Sunflowers 1953

Fernand Léger made this playful image of Sunflowers with gouache and ink on paper. While these are traditional art materials, Léger uses them to challenge the traditional subjects of fine art. Painted in 1953, the flat application of color and bold outlines are reminiscent of graphic design, or even the look of printed posters. The sunflowers are not rendered naturalistically. Instead, they are abstracted into geometric forms, like cogs in a machine. Léger takes natural forms and represents them with the same visual language he used to depict industrial objects. Léger spent time working as a draughtsman in an architect's office, and his work celebrates the aesthetics of the modern, industrialized world. What is the relationship between nature and industrialization? Léger seems to ask. He appears to suggest that both can coexist in the modern world, and both can be a source of inspiration. Through his unique rendering, Léger elevates the everyday, blurring the boundaries between fine art and industrial design.