LONDON.- Although Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque pioneered the early-20th-century Cubism movement, it was the actions of the Section d’Or - also known as the Puteaux Group - in 1911 which brought the movement to the attention of the general public. Amongst this group of artists was the 30-year-old Fernand Léger, who would later also play a crucial role in the Pop Art movement.

Born in 1881, Léger was raised in Argentan, Normandy by a herdsman father. After working as an apprentice architect for a few years in Caen, the 19-year-old Léger moved to Paris to further his career. A brief period of artistic stagnancy followed, enforced by military service in Versailles from 1902 to 1903. Léger then returned to the capital to apply for a place at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts; with his application to the school rejected, the young aspiring artist took classes as an unenrolled student whilst studying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs and the private Académie Julian.

During his mid-20s, Léger developed a style heavily influenced by Impressionism - a phase which we have little evidence of due to the destruction of many of these works by Léger himself. The artist’s style underwent drastic transformation in 1907 after his contact with the work of the Post-Impressionist painter, Paul Cézanne. Around the time of his move to the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse - an area later renowned for its creativity and artistic residents - Léger’s art moved into the realm of abstraction, cubism and monochrome, leading to his identification as a ‘Cubist’ and joining of the Section d’Or.

The Section d’Or - known as the Groupe de Puteaux - held their first exhibition in 1911, hoping to introduce Cubism to the wider public; the show was met with criticism and controversy. The following year, the renamed and expanded group held another exhibition at the Galerie La Boétie, considered the most important pre-war Cubist art exhibition. The success of this show entailed the popularization of the Cubism movement amongst Paris’ avant-garde artists.

With the arrival of war in 1914 came further developments and changes to Léger’s style. Whilst serving as soldier in northern France, Léger produced many sketches of artillery, soldiers, and airplanes, which would later be regarded as his ‘mechanical’ period because of the machine-like qualities of his work. After the war, Léger pursued his passion for cinema, initially designing sets and costumes before moving into producing and directing. Léger returned his focus to painting in 1924, establishing the Académie de l’Art Moderne and teaching alongside other artists.

Having first visited the United States in the early 1930s, Léger was exhibited by the MoMA, New York in 1935. During this time, the artist was also requested to decorate the apartment of businessman Nelson Rockefeller. Léger became enamoured by the city and remained in the States until the end of the Second World War in 1945, also spending time in Oakland and Connecticut to teach at Yale. Inspired and fascinated by the American land, Léger created landscapes highlighting the juxtaposition of the natural land and the industrial waste dispersed across it.

Léger returned to France to dedicate the remainder of his life to a variety of projects, including book illustrations, murals, mosaics and ceramics. His work at this time lost some of its abstract qualities, as he became interested in monumental compositions of everyday subjects. Meanwhile, Léger also continued his teaching career as a lecturer in the Swiss city of Bern.

After his death in 1955, Léger left behind a legacy as the forefather of Pop Art, being the first painter to be influenced by the products of the consumer age.