Nadia Léger. A woman of the avant-garde: the retrospective exhibition at the Musée Maillol, our photos

After exhibitions devoted to Elliott Erwitt and Andres Serrano, the Musée Maillol in Paris is now focusing on the fascinating and rich career of Nadia Khodossievitch-Léger (1904-1982). Considered one of the leading figures of twentieth-century art and a pillar of modern art, Nadia Khodossievitch-Léger was a painter, magazine publisher, collaborator with her husband Fernand Léger, Resistance fighter and Communist activist. A rich life, which the Musée Maillol invites us to discover from November 8, 2024 to March 23, 2025, in the beautiful exhibition " Nadia Léger. Une femme d'avant-garde ".

With more than 150 works on display (created between 1919 and 1973), and a chronological tour of the ground, first and second floors, the Musée Maillol takes us back in time to the incredible and little-known life of Nadia Khodossievitch-Léger, wife of the famous painter Fernand Léger.

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Nadia Khodossievitch was born in 1904 in a small village in Belarus. After attending the École des Beaux-Arts in Warsaw in 1921, she arrived in Paris in 1925 and joined the Académie Moderne, then directed by Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. Only a year later, she took part in the Atelier Fernand Léger exhibition at the Académie moderne. From then on, the artist's exhibitions multiplied, and her pictorial work evolved considerably as she came into contact with the avant-gardes of her time. Initially inspired by Cubism and Purism, the artist later moved closer to Suprematism and then Realism, before finally returning to Suprematism.

Behind the artist, there's also a deeply committed woman. She joined the French Communist Party in 1933, and soon after produced her first committed works, such as her famous"Self-portrait with red flag" (1936). During the Occupation, Nadia Khodossievitch joined the Resistance. After the Liberation, she decided to put her talent at the service of the PCF.

A rich life, which the Musée Maillol invites us to discover this autumn and winter. The tour begins upstairs with a large-format black-and-white photograph of the artist in his studio. Nearby, we discover some fifteen different signatures by the artist, demonstrating the complexity and context of Nadia Léger's creative work.

This is followed by the impressive"Panthéon de Nadia". Imagined as a mosaic of portraits, this first piece reveals politicians, artists, writers and cosmonauts who became models and sources of inspiration for the artist. These include Stalin, Tolstoy and Chagall. These gouache-painted faces were created against a background of solid colors. The style, somewhere between figuration and abstraction, is reminiscent of the pop art movement that would emerge several years later. As the exhibition explains,"some of these portraits adorned the congresses of the French Communist Party", while"others were translated into monumental mosaics, then donated and installed in public places in major USSR cities".

The exhibition then follows in the footsteps of her apprenticeship in Smolensk, her integration into the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, and finally her arrival in Paris in 1925. Then, of course, there's her encounter with Fernand Léger, the"master", whom she discovered through the magazine"L'Esprit nouveau". She became his pupil in 1928 and never left him.

The retrospective also invites us to delve into L'Atelier Léger, where almost 350 artists were enrolled between 1924 and 1955. At the time, Fernand Léger's Atelier was considered one of the most important modern art academies in Paris. Nicolas de Staël and Georges Bauquier were among the artists who worked there.

The tour continues with a look at the woman in the Resistance, with her militant paintings, and the artist at the service of the Communist Party. From then on, the scenes painted by Nadia Léger became relays for communist thought.

The final part of this major retrospective devoted to Nadia Léger evokes the conquest of space in the 60s and the feat of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, which marked a new turning point in the painter's work. Choosing to gradually return to abstraction and Suprematism, Nadia Léger no longer confined herself to creating works on canvas. Instead, she extends her work to the applied arts (jewelry, tapestry, sculpture...). A way of showing the full extent of her talent. The exhibition closes with a short film summarizing the artist's impressive life and this sobering phrase:"The important thing is not what you do, but what remains to be done. Nothing is finished."

Rich and diverse, the exhibition"Nadia Léger. Une femme d'avant-garde" is a fascinating dive into the artistic and personal life of Nadia Khodossievitch-Léger. Much more than a simple retrospective, this exhibition is a fine way of rehabilitating the work of this artist, renowned during her lifetime but ultimately overshadowed after her death. It's an opportunity to reveal the little-known face of this major artist and her remarkably modern pictorial work. The installation also features previously unseen dialogues with works by Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, and several of the Atelier Léger's students, including Nicolas de Staël, Hans Hartung and Marcelle Cahn.

An exhibition that will delight fans of modern paintings, as well as lovers of art and history! This major retrospective devoted to Nadia Léger is not to be missed from November 8, 2024 to March 23, 2025 at the Musée Maillol.