AMÉDÉE OZENFANT (french, 1886-1966) "NATURE MORTE - LE PICHET...

AMÉDÉE OZENFANT
(french, 1886-1966)
"NATURE MORTE - LE PICHET BLANC"
Signed bottom right, pastel and gouache on paper.
Executed in 1921.
overall (approx.): 13 3/8 x 12 in. (34 x 30.5cm)
provenance:
The Artist.
Galerie Percier, Paris, France (acquired directly from the above in 1928).
Private Collection Bérès, Cannes, France.
Galerie Mazarine, Paris, France (acquired directly from the above in 1974).
Private Collection, France.

note:
We wish to thank Mr. Pierre Guéneguan for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will also be included in the forthcoming supplement to the Ozenfant catalogue raisonné. A certificate of authenticity may be purchased directly from Mr. Guéneguan by the successful bidder.

A contemporary of Picasso, Matisse, Léger and Lipchitz in pre-war Paris, artist, writer and theorist Amédée Ozenfant is perhaps best known as a founding father of the Purist art movement, which he created along with Swiss architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret ("Le Corbusier"). The two artists first met in the French capital in 1917 and together developed the doctrines of Purism, which they articulated in their 1918 treatise Après le Cubisme and continued in the periodical L'Esprit Nouveau between the years 1920-1925. Perhaps in response to the chaotic social and political climate following WWI, the painter and the architect rejected the unstructured spontaneity and ornamental style of the dominant Cubist movement. Instead, they sought a purer art form, one that was rooted in the industry and technology of the current age, yet universal and timeless such that it could transcend its era. Governed by the laws of science, this "modern classicism" approached the construction of pure beauty through mathematical order and logic, rigor and coherence. Inspired by the techniques of industrial design, they called for carefully balanced compositions of controlled geometric forms and flat, juxtaposed planes of simple colors. As products of the machine age, the ideal subjects of their paintings were common utilitarian items such as glasses, bottles and instruments, which Ozenfant and Le Corbusier believed to be the perfect "object prototypes" due to their timeless and permanent nature. Composed of such timeless objects and other precisely rendered geometric forms, the present work perfectly encapsulates this Purist ethos. With its harmonious and rational arrangement, "Nature Morte - Le Pichet Blanc" is a static expression of stability, a poetic celebration of an industrial civilization.