#24

Sigfried Giedion, Architecture, You and Me:

His studio in New York was near Fifth Avenue on 40th
Street. Skyscrapers overshadowed it. Fernand Léger was
working then on his great series of "Divers" which posed
the problem of depicting with a simple black outline hover-
ing, falling, interlocking and transparent figures in a weight-
less space (fig. 28). As he often did, L6ger superimposed
wide bands of clear colors. I stood in the studio with Mo-
holy-Nagy and asked, "Why have red and blue patches been
laid over the lineal structure of the bathers?" I knew that
this was related to the play of contrasts that Léger always
emphasized, but Moholy-Nagy gave the answer: "Don't you
see that Léger must get even with those things out there?"
and he pointed to the skyscrapers. Defense by creative re-
action.

Léger knew well what he needed in America for his artis-
tic nourishment. Sundays, on several occasions, we went by
bus out to La Guardia airport to look at the comings and
goings of the planes from the gallery that encircles the build-
ing and to observe their movements. Each time the day
ended in a lament, as he pointed to the glistening metal
birds, "They are already too perfect. There is nothing for
the painter to add."