Les Disques

Les Disques by Fernand Léger 

Machinery dominates this abstract cityscape by Ferdinand Léger. Giant, gyrating disks and shafts bisect the scene vertically. To the left, figures wearing helmets represent laborers, who seem to merge with the machinery.

This 1913 painting shows Léger reacting to early Cubism. George Braque and Pablo Picasso employed fragmentation to depict three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional painting. Léger expanded upon the idea of fragmentation to create compositions divided by dynamic forces and static counter-forces, and Léger uses vibrant color unlike the earth-toned early Cubist paintings.

Léger idealized the relationship between man and machine. The anonymous figures in Les Disques stand for mechanical workers, engineers, and designers thriving in a modern world of machines. Léger gave these workers the name Homo faber, or Man the Maker. Homo faber became a protagonist in the mechanistic universe of Léger’s imagination. He saw mankind’s dramatic struggle to master machinery as an affirmation of the human will.

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Merci Sarah!