'ABC', Fernand Léger

Artwork details

Artist

Fernand Léger (1881‑1955)

Title

ABC

Date 1927

MediumGouache on paper

Dimensionssupport: 194 x 278 mm frame: 410 x 503 x 20 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler 1974, accessioned 1994

Reference

T06799

Not on display

Summary

ABC is a preparatory study in gouache for the oil painting Nature morte A.B.C., 1927, given by Léger’s art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler to the Musée Fernand Léger in Biot. It is an abstract still life that features lettering, in a style reminiscent of early Cubism, and combines it with abstract elements on a tilted plane.

Although Léger had already made paintings that incorporated letters in the late 1910s and in the 1920s, this was the first time that lettering itself would become the actual subject of his work. He layered the gouache heavily in the areas with black ink, treating it almost like oil paint. The artist painted separate areas of pure colour adjacent to each other and did not allow them to mix, saying: ‘I wanted to end up with colours which were isolated, a red that was very red, a blue that was very blue.’ (Quoted in Cassou and Leymarie 1973, p.13.) The colour of Léger’s gouaches has been described by the art critic Jean Cassou as ‘particularly exquisite ..… (read more)