ESPRIT NOUVEAU, L' - PURISM IN PARIS, 1918-1925

The Purist movement in art, founded by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) and Amédée Ozenfant, championed a traditional classicism while it simultaneously embraced new technologies and materials. The only book on Purism, L’Esprit Nouveau is a key contribution to the study of classic 20th-century modernism in painting and architecture. It serves as the catalogue for an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The revealing volume examines over 75 paintings by Le Corbusier, Ozenfant, and their closest colleague, Fernand Léger. At the heart of the study lies a single work - Le Corbusier’s striking design of the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau for the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs, at which the term 'Art Deco' was coined. The architecture of Le Corbusier’s pavilion, along with its interior decoration - paintings, sculpture, furniture, glassware, rugs, and other objects - offers a complete summation of Purist aesthetics. Included here too is the full translated text of Le Corbusier’s and Ozenfant’s 1918 manifesto, Après le cubisme.