VIDEO: What Philadelphia Looks Like Through the Eyes of a Modernist Painter


The Museum of Art’s interdisciplinary exhibit “Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis” is going to close soon, and if you haven’t yet seen it, you’re missing out on an opportunity to see Philadelphia — and cities in general — in a fresh way.

French modernist Fernand Léger had an intimate yet explicitly rendered relationship with the city of Paris, bringing the noise and movement and dynamism of his urban experience into his paintings. His 1919 masterwork The City is in the museum’s permanent collection, but this exhibit provides a broader look at his approach — you can almost hear the street life in the line and colors on his canvases.

In case that sounds preposterous, check out the museum’s video below — a Philadelphia as Léger might have seen it.