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 no longer had wealthy patrons who supported them in exchange for work that glorified those patrons. This left artists poorer but freer - assuming that they could find a way to support themselves that still allowed them to create art.
Minimalism, which was arguably the first artistic movement to achieve international importance that was created and developed by American artists, had the fundamentally Modernist goal of reducing painting and sculpture to its essentials - st...