Léger: The Search for a New Order

Rarely seen print suites and book illustrations by the Cubist and proto-Pop pioneer

Published alongside the exhibition at the Fundación Canal in Madrid, The Search for a New Order traces the artistic evolution of Fernand Léger (1881–1955), adopting an underutilized lens: the artist’s print series and works for publications. Frequently employing lithographs as his medium of choice, Léger contributed illustrations to accompany others’ text—be it essays, poems or stories—and also produced his own series of thematic images. This volume centers on three of his illustration projects: Cubisme (1912–47), a manifesto penned by Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger; Les Illuminations (1949), the famous collection by Arthur Rimbaud; and Cirque (1950), an independently executed ode to the circus. Viewed together, these series patently convey the variations within Léger’s artistic vocabulary as he endeavored to distill the spirit of the early to mid-20th century.