Minimalism
In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that emerged in the post-World War II era in Western art. It is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism. The movement anticipated various post-minimalist practices in contemporary art that extended or critically reflected on minimalism's original aims. Minimalism emphasized reducing art to its essentials, focusing on the object itself and the viewer's experience with as little mediation from the artist as possible. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella.
Minimalism had appeared as a concept with different names in history. It also appeared in religious doctrines as in Buddhism and in the 6th century Islam, where its founder Muhammad practiced and preached to live a simple life. The Caliph Umar, despite being the king of the biggest empire of that time chose to live with bare minimum.
Minimalism in music features methods like repetition and gradual variation, such as the works of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Julius Eastman and John Adams. The term is sometimes used to describe the plays and novels of Samuel Beckett, the films of Robert Bresson, the stories of Raymond Carver, and the automobile designs of Colin Chapman. In recent years, minimalism has come to refer to anything or anyone that is sparse or reduced to its essentials.
Visual arts and literalist art
Minimalism in visual art, sometimes called "minimal art", "literalist art", and "ABC Art", refers to a specific movement of artists that emerged in New York in the early 1960s in response to abstract expressionism. Examples of artists working in painting that are associated with Minimalism include Nassos Daphnis, Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Al Held, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Ryman, and others; those working in sculpture include Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, David Smith, Anthony Caro, and others. Minimalism in painting can be characterized by the use of the hard edge, linear lines, simple forms, and an emphasis on two dimensions.American minimalist artists were heavily influenced by earlier European abstract movements. During that time, New York was hosting exhibitions of the German Bauhaus artists, Russian Constructivists, and Dutch De Stijl artists. Radical abstraction was invented by each of these groups, and they encouraged artists such as Robert Morris, Dan Flavin, and Donald Judd to pursue new artistic trajectories. In order to provide the audience with an instantaneous, purely visual reaction, these artists sought to produce art that had no references to anything other than itself. In order to expose the objective, visual components of art, the subjective, gestural components were removed.
Minimalism was in part a reaction against the painterly subjectivity of Abstract Expressionism that had been dominant in the New York School during the 1940s and 1950s. Dissatisfied with the intuitive and spontaneous qualities of Action Painting, and Abstract Expressionism more broadly, minimalism as an art movement asserted that a work of art should not refer to anything other than itself and should omit any extra-visual association.
Donald Judd's work was showcased in 1964 at Green Gallery in Manhattan, New York City, as were Flavin's first fluorescent light works, while other leading Manhattan galleries like Leo Castelli Gallery and Pace Gallery also began to showcase artists focused on minimalist ideas.
Minimalism in sculpture can be characterized by simple geometric shapes often made of industrial materials like plastic, metal, aluminum, concrete, and fiberglass; these materials are usually left raw or painted a solid color.
Minimalism in visual art broadly
In a broader sense, minimalism as a visual strategy can be traced to the geometric abstractions of painters associated with the Bauhaus movement, as well as the works of Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, and other artists linked to the De Stijl and Russian Constructivist movement. It also appears in the sculptures of Constantin Brâncuși.As a formal strategy, minimalism has been employed in the paintings of Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, and Josef Albers, as well as in the works of diverse artists including Pablo Picasso, Yayoi Kusama, and Giorgio Morandi. Yves Klein explored the concept through his monochrome paintings, producing them as early as 1949. His first private exhibition of this work was held in 1950, while his first public presentation appeared in the Artist's book Yves: Peintures in November 1954.
Literalism
called the minimalist artists literalists, and used literalism as a pejorative due to his position that the art should deliver transcendental experience with metaphors, symbolism, and stylization. In Fried's controversial view, the literalist art needs a spectator to validate it as art: an "object in a situation" only becomes art in the eyes of an observer. For example, for a regular sculpture, its physical location is irrelevant, and its status as a work of art remains even when unseen. Donald Judd's pieces, on the other hand, are just objects sitting in the desert sun waiting for a visitor to discover them and accept them as art.Design, architecture, and spaces
The term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture, wherein the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. Minimalist architectural designers focus on effectively using vacant space, neutral colors, and eliminating decoration, which is meant to emphasize materiality, tactility, texture, weight, and density. Minimalist architecture became popular in the late 1980s in London, England, and New York City, whereby architects and fashion designers worked together in the boutiques to achieve simplicity, using white elements, cold lighting, and large spaces with minimal furniture and few decorative elements.The works of De Stijl artists are a major reference: De Stijl expanded the ideas of expression by meticulously organizing basic elements such as lines and planes. In 1924, The Rietveld Schroder House was commissioned by Truus Schröder-Schräder, a precursor to minimalism. The house emphasizes its slabs, beams and posts reflecting De Stijl's philosophy on the relationship between form and function. With regard to home design, more attractive "minimalistic" designs are not truly minimalistic because they are larger, and use more expensive building materials and finishes.
Minimalistic design has been highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and architecture. Long before the Western version and WWII, minimalism was heavily practiced in East Asia beyond artistic movements, as a philosophy and way of life. There are observers who describe the emergence of minimalism as a response to the brashness and chaos of urban life. For example, minimalist architecture began to gain traction in 1980s Japan as a result of the country's rising population and rapid expansion of cities. The design was considered an antidote to the "overpowering presence of traffic, advertising, jumbled building scales, and imposing roadways”. The chaotic environment was not only driven by urbanization, industrialization, and technology, but also the Japanese experience of constantly having to demolish structures on account of the destruction wrought by World War II and disasters such as earthquakes and fires. The minimalist design philosophy did not arrive in Japan by way of another country, as it was already part of the Japanese culture rooted on the Zen philosophy. There are those who specifically attribute the design movement to Japan's spirituality and view of nature.
Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto "Less is more" to describe his aesthetic. His tactic was one of arranging the necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity—he enlisted every element and detail to serve multiple visual and functional purposes; for example, designing a floor to also serve as the radiator, or a massive fireplace to also house the bathroom. Designer Buckminster Fuller adopted the engineer's goal of "Doing more with less", but his concerns were oriented toward technology and engineering rather than aesthetics.
Concepts and design elements
The concept of minimalist architecture is to strip everything to its essential quality and achieve simplicity. The idea is not completely without ornamentation, but that all parts, details, and joinery are considered as reduced to a stage where no one can remove anything further to improve the design.The considerations for 'essences' are light, form, detail of material, space, place, and human condition. Minimalist architects not only consider the physical qualities of the building. They pay attention to details, people, space, nature, and materials, believing this reveals the abstract quality of something that is invisible and aids the search for the essence of those invisible qualities—such as natural light, sky, earth, and air. In addition, they "open a dialogue" with the surrounding environment to decide the most essential materials for the construction and create relationships between buildings and sites.
In minimalist architecture, design elements strive to convey the message of simplicity. The basic geometric forms, elements without decoration, simple materials, and the repetition of structures represent a sense of order and essential quality. The movement of natural light in buildings reveals simple and clean spaces. In the late 19th century as the arts and crafts movement became popular in Britain, people valued the attitude of 'truth to materials' with respect to the profound and innate characteristics of materials. Minimalist architects humbly 'listen to figure', seeking essence and simplicity by rediscovering the valuable qualities in simple and common materials. Minimalist architecture is meant to declutter a space, attempt to increase functionality and is thought to feel calm and serene. The three principles that architects tend to follow while designing minimalist spaces are: the in, one out rule, zone wise organisation, and the 90/90 rule.