Exit the Ballets Russes by Fernand Léger refers to his intensive collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes in the 1920s. Léger designed sets and costumes for several productions, translating his characteristic geometric language of form to the theatre. In this work, he reflects on the encounter between visual art, music and movement. The figures and shapes seem almost mechanically constructed, with clear contours, hard areas of colour and rhythmic arrangement. In doing so, Léger emphasises not only the energy of modern urban life, but also the changing nature of theatre, in which set and choreography became increasingly abstract. Exit the Ballets Russes can be read as a visual echo of an innovative artistic era, in which artists, composers and dancers worked intensively together. The work shows how Léger reduced the human figure to powerful, geometric constructions while vividly suggesting the dynamics and movement of dance.
