Purism

ピュリスム / 1918–1925 / Style / Modern Design Movements

A movement that attacked Cubism's drift into decoration and called for a return to forms fit for the machine age. Standardized objets-types such as bottles, glasses and guitars are painted within a horizontal-vertical order and a restrained palette. Through the journal L'Esprit Nouveau it became a norm for modern architecture and graphics.

Purism — L'Esprit Nouveau, no. 1 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — L'Esprit Nouveau, no. 1 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Purism — Amédée Ozenfant, Graphic on a Black Ground, 1928 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Amédée Ozenfant, Graphic on a Black Ground, 1928 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Silhouettes of standardised everyday objects
Compositions built on horizontals and verticals
A restrained number of colours
Contour lines of overlapping forms

Best used for

Catalogues and technical magazines that present industrial products quietly as standardized types
Pages introducing buildings and equipment, read for dimension on a horizontal-vertical grid with a restrained palette

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Dictionary entry

Type: A light geometric sans aligned to the horizontals, held to two sizes
Composition: Set the horizontal and vertical armature first, then overlap silhouettes for shallow depth
Material: Greys and ochres with a little blue, surfaces painted evenly and matte
Caution: Bringing anecdote or ornament back turns the objects from standardized types into picturesque still lifes, and the clarity of the machine age is lost.
Further study: The page layouts of L'Esprit Nouveau / The concept of the objet-type / The continuity with Le Corbusier's architecture

Related entries

Cubism (キュビスム)Shared effects: Trust.Compare Purism and Cubism
International Style (インターナショナル・スタイル)Shared effects: Trust / Futurity.Compare Purism and International Style

Often confused with

Precisionism (プレシジョニズム)compare

Cite this entry

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