Draft costume (Front) 1929

Fernand Léger made this costume draft with ink and pencil on paper, though the precise date remains unknown. Léger’s Constructivist and Futurist styles suggest it was made sometime in the 1920s. In this period, Léger began working on theatrical designs and film sets. In his Purist period, Léger embraced modern machinery, industrial materials, and the culture of the modern city. Léger took inspiration from modern life and the avant-garde world of artistic collaboration, and so he conceived of costumes as dynamic aesthetic objects, not just garments. He sought a modern, rational art. Léger's costume designs reflected the artist's interests in the relationship between abstraction and figuration, between the human body and the geometry of the machine. Léger found meaning in the everyday, and he aimed to create a modern aesthetic for the modern world. Understanding Léger’s vision requires us to consult a variety of sources, including the history of modernism, design history, and performance studies. Through interdisciplinary study, we can understand the role of art in shaping social life.