Léger – Morellet, Defiguring Painting

Although an adherent of the mathematical rule that eliminates the painter’s subjectivity, Morellet nevertheless takes pleasure in disrupting its geometric rigour by introducing disorder and chance into the painting. In 2010, Morellet ‘disfigured’ a 20th-century icon, *Les Loisirs – Hommage à Louis David* (1950) by the painter Fernand Léger (1881–1955). For Morellet, as for Léger, painting is a creative – yet slightly irreverent – playground for engaging with the masterpieces of art history. From his early abstract works, influenced by the modernist avant-garde, to his experiments with light using neon from the 1960s onwards, the exhibition highlights a free-spirited and mischievous approach that appeals to the viewer’s perception and sense of humour. Building on this shared sense of humour, the Fernand Léger National Museum invites Morellet’s work to engage with the museum’s collections, offering visitors a dialogue full of surprises between these two pioneers. Structured around the theme of the representation of the figure and its gradual disappearance, this tribute exhibition reveals an unexpected connection between two artists from different generations, centred on similar aesthetic concerns, such as the geometrisation of forms or their shared desire to literally take painting out of the frame by introducing the effects of light. Curators: Anne Dopffer, Director of the National Museums of the 20th Century in the Alpes-Maritimes Julie Guttierez, Chief Curator of Heritage at the Fernand Léger National Museum An event organised as part of the celebrations marking the centenary of François Morellet’s birth, on the initiative of the Morellet Estate and the Centre Pompidou.