Minimalism development through to modern time - Essay Example

Minimalism: Development through to modern time. Thesis ment: The development of the minimalist movement in the 1960s through to modern day art has influenced many artists of my generation and has also influenced my views and style. Actually Minimalism is a form of art in which objects are pretty much stripped down to their elemental, geometric form and then presented in a manner which is quite impersonal and unfriendly to say the least. Basically, Minimalism is the core essence of being labeled as the abstract style related with art, which in essence came into being due to the reaction against the subjective elements concerned with the Abstract Expressionism. In the same vein, this form of art on and off shapes up into the form of a fitting or even shelved up as a sculpture, where we can quote the examples of Donald Judd, Carl Andre Dan Flavin and Sol LeWitt to name a few. On the other hand, there are also a few minimalist painters which include Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella. It might not be to the common knowledge of one and all that Minimal Art started as a movement in the 1950s and thus continued to flourish throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Thus it makes all the more reason to relate the same with the description of different paintings as well as sculptures that have, of late played up on the fact that simplicity in both content and form is indeed significant and thus have sought on more accounts than one at removing any traces of personal expressions and similar manifestations. In the general context, the basic aim of Minimalism has been at permitting the viewer so that he or she could experience the work in a more deep manner and that too without any form of distractions that are concerned with composition, theme and so on and so forth. Tracing back in time, we can find the examples of the Minimalist theory being exercised as early as the 18th century. This was the time when Goethe built an Altar of Good Fortune that was constructed solely of a stone sphere and cube. It was in the 1920s that artists such as Malevich and Duchamp started to produce works in the Minimalist mood. However, the American advocates in the form of Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Ellsworth Kelly and Donald Judd did their best at reacting in a fast manner against the Abstract Expressionism in their respective bleak canvases, sculptures as well as installations from time to time. The Minimal Art has been concerned with a number of different movements like the Conceptual Art, which speaks for the manner in which the finished work has existed only as way to discuss the theory. Similarly, Pop Art is present there to form up a mixed fascination related with the impersonal ways and last but not the least, Land Art is available for one and all to see that focuses on the construction of simple shapes and figures. To put Minimal Art in the same perspective, the same has been quite successful at influencing the development of art in the 20th century in quite an enormous way. The Fluxus movement started out in New York in the 1960s which moved on further towards Europe and eventually to Japan. The Fluxus movement included a pretty fresh set of aesthetics that had already appeared in a number of different countries. That aesthetic encompasses a reductive gesturality, part Dada, part Bauhaus and part Zen and not to forget the assumption of the same in the light of the media as well as other artistic disciplines. The same resulted in a definitive play when one speaks of their combination as well as the mixture, when taken in totality. The objects of the Fluxus movement as well as the performances have been characterized of late by the minimalists but time and again the open and pretty liberal expressions amid the gestures have been nothing short of being labeled as the scientific, philosophical and sociological artistic ideas. Fluxus movement credits Yoko Ono as the best known individual that associates his work with it. However quite a number of different artists have also linked their names with the very movement ever since it has surfaced. In the 1960s, at the time of the movement’s coming into strength, the artists associated with it worked in unison day in day out. Their basic mission was to uphold the traditions of the Fluxus movement and bring into foundation a network where all artists could share their ideas, beliefs and most importantly, their works. ‘Contemporary Realism’ is defined as the basic and most realistic approach towards the representation and that has continued to be widely acclaimed as the one being in the post-abstract era. Contemporary Realism is pretty different from Photo-realism, where the latter is to some extent a bit more overstated as well as sarcastic in nature. Adding to the same discussion, contemporary realists have formed up a dissimilar group but what they share within themselves is the fact that they all are literate in the concepts of Modern Art and have chosen to employ their best practices in a conventional manner. A number of different Contemporary Realists indeed started out as abstract painters at the time of the movement’s emergence. Some of the best known artists of the movement have been William Bailey, Neil Welliver and Philip Pearl Stein. ‘Situanism’ originated in a small group of avantegarde artists as well as philosophers who are influenced more or less by Dada, Surrealism and not to forget, Lettrism. The post war Lettrist International that aimed at seeking to mix poetry with music as well as bringing a new change in the shape of a transformation of the urban redesign was indeed a straight precursor of the faction who had founded the magazine Situationiste Internationale in the year 1957. In the beginning, the movement was significantly composed of different artists of whom Asger Jorn was the most famous. It was in the year 1962 that the Situationists with the progression of time started to apply their analysis not only in culture but also towards other areas of the capitalist society. It was in those very times that Guy Debord emerged as one of the most important figures. To continue with the 1960s Minimalist Art, we can quote the example of a diverse art movement which more or less had a dominating role to play in the art market within Europe as well as the United States during the early and mid 1980s. This was called the era of ‘Neo-Expressionism’ which basically comprised of a mixed crowd of young and amateur artists who by then had returned to portraying the human body as well as other forms of recognizable objects that were more or less there as a reaction to the remote, shy and extremely intellectualized abstract art production courtesy the 1970s. This movement of neo-expressionism was related with the new and violent methods of salesmanship, media promotion as well as marketing on the part of dealers and not to forget the galleries too. Last but not the least; we discuss here the ‘Post Modernism’. This is the name that has been given to a wide range of cultural occurrences and that are there in order to typify a move away from the highbrow significance related with that of modernism. The same has preferred a more assorted as well as populist approach towards creativity nonetheless. This term of Post Modernism was quite rampantly used in the 1970s. The same was made use of freely as the basis of a more ‘stylistic manner related with Minimalist Art. Bibliography Wieczorek, Marek “Playing with Life: Art and Human Genomics” Art Journal Vol. 59 2000 Chave, Anna C “Minimalism and Biography” The Art Bulletin Vol. 82 2000 Harrison, Sylvia “Pop Art and the Origins of Post Modernism” Cambridge University Press 2001 Word Count: 1,272 Read More