Dimensions: 69 x 50 cm (sheet)
Signed and numbered at the bottom in pencil: 'E/A N. Leger'
Biography
In the early 1920s, she took painting lessons from Władysław Strzeminski in Smolensk and probably from Kazimir Malevich in Vitebsk. At Strzeminski's urging, she settled in Warsaw in 1923, where she began attending Milosz Kotarbinski's studio at the School of Fine Arts. She married the painter Stanislaw Grabowski, with whom she left for Paris in 1924; there she took up studies at the Académie Moderne run by Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. She was active in the circle of the Parisian avant-garde; she maintained contacts with members of the Cercle et Carré group. In 1927-1928, together with the poet Jan Brzękowski, she edited the French-Polish magazine "L'Art Contemporain - Contemporary Art," which she financed herself. In 1930 she collaborated with Strzeminski in acquiring works for the International Collection of Modern Art in Lodz. She exhibited her works in Paris with Grabowski at Galerie d'Art Contemporain (1926) and among the students of the Académie Moderne at Galerie Aubier (1927); she participated in the I-er Salon d'Art Français Independant and d'Art Polonais Moderne at Galerie Bonaparte (1929) and in the exhibition of the Cercle et Carré group at Galerie 23 (1930). In 1932, she left her husband by binding herself to Léger; after her marriage, she reverted to her original name Nadia, giving testimony to her sense of national identity. In the late 1940s, she settled with her husband in Gif-sur-Yvette near Paris, where she created an art salon for painters and art critics. After Léger's death in 1955, she devoted herself to promoting his art and inventorying his artistic legacy; she helped organize the Musée Fernand Léger in Biot in the Alpes Maritimes department.
