Purism
Description
Purism, referring to the arts, was a movement that took place between 1918 and 1925 that influenced French painting and architecture. Purism was led by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier). Ozenfant and Le Corbusier formulated an aesthetic doctrine born from a criticism of Cubism and called it Purism: where objects are represented as elementary forms devoid of detail. The main concepts were presented in their short essay "Après le Cubisme" (After Cubism) published in 1918. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Amédée Ozenfant
French painter and theorist who co-founded Purism in 1918 alongside Le Corbusier, developing a rigorous aesthetic doctrine that stripped everyday objects of decorative detail in favor of pure, harmonious geometric order.
Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)
Swiss-French architect, painter, and co-founder of Purism who co-authored the founding manifesto 'Après le Cubisme' and translated Purist painting principles into landmark modernist architecture.
Fernand Léger
Principal associate of the Purist movement whose machine-age paintings of tubular, mechanical forms and crisp geometric silhouettes shared Ozenfant and Le Corbusier's devotion to modern industrial order.
Paul Dermée
Belgian poet and writer who co-founded and co-edited the foundational avant-garde review 'L'Esprit Nouveau' in 1920 alongside Le Corbusier and Ozenfant, disseminating Purist theory.
Juan Gris
Master Cubist whose mathematically disciplined compositions and architectural clarity of form were highly admired by the Purists and exhibited inside Le Corbusier's Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau in 1925.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
Between 1920 and 1925, Amédée Ozenfant and Le Corbusier published twenty-eight issues of their influential avant-garde magazine 'L'Esprit Nouveau', which served as the primary international propaganda platform for Purist painting, architecture, and industrial aesthetics.
↗ Source: tate.org.uk
Following the triumphant exhibition of the Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau at the 1925 Paris World's Fair, the close partnership between Ozenfant and Le Corbusier deteriorated due to growing disagreements over whether painting or architecture should hold primacy in modern design.
↗ Source: tate.org.uk