Fernand Léger French, 1881-1955
Masque (Projet de costume pour la Création du Monde), 1923
Ink, crayon and watercolour on paper
27 x 21 cm
Signed on the lower right
Copyright The Artist
Rolf de Maré's Ballets Suédois, with Jean Börlin as their star dancer, set up at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in the early 1920s and became the main competitor of Diaghilev's...
Rolf de Maré's Ballets Suédois, with Jean Börlin as their star dancer, set up at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in the early 1920s and became the main competitor of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. They called on avant-garde artists for the sets and costumes, thus participating, in this period of intense artistic creativity, in the fruitful collaboration of the different forms of expression of modernity.
Designed to be ‘the only possible Black ballet in the whole world and the one that will remain as a type of the genre’ (letter from Fernand Léger to Rolf de Maré, 12 Sept 1922), The Creation of the World is exemplary in its references to primitive art, and African art in particular, which has interested many avant-garde artists since 1905, such as Derain and Picasso, and which has nourished Cubism and all Modern Art.
With a script by Blaise Cendrars, music by Darius Milhaud, choreography by Rolf de Maré, costumes and sets by Fernand Léger, La Création du Monde was presented on 25 October 1923. Its African sources and Léger's art make it a milestone in the Cubist epic.
Leger's models and projects were divided between the Dansmuseet, Stockholm, and the Cardin Collection.
Designed to be ‘the only possible Black ballet in the whole world and the one that will remain as a type of the genre’ (letter from Fernand Léger to Rolf de Maré, 12 Sept 1922), The Creation of the World is exemplary in its references to primitive art, and African art in particular, which has interested many avant-garde artists since 1905, such as Derain and Picasso, and which has nourished Cubism and all Modern Art.
With a script by Blaise Cendrars, music by Darius Milhaud, choreography by Rolf de Maré, costumes and sets by Fernand Léger, La Création du Monde was presented on 25 October 1923. Its African sources and Léger's art make it a milestone in the Cubist epic.
Leger's models and projects were divided between the Dansmuseet, Stockholm, and the Cardin Collection.
Provenance
Nadia Léger, femme de l’artistePierre Cardin (acquis du précédent).
Vente des projets de costumes de Léger de la Collection Pierre Cardin, Sotheby’s Londres, 21 oct 1998, n° 202
Collection particulière, Paris, acquis auprès de la dernière
Expositions
1970, Paris, inauguration de l’Espace Pierre Cardin, 1 avenue Gabriel, Paris.The couturier and cultural advocate Pierre Cardin has worked for almost 40 years to make the Espace Pierre Cardin, inaugurated in 1971, a place for meetings and exhibitions for renowned and emerging artists. Over the years, he has developed various cultural activities in the world of theatre, dance, music and the visual arts.
Literature
Certificat d'authenticité du Comité Léger.1
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