Editing Fernand Léger (section)

===1920s===
[[File:Leger beer mug.jpg|thumb|upright|''Still Life with a Beer Mug'', 1921, oil on canvas, [[Tate]], London]]

The "mechanical" works Léger painted in the 1920s, in their formal clarity as well as in their subject matter—the mother and child, the female nude, figures in an ordered landscape—are typical of the postwar "[[return to order]]" in the arts, and link him to the tradition of French figurative painting represented by [[Poussin]] and [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot|Corot]].<ref>Cowling and Mundy 1990, pp. 136–138.</ref> In his ''paysages animés'' (animated landscapes) of 1921, figures and animals exist harmoniously in landscapes made up of streamlined forms. The frontal compositions, firm contours, and smoothly blended colors of these paintings frequently recall the works of [[Henri Rousseau]], an artist Léger greatly admired and whom he had met in 1909.

They also share traits with the work of Le Corbusier and [[Amédée Ozenfant]] who together had founded [[Purism]], a style intended as a rational, mathematically based corrective to the impulsiveness of cubism. Combining the classical with the modern, Léger's ''Nude on a Red Background'' (1927) depicts a monumental, expressionless woman, machinelike in form and color. His still life compositions from this period are dominated by stable, interlocking rectangular formations in vertical and horizontal orientation. ''The Siphon'' of 1924, a still life based on an advertisement in the popular press for the aperitif Campari, represents the high-water mark of the Purist aesthetic in Léger's work.<ref>Eliel 2001, p. 37.</ref> Its balanced composition and fluted shapes suggestive of classical columns are brought together with a quasi-cinematic [[close-up]] of a hand holding a bottle.

[[File:Fernand Léger, 1922, La femme et l'enfant (Mother and Child), oil on canvas, 171.2 x 240.9 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg|thumb|250px|''La femme et l'enfant'' (''Mother and Child''), 1922, oil on canvas, 171.2 x 240.9 cm, [[Kunstmuseum Basel]]]]
As an enthusiast of the modern, Léger was greatly attracted to cinema, and for a time he considered giving up painting for filmmaking.<ref>Néret 1993, p. 119.</ref> In 1923–24 he designed the set for the laboratory scene in Marcel L'Herbier's ''[[L'Inhumaine]]'' (The Inhuman One). In 1924, in collaboration with and [[George Antheil]] and [[Man Ray]], Léger and the filmmaker [[Dudley Murphy]] co-produced and co-directed the iconic and [[Futurism (art)|Futurism]]-influenced film ''[[Ballet Mécanique]]'' (Mechanical Ballet).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Delson |first1=Susan |title=Dudley Murphy, Hollywood Wild Card |date=2006 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-8166-4654-8 |pages=41–68 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dudleymurphyholl00dels/page/41/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=20 February 2024|chapter-url-access=registration|oclc=65978637|chapter=Vexed and Disputed: The Multiple Histories of ''Ballet Mécanique''}}</ref> Neither abstract nor narrative, it is a series of images of a woman's lips and teeth, close-up shots of ordinary objects, and repeated images of human activities and machines in rhythmic movement.<ref>Eliel 2001, p. 44.</ref>

In collaboration with Amédée Ozenfant he established the [[Académie Moderne]], a free school where he taught from 1924, with [[Alexandra Exter]] and [[Marie Laurencin]]. He produced the first of his "mural paintings", influenced by Le Corbusier's theories, in 1925. Intended to be incorporated into polychrome architecture, they are among his most abstract paintings, featuring flat areas of color that appear to advance or recede.<ref>Eliel 2001, p. 58.</ref>