Fernand Léger Exhibition Review - Tate Liverpool

Currently, the Tate Liverpool is host of a large exhibition containing a vast selection of different formats of artwork's created by renowned artist Fernand Léger. The private exhibition is placed over the 4th floor and covers 3/4 of the space and requires payment to enter. 
During a period of rapid modernisation Léger created works that commented on this by using themes of form, shape and colour. After being instated into the French army, Léger became fascinated with the aesthetics of machinery and he built onto this fascination by using painting, film and photographic techniques as a form of expression of his interest. Further on into his career he turned away from the staple theme of machinery and focused on the interaction between nature and the human form. 
The exhibition begins with a brief introduction of his life printed on to the welcoming walls. The first section from the exhibition is 'The experience of modern life: Early 1900's'. This combines film, painting swell as some of Fernand's private sketchbooks which were curated in a way that the different mediums complemented each other successfully. If we look at the film presented beside the sketchbooks we see no obvious connection relating to the theme of machinery and the rest of the surrounding works of art within this section. 
The second section of the exhibition leads you into 'The international exhibition of Arts and Technology' this has reflective qualities to it as you see a large incorporation of other artists during the post war period. This section starts off with a brief introduction of post war Paris and the artists practising at the same time as Léger. The incorporation of the separate artists adds a slight confusion to the exhibition section as you were promised a exhibition on Fernand Léger, and receive a vast amount of pieces from other unfamiliar artists. There was one eye-catching piece in this exhibition due to its size was Léger's extremely large collage mural piece he collaborated with Charlotte Perriand to create named 'Essential happiness, New Pleasures, Agriculture pavilion, Paris' which combined acrylic paint, collage and print on paper board. 
Overall, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the Exhibition due to the combination of ilm, physical pieces and paintings, it added a feel of excitement to the gallery as there was so much to view. The still life portion of the exhibition was slightly dull as there was few paintings spaced widely apart making it less effective overall. Although I was impressed by the way they incorporated a steady timeline into his personal exhibition, this showed the viewers the slow progression of his work and how his styles changed over the span of his life and how he evolved as an artist.

Partly written in collaboration with Caitlin Brown