# Purism (ピュリスム)

> 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.

- IndexStyle No.463 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/purism
- Kind: Style · Family: Machine Aesthetics · Era: 1918–1925
- Mood: Trust, Futurism
- Color cues: #e9e6dd / #67635d / #171615 (cues taken from reference works, not a fixed palette)

## Defining characteristics

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

## Best used for

- Product communication that presents industrial objects as calm archetypes
- Editorial systems pairing strict horizontal-vertical grids with a quiet palette

## Research method

This entry records a historical style; derive the treatment from its sources rather than a fixed recipe:

- Rational geometric sans of even weight, set flush to the grid
- Horizontal-vertical armature; object silhouettes overlapped in shallow, ordered space
- Chalky muted blues, greys and ochres; smooth matte surfaces without visible gesture

## What to avoid

Avoid reintroducing anecdote or ornament—once the objects stop being types and become picturesque still lifes, the machine-age clarity is lost.

## Application checklist

Before calling a piece an application of this style, check it against the defining characteristics:

- [ ] Silhouettes of standardised everyday objects
- [ ] Compositions built on horizontals and verticals
- [ ] A restrained number of colours
- [ ] Contour lines of overlapping forms
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Cubism (キュビスム)** — A pictorial revolution that freed the subject from a single viewpoint, reassembling facets seen from multiple angles on one flat plane. The fractured planes and muted palette of the Analytic phase, then the newspaper collage and lettering of the Synthetic phase, gave twentieth-century graphic design its founding premise: the picture is not a window onto reality but a field of construction. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/cubism
- **International Style (インターナショナル・スタイル)** — Strips ornament and aims at a universal architectural language crossing borders: the box, the free plan, steel, concrete and glass. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/international-style

## Further study

- The page layouts of L'Esprit Nouveau
- The concept of the objet-type
- The continuity with Le Corbusier's architecture

## Reference works

- 雑誌『L'Esprit Nouveau』創刊号表紙 1920 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cover%20esprit%20nummer%201.jpg
- 『L'Esprit Nouveau』第1号 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L'EspritNouveau-issue1.png
- Amédée Ozenfant《黒地の上のグラフィック》1928 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am%C3%A9d%C3%A9e%20Ozenfant%20%E2%80%94%20Graphics%20on%20a%20Black%20Background%20(1928).jpg

## Source of record

- Tate — Art Terms: Purism — https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/purism

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/purism
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/purism/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compose_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)

## 日本語

キュビスムの装飾化を批判し、機械時代にふさわしい明晰な形へ戻せと説いた運動。瓶・グラス・ギターといった規格化された「オブジェ・タイプ」を、水平垂直の秩序と抑えた色で描く。雑誌『レスプリ・ヌーヴォー』を通じて近代建築とグラフィックの規範になった。

特徴: 規格化された日用品のシルエット／水平垂直を基調とした構成／抑制された色数／重なりの輪郭線
注意: 表面的な記号へ還元せず、時代・地域・技術・制作主体の文脈を確認する。