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In visual arts, Minimal music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-minimal art practices, which extend or reflect on minimalism's original objectives. Minimalism's key objectives were to strip away conventional characterizations of art by bringing the importance of the object or the experience a viewer has for the object with minimal mediation from the artist. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella.
Minimalism in music features methods such as 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 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 spare or stripped to its essentials.
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, as were Flavin's first fluorescent light works, while other leading Manhattan galleries like Leo Castelli and Pace Gallery also began to showcase artists focused on minimalist ideas.
Minimalism as a formal strategy has been deployed in the paintings of Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers, and the works of artists as diverse as Pablo Picasso, Yayoi Kusama, Giorgio Morandi, and others. Yves Klein had painted monochromes as early as 1949, and held the first private exhibition of this work in 1950—but his first public showing was the publication of the Artist's book in November 1954.Hannah Weitemeier, Yves Klein, 1928–1962: International Klein Blue, Original-Ausgabe (Cologne: Taschen, 1994), 15. .
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. 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."
Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) 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 (1895–1983) adopted the engineer's goal of "Doing more with less", but his concerns were oriented toward technology and engineering rather than aesthetics.
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 consider the spiritual dimension and the invisible, by listening to the figure and paying 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 repetitions 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.The core purpose of minimalist architecture is to declutter a space, while making it more functional and adding a sense of calmness and serenity to it, making it visually harmonious. The three principles that architects tend to follow while designing minimalist spaces are one in, one out rule, zone wise organisation, and the 90/90 rule.
Zen concepts of simplicity transmit the ideas of freedom and essence of living. Simplicity is not only an aesthetic value, it has a moral perception that looks into the nature of truth and reveals the inner qualities and essence of materials and objects. For example, the sand garden in temple demonstrates the concepts of simplicity and the essentiality from the considered setting of a few stones and a huge empty space.
The Japanese aesthetic principle of refers to empty or open space. It removes all the unnecessary internal walls and opens up the space. The emptiness of spatial arrangement reduces everything down to the most essential quality.
The Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi values the quality of simple and plain objects. It appreciates the absence of unnecessary features, treasures a life in quietness, and aims to reveal the innate character of materials. For example, the Japanese floral art of Ikebana has the central principle of letting the flower express itself. People cut off the branches, leaves, and blossoms from the plants and only retain the essential part of the plant. This conveys the idea of essential quality and innate character in nature.
Another Japanese minimalist architect, Kazuyo Sejima, works on her own and in conjunction with Ryue Nishizawa, as SANAA, producing iconic Japanese Minimalist buildings. Credited with creating and influencing a particular genre of Japanese Minimalism,Puglisi, L. P. (2008), New Directions in Contemporary Architecture, Chichester, John Wiley and Sons. Sejimas delicate, intelligent designs may use white color, thin construction sections and transparent elements to create the phenomenal building type often associated with minimalism. Works include New Museum (2010) New York City, Small House (2000) Tokyo, and House surrounded By Plum Trees (2003) Tokyo.
In Vitra Conference Pavilion, Weil am Rhein, 1993, the concepts are to bring together the relationships between building, human movement, site, and nature. Which as one main point of minimalism ideology that establish dialogue between the building and site. The building uses the simple forms of circle and rectangle to contrast the filled and void space of the interior and nature. In the foyer, there is a large landscape window that looks out to the exterior. This achieves the simple and silence of architecture and enhances the light, wind, time, and nature in space.
John Pawson is a British minimalist architect; his design concepts are soul, light, and order. He believes that though reduced clutter and simplification of the interior to a point that gets beyond the idea of essential quality, there is a sense of clarity and richness of simplicity instead of emptiness. The materials in his design reveal the perception toward space, surface, and volume. Moreover, he likes to use natural materials because of their aliveness, sense of depth and quality of an individual. He is also attracted by the important influences from Japanese Zen Philosophy.
Calvin Klein Madison Avenue, New York, 1995–96, is a boutique that conveys Calvin Klein's ideas of fashion. John Pawson's interior design concepts for this project are to create simple, peaceful and orderly spatial arrangements. He used stone floors and white walls to achieve simplicity and harmony for space. He also emphasises reduction and eliminates the visual distortions, such as the air conditioning, and lamps, to achieve a sense of purity for the interior.
Alberto Campo Baeza is a Spanish architect and describes his work as essential architecture. He values the concepts of light, idea, and space. Light is essential and achieves the relationship between inhabitants and the building. Ideas are to meet the function and context of space, forms, and construction. Space is shaped by the minimal geometric forms to avoid decoration that is not essential. While both minimalist and contemporary minimalism stress simplicity, there are some significant differences. Minimalism emphasizes only the essentials and employs simple, large-sized components in less amounts. Modern minimalism, on the other hand, uses more decorative pieces. While modern minimalism includes eye-catching forms, minimalist designs tend to emphasize geometric shapes and straight lines. Another difference is space; modern minimalism permits trendy items, while minimalist environments are open and empty. While modern minimalism incorporates colorful, seductive elements that accentuate the modern aesthetic while keeping a neutral color scheme, minimalist furniture is necessary and practical. Although simplicity is emphasized in both forms, modern minimalism adds trends and gives places a more lively vibe. It is easier to differentiate between the two types when one is aware of these distinctions.
