MINIMALISM

Hello everyone. Today we are going to talk about minimalism, which is a lifestyle as well as
an art movement, developed in the USA in the 1950s.
Firstly, we are going to tell you about minimalism as a lifestyle.
Minimalism as a lifestyle
What is minimalism?
It’s quite simple: to be a minimalist you must live with less than 100 things, you can’t own a
car or a home or a television, you can’t have a career, you must live in exotic hard-to-
pronounce places all over the world, you must start a blog, you can’t have children, and you
must be a young white male from a privileged background. OK, we’re joking. Minimalism
isn’t about any of those things, but it can help you accomplish them. If you desire to live with
fewer material possessions, or not own a car or a television, or travel all over the world, then
minimalism can lend a hand. But that’s not the point.
Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom
from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression.
Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real
freedom.

That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with owning material possessions. Today’s
problem seems to be the meaning we assign to our stuff: we tend to give too much meaning
to our things, often forsaking our health, our relationships, our passions, our personal
growth, and our desire to contribute beyond ourselves. Want to own a car or a house?
Great, have at it! Want to raise a family and have a career? If these things are important to
you, then that’s wonderful. Minimalism simply allows you to make these decisions more
consciously, more deliberately.

A minimalist can explain his life style with one sentence (one sentence because he is a
minimalist): “I am intentionally trying to live with only the things I really need.”
But we can go more into details about the minimalism, because we are not minimalists.

MINIMALISM IS FREEDOM FROM THE PASSION TO POSSESS.

Modern culture has bought into the lie that the good life is found in accumulating things—in
possessing as much as possible. They believe that more is better and have inadvertently
subscribed to the idea that happiness can be purchased at a department store. But they are
wrong. Minimalism brings freedom from the all-consuming passion to possess. It steps off
the treadmill of consumerism and dares to seek happiness elsewhere. It values relationships,
experiences, and soul-care. And in doing so, it finds life.
MINIMALISM IS FREEDOM FROM MODERN MANIA.
Our world lives at a feverish pace. We are too hurried, too rushed, and too stressed. We
work long, passionate hours to pay the bills, but fall deeper into debt. We rush from one
activity to another. We remain in constant connection with others through our cell phones,
but true life-changing relationships continue to elude us.

Minimalism slows down life and frees us from this modern hysteria to live faster. It finds
freedom to disengage. It seeks to keep only the essentials. It seeks to remove the frivolous
and keep the significant. And in doing so, it values the intentional endeavours that add value
to life.

MINIMALISM IS COUNTER-CULTURAL.
We live in a world that idolizes celebrities. They are photographed for magazines,
interviewed on the radio, and recorded for television. Their lives are held up as the golden
standard and are envied by many. People who live minimalist lives are not championed by
the media in the same way. They don‘t fit into the consumerist culture that is promoted by
corporations and politicians. Yet, they live a life that is attractive and inviting.

While most people are chasing after success, glamour, and fame, minimalism calls out to us
with a smaller, quieter, calmer voice. It invites us to slow down, consume less, but enjoy
more. And when we meet someone living a simplified life, we often recognize that we have
been chasing after the wrong things all along.

With one sentence we can say: Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favour
of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfilment, and freedom.
Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself; thus, it’s up to
you to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in your life.
Secondly you will hear about the minimalist art and minimalist art movement.
Minimalist Art
Minimalism is an extreme form of abstract art developed in the USA in the 1960s and
typified by artworks composed of simple geometric shapes based on the square and the
rectangle.
Minimalism or minimalist art can be seen as extending the abstract idea that art should have
its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. We usually think of art as
representing an aspect of the real world; or reflecting an experience such as an emotion or
feeling. With minimalism, no attempt is made to represent an outside reality, the artist
wants the viewer to respond only to what is in front of them. The medium, (or material)
from which it is made, and the form of the work is the reality. Minimalist painter Frank Stella
famously said about his paintings “What you see is what you see.”.

The development of minimalism

Minimalism emerged in the late 1950s when artists such as Frank Stella, whose Black
Paintings were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1959, began to turn
away from the gestural art of the previous generation. It flourished in the 1960s and 1970s
with Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin and Robert Morris
becoming the movement’s most important innovators.
The development of minimalism is linked to that of conceptual art. Both movements
challenged the existing structures for making, disseminating and viewing art and argued that
the importance given to the art object is misplaced and leads to a rigid and elitist art world
which only the privileged few can afford to enjoy.

Finally, we are going to tell you about some of the key qualities of minimalist art .
Qualities of minimalist art
Aesthetically, minimalist art offers a highly purified form of beauty. It can also be seen as
representing such qualities as truth (because it does not pretend to be anything other than
what it is), order, simplicity and harmony.

Let’s take look at some minimalist artworks to find out about some of the key qualities of
minimalist art.
Sol LeWitt-Two Open Modular Cubes/Half-Off 1972

Geometric single or repeated forms: Minimalism is characterised by single or repeated

geometric forms It is usually three-dimensional, taking the form of sculpture or installation,
though there are several minimalist painters as well such as Agnes Martin and Frank Stella.

Donald Judd-Untitled 1972

Deliberate lack of expression: With no trace of emotion or intuitive decision making, little
about the artist is revealed in the work. Minimalist artists rejected the notion of the artwork
as a unique creation reflecting the personal expression of a gifted individual, seeing this as a
distraction from the art object itself. Instead they created objects that were as impersonal
and neutral as possible.

Frank Stella-Hyena Stomp 1962

Self-referential: Minimalist art does not refer to anything beyond its literal presence. The
materials used are not worked to suggest something else; colour (if used) is also non-
referential, i.e if a dark colour is used, this does not mean the artist is trying to suggest a
sombre mood.
Carl Andre-144 Magnesium Square 1969

Factory-manufactured or shop-bought materials: Carl Andre frequently used bricks or tiles

as the medium for his sculpture; Dan Flavin created his works from fluorescent bulbs
purchased from a hardware store; Judd's sculptures are built by skilled workers following the
artist's instructions.

Carl Andre-Last Ladder 1959

Space-aware: Minimalist art directly engages with the space it occupies. The sculpture is
carefully arranged to emphasise and reveal the architecture of the gallery, often being
presented on walls, in corners, or directly onto the floor, encouraging the viewer to be
conscious of the space.

To sum up we can use a quote from the Scottish writer Richard Holloway:
“Simplicity, clarity, singleness: These are the attributes that give our lives power and
vividness and joy as they are also the marks of great art.” —Richard Holloway