- Title
- The Disks
- Date Made
- 1918-1919
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 51 1/8 x 38 1/4 in. (129.8575 x 97.16 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.67.25.2
- Collecting Area
- Modern Art
- Curatorial Notes
More than one hundred years ago, Fernand Léger’s painting demonstrated a utopia (or nightmare) some still imagine today: the integration of people with technology. The figures on the lower left and middle right are barely distinguishable either from each other or from the machinery of wheels and levers. The painting’s foreground and background merge to demonstrate the codependence of humans and their tools, with Léger’s color scheme communicating optimism and energy. But the disjointed and fragmented forms equally introduce disquiet into the scene, evoking the violence of World War I, which had just ended in November 1918.
Wall label, 2021.
- Provenance
The artist (1881-1955), until 1948; [Galerie Louis Carré, Paris]; sold by 1951 to David E. Bright (1908-1965), Los Angeles; bequeathed in 1967 to LACMA.
- Selected Bibliography
- Bauquier, Georges, with Nelly Maillard. Fernand Léger: Catalogue raisonné, 1903-1919. Paris: Adrien Maeght, 1990. Catalogue raisonné, vol. I, no. 148, p. 266-267, illustrated.
