Purism is a French Avant-garde movement that began in the years 1910-1915. The architects Charles Jeanneret, who woukld later be known as Le Corbusier, and Amedee Ozenfant published their book “After Cubism “in 1918, which laid out their theory on art. Reviling the growing emphasis on decoration that could be seen in the Cubist work, they wanted a return to order, harmony and rationalism. They wanted the art world to wake up from their trance and go back to a clear-minded, structural approach to art. Ozenfant produced harmonious looking paintings that were to reflect this mind-view and Le Corbusier would become one of the most prominent architects on the 20 th century.

They believed that art should embrace the new, industrial world of the 20 th century and to implement this theory many of their early works depicted or used objects made by machines, cool colors that emoted little real sentiment and a glossy finish that distanced the viewer even further from the image. This concept of cleanly composed lines, subtle nuances of color and an inherently intellectual mind-set would later influence many other artists of all medias, despite the fact that theses two architects parted ways some few years later.