Still Life (Composition with Post)

In 1925 Paris filled up with the great Exposition of decorative arts, the show that would later give Art Deco its name, and the talk everywhere was of clean modern design. Léger was close to the architect Le Corbusier and his circle, who preached that an ordinary manufactured object, a bottle or a bit of machinery, held a beauty worth taking seriously. This still life comes straight out of that mood. Everyday shapes are flattened and stacked like a shop poster, painted in hard blacks and bright primaries. There is no soft light and no tabletop, only the objects themselves, pressed flat and given the same respect a painter once saved for a face.