

Painters: Aesthetic Medita-

New

York, Wittenborn, Schultz, 1949. pp. 43-45. First edition 1944. Revised edition (1949) includes bibliog-

tions

191 3.

raphy on Apollinaire and Cubism by Bernard Karpel. Preface

by editor of Documents of Modern Art, Robert Motherwell, omitted from 1962 printing. Excellent annotated French edi-

by LeRoy C. Breunig and J. -CI. Chevalier (Paris, Hermann, 1965). 83. Art in Cinema. A Symposium on the Avantgarde Film edited by Frank Stauffacher. San Francisco. San Francisco Museum of tion

.

Art. 1949. pp.

.

.

103-104 (index).

References to Ballet Mecanique, Dreams

That

Money Can

Buy, Leger. 84.

Banham, Reyner. Theory and Design 2d ed.

New

Chap.

15: Architecture

London, Architectural 85.

in the First

Machine Age.

York, Washington, Praeger, 1967.

and the Cubist

tradition. First edition:

Press, i960.

Cubism and Abstract

New

Barr, Alfred H.,

Jr.

seum of Modern

Art, 1936. pp. 82. 96, 214, 229, 232-33.

Art.

York.

Mu-

Synthetic cubism, pp. 77-98. Catalogue of exhibition; bibliog-

raphy. Reprint edition:

New

86. Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Masters of

of

Modern

York, Arno Press, 1966.

Modern

Art, 1954. p. 239 (index).

Art.

New

York,

Museum

A

Bibliographical Guide

/

205

87.

Biederman, Charles. Air as the Evolution of Visual Knowledge.

88.

Red Wing, Minn., The Author, 1948. Breunig, LeRoy C, ed. Apollinaire on i902-igi8. 1972.

New

683-84 (index). and Reviews:

pp.

Art: Essays

York, Viking; London. Thames and Hudson,

540 (index).

p.

The Documents

of 20th-century Art Series. Translation, with

added material, of

Gallimard edition: Apollinaire: Chroni-

his

ques d'Art, i960. Bibliography by Bernard Karpel. 89.

Modern

Chipp, Herschel B. Theories of

Art. Berkeley

and Los

Angeles, University of California Press, 1968. pp. 197, 242-43,

277-80. Includes texts by Apollinaire and Leger. 90.

Cooper, Douglas. The Cubist Epoch. London, Phaidon Press, 1971- P- 315 (index). "In association with the Los Angeles County

Museum

and the Metropolitan

Museum

of Art

of Art" on the occasion of a

major retrospective. Leger, nos. 175-88. Bibliography. 91. Dictionary

of

Modern

Sculpture.

Edited by Robert Maillard.

New

York, Tudor [i960?]; London, Methuen, 1962. pp. 165-69. Translation: Dictionnaire de la sculpture nwderne. Paris,

Hazan, i960. Text by Frank Elgar. Also note 92.

Also publicity booklet with text and as

"7

dreams shaped

actually Calder,

artists,"

Richter.

the

after

illustrations.

visions

Duchamp,

Leger's sequence

Ernst,

the love

is

of

109.

bibl.

Dreams That Money Can Buy. A film produced and Hans Richter. 100 minutes, U.S., 1944-46.

directed by

Film described

7

contemporary

Leger,

Man

mannequins, "a version of American folklore." 93.

Egbert,

Donald Drew. Social Radicalism and

Europe.

New

"A

York, Knopf,

cultural history

94. Encyclopedia of

Index,

V.

ditional

his

116).

The Film Index

— Western

see bibl. 123.

to 1968."

York, McGraw-Hill. 1959-68. article, v. 9, p.

assembled by the

Bernard Myers, also see (bibl.

New

315; main Leger

material

the Arts

1970. p. xxviii (index).

from the French Revolution

World Art,

15, p.

Ray,

two window

story of

supervisory

197.

For ad-

editor.

Dr.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art

2o6

A

/

95. Fry,

Bibliographical Guide

New

Edward. Cubism.

York, Toronto, McGraw-Hill, 1966.

199 (index).

p.

Includes

"The

value," pp.

origins

121-26.

of

painting

— "Contemporary

and

its

representational

achievements

paint-

in

ing," pp. 135-39-

96. Gallatin, Albert E., Collection. /fl/m Co/Zc^c/ZoA?.

Museum

New York, New York

of Living Art: A. E. Gal-

University, 1940. pp. 12,30.

14 works by Leger. Essay by Jean Helion; notes by G. L. K. Morris. Revised catalogue issued

by the Philadelphia

Museum

when

collection

was absorbed

of Art (1954).

Cubism (Translated). Lon-

97. Gleizes, Albert and Metzinger, Jean.

don, Leipsic. T. Fisher Unwin, 19 13. English

First

edition

of:

Du

"Cubisme."

Figuiere,

Paris,

1912. Five Leger reproductions. 98. Golding,

2d

ed.

John.

igoy-igi 4.

Cubism, a History and Analysis,

London, Faber and Faber, 1968.

p.

205 (index).

London and New York, 1959. Also note his essay "Leger and the heroism of modern life" in Tate catalogue

First edition:

(bibl.

99.

76). General bibliography.

Habasque. Guy. Cubism. Biographical and

Critical Study.

Ge-

neva, Skira, 1959.

Translated from the French. 100.

Haftmann, Werner. Painting

in

the

Twentieth Century.

York, Praeger; London, Lund Humphries, (index);

v. 2, p.

First edition:

v.

i.

p.

New 422

522 (index).

Munich,

American popular 10 1. Hamilton,

i960,

Prestel Verlag,

1954, 2

v.

