Tous Léger !

March 19 - July 20, 2025

Exhibition organized by the GrandPalaisRmn in partnership with the 20th Century National Museums of the Alpes-Maritimes, the Fernand Léger national museum, Biot and the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Nice (MAMAC)

Based essentially on the collections of the Fernand Léger national museum, Biot, and those of the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Nice (MAMAC), the exhibition brings together works by one of the pioneers of modern art, Fernand Léger (1881-1955), from the collections of the Fernand Léger national museum, Biot, with a selection of some 60 pieces from the MAMAC, from the 1960s to the 1990s.

The exhibition highlights the strong historical and artistic link between the work of Fernand Léger and the generation that immediately followed him: the New Realists. Launched in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany, the Nouveaux Réalistes movement brought together artists such as Arman (1928-2005), César (1921-1998), Raymond Hains (1926-2005), Yves Klein (1928 -1962), Martial Raysse (1936), Daniel Spoerri (1930) and Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002).

These artists seize upon everyday objects, street aesthetics and post-war society. Their approach is not intended to represent changes in society, but to present the viewer with a poetic appropriation of reality.

While the relationship with the object occupies a central place, the exhibition also tackles other themes, including the representation of the leisure society, art in the public space and the construction of a popular art in tune with its time, as well as creative processes and the importance of collective work. A fervent admirer of Fernand Léger's work, Pierre Restany, who was present with Raymond Hains at the inauguration of the Fernand Léger national museum, Biot, in May 1960, would also have named his artistic movement after the painter, who used this formula on numerous occasions.

Indeed, as early as the 1920s, Fernand Léger defined his artistic approach as a “New Realism”, “a terrible invention to make true [...] whose consequences can be incalculable.” Other periods, other movements, including on an international scale such as American Pop Art (Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, May Wilson), but also artists emerging in the 1970s and 1980s such as Gilbert & George in London and Keith Haring in New York, whose works are represented in the MAMAC collections, are deployed at the heart of the tour, interacting with the work of Fernand Léger.

While Fernand Léger's position as a precursor of Pop Art has already been discussed in several exhibitions, notably the Vis-à-vis. Fernand Léger et ses amis, held at the Fernand Léger national museum, Biot, the relationship with the French art scene of the 1960s (particularly with the Nouveaux Réalistes group) is, however, new. Thus, beyond the fruitful dialogue that can exist between forms and ideas, this exhibition aims to illustrate, once again, the modernity, multidisciplinarity and visionary scope of Fernand Léger's work.
 

General curator: 
Anne Dopffer, General Curator of Heritage, Director of the 20th Century National Museums of the Alpes-Maritimes

Curators: 
Julie Guttierez, Chief Curator at the Fernand Léger national museum
Rébecca François, Curatorial Attaché at MAMAC
Hélène Guenin, Director of MAMAC

The exhibition was presented at the Musée national Fernand Léger, under the title Léger et les Nouveaux Réalismes, from May 15, 2024 to February 16, 2025. To find out more, click here

Carrousel : 
Fernand Léger, Visage à la main sur fond rouge, circa 1954, enamelled terracotta with red and black decoration, 50.6 x 45.3 x 7.6 cm, Biot, Fernand Léger national Museum © GrandPalaisRmn - Gérard Blot © Adagp, Paris, 2025.
Martial Raysse, Nissa Bella, 1964, painting, photographic transfer on felt mounted on plywood, acrylic and neon on canvas, 180 x 120 x 15 cm, MAMAC collection © City of Nice © Adagp, Paris, 2025.