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In Grand Parade, as in so many of his canvases, Léger wrenched the color free, and instead of confining it to the contours of his figures, he spread it on in great joyous swatches. It was his great desire to "liberate pure color in space," but in doing so he also liberated his enormous gift for laughter. No circus scene was ever livelier than this: Léger had all the colored spotlights on, and every performer doing his act. The artist of the machine age was, after all, profoundly in love with the human race.