With the ascendancy of the Modern Movement in architecture came the idea that art was a desirable complement to its denuded forms. In 1950, Le Corbusier proclaimed 'La Synthese des Arts', both in respect of his own work as painter, sculptor and architect, and as a general principle. It was not a new idea, and part of its attraction was that it seemed to link back through time to the great ages of the past. The ideal of a combination of sculpture and painting with architecture had many advocates in Britain in a continuous line from Prince Albert to the Arts and Crafts movement. Modernism was indeed welcomed by many artists if only because it looked as if it might give them larger opportunities to fill its empty spaces. Nearly all positions on the artistic spectrum between Royal Academicians and Abstractionists advocated the nobility of serving the public and posterity with work on public buildings, as did the emerging body of left-wing social realists who constituted the Artists International Association.
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