Purist movement

DEFINITION

A Post World War I art movement in Paris, it championed the 'new'or geometric forms while incorporating traditional classicism. Leaders were Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret) Fernand Leger, and Amedee Ozenfant. They oversaw the Pavilion of the New Spirit for the 1925 Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. Purist imagery incorporated cylinder, sphere and cube shapes into depictions of landscapes and still lifes. Its proponents also wrote a manifesto for French postwar painting, espousing a combination of science and art that would restore balance to the universe. Source: Internet: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Exhibition of Work by Le Corbusier, Leger and Ozenfant, April 29 to August 5, 2001.