Xxe Siècle was at once an art journal and a work of art unto itself. Founded in 1938 by the Italian-born writer, art historian, and publisher, Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, the magazine became one of the leading art periodicals of the 20th century with essays by influential contemporary thinkers and most importantly, original lithographs by high-profile artists. San Lazarro had arrived in Paris in 1924 and became deeply involved in the burgeoning Modernist movement, moving in the inner circles of the city’s art scene and developing relationships with important artists of the time. His enthusiasm led to a desire to promote modernism through democratic means and San Lazarro began publishing his periodical as a way for the movement’s art and ideas to reach a wider audience. Over the course of its lifetime, approximately 60 issues of Xxe Siècle were produced, each focusing on a specific theme or artist. Text was provided by figures such as Man Ray, Kurt Seligmann, Joan Miró, Hans Arp, and Georges Duthuit and color lithographs were created specifically for the magazine by Miró, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, and Wassily Kandinsky, among others. The magazine remained in production until the onset of World War II when San Lazarro had to leave Paris, but resumed for a while after his return, then as Nouvelle Series XXe Siècle. Today, the original volumes as well as the stand alone lithographs are highly prized among collectors and the magazine continues to occupy a place of distinction in the canon of modern art publications.
Above all, it is a matter of loving art, not understanding it.
Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger 1881–1955
Fernand Léger was born on February 4, 1881 in the small rural town of Argentan in northwestern France. Léger showed early talent as an artist and, at the age of nineteen, moved to Paris, where he supported himself as an architectural draftsman. While in Paris, he applied to the École des Beaux-Arts but was rejected and attended the Paris School of Decorative Arts instead. This proved to be a formative moment given the variety of media that Léger would use later in his artistic career.
In 1907, Léger had his first major exposure to the work of Paul Cézanne at the retrospective held at the Salon d'Automne. Cézanne's use of color and creation of three-dimensional shapes on canvas were major influences on Léger. The early Cubist works of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque also did much to shape Léger's burgeoning aesthetic. By 1911, Léger had developed his own form of Cubism that was distinguished by the use of cylindrical shapes. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles described Léger's unique style as "Tubism."
Léger served in the French Army in World War I from 1914 to 1917. This had a major impact on him artistically as his subject matter turned to "mechanical" figures and objects, including fellow soldiers, airplanes, and pieces of machinery. After World War I, Léger's oeuvre went beyond paintings and drawings into the realm of films, set designs, and murals. In the 1930s, Léger made his first trip to the United States. In 1935, he was the focus of a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City that also traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago. Following the onset of World War II, Léger moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1940 to teach at Yale University.
In the postwar years, Léger returned to France and worked as both an artist and teacher. During the 1950s, he created work in a variety media, including tapestry, ceramics, stained glass, and mosaics. Léger died in 1955 outside of Paris in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. Today Fernand Léger is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and a key progenitor of modern art. His works are in almost every major museum in the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Fernand Léger Museum in Biot, France.
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