Also second

edition, 1965.

George Heard. Painting and Sculpture

Baltimore, Penguin. 1967.

432 (index). Bibliography. Similar coverage in complementary

in

Europe.

p.

text:

19th

and 20th Century Art and Painting, Sculpture, Architecture.

New

York, Abrams, 1970.

102. Heron, Patrick.

The Changing Forms of

Art.

London, Routledge

and Kegan Paul, 1955. pp. 148-51. 103. History of

Modern

Painting [vol. j]:

Geneva, Skira, 1950.

p.

From

Picasso to Surrealism.

209 (index).

Text by Maurice Raynal and others. Documentation by Hans Bolliger.

Also European editions.

A

New

York, Noonday Press (Farrar, Straus

1970 (copyright i960). Paperback edition. Includes Sidney,

105. Janis,

207

/

Introduction to the Art of the Movies: an

104. Jacobs, Lewis, ed.

Anthology.

Bibliographical Guide

bibl.

[Leger

Gallery.

& Giroux),

40, 176.

Exhibition

New

Catalogues].

York, 1948-60. Illustrated catalogues issued

2i-Oct. II,

1952.

—Jan.

106. Kahnweiler,

1969.

p.

— Mar.

1948.

16.

2-Feb.

1957.

2.

1951. 5,

— Sept.

New

Gris.

15-Oct.

1960-Jan. 1961.

Abrams,

York,

344 (index). Bibliography by Bernard Karpel.

Revised, enlarged version. edition:

First

7,

— Dec.

Juan

Daniel-Henry.

Leger exhibitions: Sept.

for five

19-Apr.

Paris,

Gallimard,

London,

1946. Translation:

Lund Humphries; New York, Curt Valentin, raphy. Third edition: Stuttgart, Gerd Hatje,

1947.

Bibliog-

1968.

Bibliog-

raphy. Translation, 1969. 107. Kahnweiler,

Daniel-Henry.

The Rise of Cubism.

New

York,

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Documents Bernard

of

Modern Art

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series.

Kahnweiler bibliography by

Weg zum Kuhismus.

Der

Translation:

Munich, Delphin, 1920. pp. 47-51. 108. Kootz, Samuel M. Women. New York, Samuel M. Kootz [Gallery],

1948. pp. 13-15-

Includes "The painter's conflict" by Clement Greenberg. 109. Lake,

Carlton

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and

Maillard,

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York, Tudor [1964?]. pp. 197-201.

Robert.

Dictionary

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Modern

Text by Frank Elgar, translated from the French. First French edition: Paris, Hazan [1954]. no. Liberman, Alexander. The Artist ing, i960, pp.

His Studio.

in

New

York, Vik-

49-52.

Text and photographs. In paperback edition (1968 and 1969), pp. 189-96.

III. Malevich,

Kasimir Severinovich.

Edited by Troels Andersen.

New

Essays

on

Art.

1915-1933.

York, Wittenborn, 1971.

p.

178

(index).

Documents of Modern

Art,

v.

16.

Glowacki-Prus and Arnold McMillin.

Translated

by

Xenia

First edition (in 2 v.):

2o8

/

A

Bibliographical Guide

Copenhagen, Borgen, 1968. Main Leger comment,

v.

2,

pp.

62-69. 112. Manvell,

Roger,

ed.

Experiment

in

the

Film.

London, Grey

and

"Dreams That

Walls, 1949. pp. 2J-J-J8 (index).

113.

"Le

References

to

Money Can

Buy.""

mecanique"

Ballet

Markov, Vladimir. Russian Futurism: a History. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California

114.

Miller

Company

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640 (index).

Architecture. Text

York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce,

1948. pp. 27, 30, 50-51115.

Mourlot, Fernand. Art

in

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New

York,

Braziller,

1959.

pp. 31-37116. Myers, Bernard, ed. Encyclopedia of Painting. 3d rev. ed.

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McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art. v. 3, p. 401-402 (article by John C. Galloway). Additional: v. i, p. 330 ("Biot, Fernand Leger Museum"'). Dr. Myers also was supervisory editor for Coverage enlarged

New

in

his

York, McGraw-Hill, 1969.

bibl. 94.

117. Raynal. Maurice. tano's, 1928;

Modern French

Painters.

New

York, Bren-

London, Duckworth, 1929. pp. 111-16, 230-32.

Translation: Anthologie de

la

peinture en France. Paris,

Mon-

taigne, 1927.

118.

Rischbieter, Henning, ed. Art

Greenwich, Conn.,

and

New York

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German

edition:

und Bildende Kunst im XX.

Biihne

Jahrhundert. (1968). Documentation by Wolfgang Storch. 119.

Rosenblum, Robert. Cubism and Twentieth-Century Art. York, Abrams; London, Thames and Hudson,

1961.

p.

New 327

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Alfred.

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New

York, Crown,

n.d.;

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"Movements

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series translated

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A

Bibliographical Guide

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plates

209

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2,

8,

18.

23-

121.

The Selective Eye. House, 1955. pp. Translation

1

Paris,

14-17,

of

Douglas

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i,

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New

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:

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1

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Modern French

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125. Yale University. Art Gallery. Collection of the Societe

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2IO

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A

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Bibliographical Guide

Canaday, John. Leger 24, 1968, p.

and

alive

New

well.

York Times, Nov.

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Reviews exhibition; evaluates Leger.

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21,

1

1951, 131. Cassou,

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95 1.

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Art News

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Fernand Leger. Art News (New York), Nov.

1949, pp. 27, 58-59-

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132. Chicago, Art Institute.

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Modern

133. Cincinnati

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Fc/7?fln