Austrian architect and theorist Adolf Loos published early writings about minimalism in Ornament and Crime.
The precursors to literary minimalism are famous novelists Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway.
Some 1940s-era crime fiction of writers such as James M. Cain and Jim Thompson adopted a stripped-down, matter-of-fact prose style to considerable effect; some classify this prose style as minimalism.
Another strand of literary minimalism arose in response to the metafiction trend of the 1960s and early 1970s (John Barth, Robert Coover, and William H. Gass). These writers were also sparse with prose and kept a psychological distance from their subject matter.
Minimalist writers, or those who are identified with minimalism during certain periods of their writing careers, include the following: Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie,
Bret Easton Ellis, Charles Bukowski, K. J. Stevens, Amy Hempel, Bobbie Ann Mason, Tobias Wolff, Grace Paley, Sandra Cisneros, Mary Robison, Frederick Barthelme, Richard Ford, Patrick Holland, Cormac McCarthy, David Leavitt, and Alicia Erian.American poets such as William Carlos Williams, early Ezra Pound, Robert Creeley, Robert Grenier, Aram Saroyan,Gabbert, E., "Making the Language Strange, as Only Poetry Can Do", The New York Times, June 21, 2018. bpNichol, and Geof Huth are sometimes identified with their minimalist style. Aram Saroyan, specifically, is famous for his one-word poem "lighght", which was selected for The American Literary Anthology and received a $750 cash award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which drew outrage from certain conservative American politicians, such as Jesse Helms. bpNichol, a Canadian poet, is famous for such minimalist poems as "st*r", "em ty", and "groww". These minimalist poems were collected into an anthology of bpNichol's works, entitled The Alphabet Game, edited by Darren Wershler and Lori Emerson. Geof Huth also creates minimalist poetry, and he may be best known for his concept of the pwoermd, the term he uses to describe a poem made up of only a single word. Depending on the characteristics of the poem, some minimalist poetry may overlap with what others call visual poetry, especially if the concept behind the poem is enhanced by its visual elements. The term "minimalism" is also sometimes associated with the briefest of poetic genres, haiku, which originated in Japan, but has been domesticated in English literature by poets such as Nick Virgilio, Raymond Roseliep, and George Swede.
The Irish writer Samuel Beckett is well known for his minimalist plays and prose, as is the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse.
Dimitris Lyacos's With the People from the Bridge, combining elliptical monologues with a pared-down prose narrative, is a contemporary example of minimalist playwrighting. "From the Ruins of Europe: Lyacos's Debt-Riddled Greece" by Joseph Labernik, Tikkun, 21 August 2015
In his novel The Easy Chain, Evan Dara includes a 60-page section written in the style of musical minimalism, in particular inspired by composer Steve Reich. Intending to represent the psychological state (agitation) of the novel's main character, the section's successive lines of text are built on repetitive and developing phrases.
However, the roots of minimal music are older. In France, Yves Klein allegedly conceived his Monotone Symphony (formally The Monotone-Silence Symphony) between 1947 or 1949 (but premiered only in 1960), a work that consisted of a single 20-minute sustained chord followed by a 20-minute silence.Gilbert Perlein & Bruno Corà (eds) & al., Yves Klein: Long Live the Immaterial! ("An anthological retrospective", catalog of an exhibition held in 2000), New York: Delano Greenidge, 2000, , p. 226 : "This symphony, 40 minutes in length (in fact 20 minutes followed by 20 minutes of silence) is constituted of a single 'sound' stretched out, deprived of its attack and end which creates a sensation of vertigo, whirling the sensibility outside time."See also at YvesKleinArchives.org a 1998 sound excerpt of The Monotone Symphony (Flash plugin required), its short description , and Klein's "Chelsea Hotel Manifesto" (including a summary of the 2-part Symphony).
The Minimalists – Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus, and Matt D'Avella – directed and produced the film Minimalism: A Documentary, which showcased the idea of minimal living in the modern world.
Warming stripe graphics resemble color field paintings, stripping out all distractions and using only color to convey meaning. Color field pioneer artist Barnett Newman said he was "creating images whose reality is self-evident", an ethos that Hawkins is said to have applied to the problem of climate change and leading one commentator to remark that the graphics are "fit for the Museum of Modern Art or the Getty."
A tempestry—a portmanteau of "temperature" and "tapestry"—is a tapestry using stripes of specific colors of yarn to represent respective temperature ranges. The tapestries visually represent global warming occurring at given locations.
A minimalist lifestyle helps to enjoy life with simple things that are available without undue efforts to acquire things that may be bought at great expenses. Minimalism can also lead to less clutter in living spaces.
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