Purism
ピュリスム / 1918–1925 / Style / Machine Aesthetics
A movement that criticised Cubism's drift into decoration and called for a return to forms clear enough for the machine age. Standardised 'objets-types'—bottles, glasses, 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.
Silhouettes of standardised everyday objects / Compositions built on horizontals and verticals / A restrained number of colours / Contour lines of overlapping forms
.jpg)
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Product communication that presents industrial objects as calm archetypes · Editorial systems pairing strict horizontal-vertical grids with a quiet palette
- Type
- Rational geometric sans of even weight, set flush to the grid
- Composition
- Horizontal-vertical armature; object silhouettes overlapped in shallow, ordered space
- Material
- Chalky muted blues, greys and ochres; smooth matte surfaces without visible gesture
- Caution
- Avoid reintroducing anecdote or ornament—once the objects stop being types and become picturesque still lifes, the machine-age clarity is lost.
- Further study
- The page layouts of L'Esprit Nouveau / The concept of the objet-type / The continuity with Le Corbusier's architecture