LES TROIS MUSICIENS, FERNAND LÉGER, 1932
I'll admit it. I'm in a yellow phase. Have been for well over a year now. I still love orange, and will not be giving up my mid-century orange fiberglass chairs or Heller plastic any time soon, but I've moved on to yellow. So when I saw this version of Les Trois Musiciens, which sold on Wednesday night at Sotheby's for $5,000,000, it just knocked my socks off. It could just be a matter of my current color bias, but the black and white treatment of the musicians with the solid yellow background is so fresh and contemporary. It's got that altered-b&w -photo look of Baldessari or an iPod ad. Check out the 1945 version of the painting at MoMA. It looks quaintly "modern" by comparison.
