This full-scale retrospective of Fernand Léger’s oeuvre is a suitable way for the Pompidou to celebrate its twentieth birthday. Although he is one of the undisputed masters of the century, the multilayered variety of his work remains curiously unknown. Léger’s vagrant activities as painter, filmmaker, illustrator, designer for the stage and of sumptuous tapestries, and teacher both in France and abroad come together in one great hymn to modernism and the urban experience —from Cubism to later scenes of construction workers, divers, and cyclists. The 200-plus works put together by curators Isabelle Monod-Fontaine and Claude Laugier make this a show not to be missed. May 29-Sept. 29; travels to Reina Sofia, Madrid, Oct. 28-Jan. 12, 1998; a smaller version travels to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Feb. 11, 1998—May 19, 1998

— Richard Shone