Le Fin du Monde filmée par l'ange
Artist: Fernand Léger (French, 1881-1955)
Publisher: Éditions de la sirène, Paris, 1919
Printer: l’Imprimerie Frazier-Soye, Paris; pochoir coloring: Richard, coloriste, Paris
Author: Blaise Cendrars (Frédéric-Louis Sauser) (French, 1887-1961)
Date: 1919
Dimensions:
Book: H: 12 1/2 in. (318 mm); W: 9 13/16 in. (249 mm); Depth: 3/16 in. (5 mm).
Page: H: 12 1/2 in. (318 mm); W: 9 13/16 in. (249 mm).
Medium: Original prints: 22 pochoir prints, one with added hand coloring by the artist; 6 incorporate line block reproductions of drawings. Reproductions: 2 line block reproductions of drawings, incorporating lettering (wrappers). Text: letterpress on Lafuma cream wove paper(typeface: Morland, 24 pt.).
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Gift of Molly and Walter Bareiss
Object number: 1984.663
Label Text:This book was originally written as a film script by Fernand Léger’s friend, the poet Blaise Cendrars. Léger’s illustrations, in strong primary colors and fractured, dynamic forms, were made by applying watercolor through a stencil. Most of the illustrations include fragments of text, their block letters inspired by Léger’s love of street signs and billboards. Cendrars’ story tells of God, a ruthless, cigar-smoking American-type businessman, who promotes apocalyptic war on Earth to maximize his company's profits. It ends where it began, in his American-style office, but now with God bankrupt. Cendrars' ironic and cynical text and Léger’s forceful and witty images imagine the end of the world as viewed through the lens of a movie camera.
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