Minimalism

Often new schools in the artworld arise as a reaction against whatever style was dominant just before it - just as Modernism was a reaction to Romanticism. However, it is usually the case that the relationship between different dominant artistic styles is more complex than a simple question of rebellion. We can see this in the case of Minimalism. In some important ways Minimalism can be seen to be a break from Modernism, which was the dominant artistic style and paradigm at the time that Minimalism arose. But in other vital ways Minimalism was also a continuation of the central tenets of Modernism. This paper examines this ambiguous relationship between Minimalism and Modernism.

In seeking to understand the ways in which Modernism and Minimalism are related to each other. This in turn requires that we understand what Modernism is. Modernism was the dominant artistic style and philosophy between about 1860 and 1970 and as such covers a great deal of ground, making it difficult to fashion a precise and focused definition for this style. However, in general, Modernism can be viewed as the collection of ways in which Western society came to terms with the great social changes of the 19th century, including industrialization, urbanization, and secularization. Modernism changed the nature of art not only in a reflection of the changes that were occurring in the world around the artists but also as a result of the ways in which the artworld itself was changing: Artists

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ons to Stella and Judd" allowed these two artists to discuss their own liberal interpretation of Minimalism. Both artists expressed their commitment to an art that could be appreciated by anyone, that was not bound to the past by any tradition of representation or form nor by any system of artistic patronage Glaser 150-2). The kind of art that they made - Stella and Judd insisted, belonged to any at all. Looking back from a vantage point in the artworld in which both Modernism and Minimalism seem fairly old hat, it is difficult not to shake our heads wryly at all this wrangling. From our 21st-century perspective, the two schools look far more similar than dissimilar to each other, and if Minimalism was certainly more radical than Modernism, we can see the clear roots of this radicalism in the works of mid-20th-century Modernist artists. Isn't It All Just Kitsch? Roy Lichtenstein's "Thinking of Him", in which a fifties-esque comic-book housewife sheds a delicate tear as she ponders - we assume - on the perfidy of the clean-cut man of her dreams, is an archetypal example of Pop Art. Borrowing its visual elements from pop culture forms - including advertising and newspapers as well as comic books - the work also makes references

Category: Arts - M