Into the Depths of Purism

The opening of the abstract mind occurred more quickly than expected. A collection of thoughts and an overwhelming feeling.  Before finally getting a grasp on the whole Purism trend, utter frustration was the only information that could be pulled out of the painting below, Le Corbusiers, Pale Still Life with Lantern.

A noticeable difference between a Cubist painting and Purist painting is the integrity of form, round shapes being displayed as a square.  By taking a step into the painting a world of depth and space became apparent.  The not so flat painting is a collection of forms that when being painting were placed on a table together.  It is this layering of forms from the front to back that provides the painting with depth.

The lantern is the largest and most prominent object in the still life and a great sense of space is conveyed with it.  By depicting the glass door of the lantern open it allowed for other objects to be placed in the empty space making a more intricate relationship between them.

Space is depicted in a more subtle way by making objects more opaque in order to show what may be occurring behind.  This can be seen with the large tea pot and the stout of it which is shown behind an object.

A collection of models have been made to further study and discover relationships between objects and space. Being able to visualize the three dimensionality of the painting is the key to understanding it.  After cutting countless pieces of chipboard and overloading my head with abstraction a successful understanding of the painting has been found.