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Early 20th Century Art
essay on 20th century art
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Art and Minimalism and all that is related:
Art is like the mirror of a society, in many ways. It has always been relatable to and representational of the aspirations of a particular era. That society influences art goes without saying. That art seeks to influence social and cultural phenomenon speaks of its affective power.
Minimalism was a logical development of trends that started at the beginning of the 20th century - more notably, in architecture with the Bauhaus and Mies Van Der Rohe’s philosophy of “Less is More”. There was a new way of looking at things, challenging old ideas of form and style. This philosophy was absorbed in the art stream, which was freed of its classical linkages and where Minimalism grew to be influential across several genres.
In this essay, I have attempted to look for sustaining minimalist influence on contemporary design - an obvious but interesting connection and in contemporary music - a not-so apparent influence.
Minimalist Art in the late 20th century - Common concepts:
By the late 1960s, it had been established that minimalism was not about depiction but interpretation. It had a density of subject that didn’t reveal itself immediately to the viewer. It was simple, clean and geometrical and sought to express its underlying structure.
And now, it was about the work’s relational aspects as well. This was exemplified in Donald Judd’s works. (his work with cubes and boxes) Repetition and progression were key elements. Richard Serra’a works, on the other hand, relied on the power of materiality(extreme) to evoke a response. (Union of Torus and Sphere, Consequence) On the other hand, Sol Lewitt attempted to purge the hand of the artist and present art in an unemotional and unbiased form f...
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...his work is soft, fluid, organic and human instead of geometrical. Ecominimalism is a term gaining popularity which stands for realistic and cost-effective approach to going green in buildings.
It is somewhat ironical than many of its main propagators have refused to be associated with the term Minimalist. (Reich and Ando in particular) This could be that the term was used derogatively, in its early versions. The general public thought of it as cold, sterile and abstract. Today, even though it remains essentially simple, it is no longer restricted and ascetic. Minimalism has become a wide-ranging and increasingly nuanced philosophy. The idea of simplicity is interpreted in a diverse way, using a wide variety of media. Therefore, I think that with research, further possibilities for evolution will open up. Minimalism is definitely here to stay for a while longer.
Her bright colors shocking backgrounds and wild choices on pigments made her a full candidate for the anti-minimalistic way of design. Her blend of old world furniture from the Georgian and Victorian ages really made her have one foot in the past and one right in the future. Though she is hailed for her work with these bright vibrant colors, there are many who thought her work was well, on the gaudy side. Minimalistic art is basically pared down art. It's art without pomp and circumstance. Though many minimalistic art pieces can be very beautiful and soothing to the eye, they are the complete opposite from what Draper’s designs were going for. Dorothy never said that she didn't love minimalistic types of design she just loved the color of her designs. Minimalist interior designs are very symmetrical and are very calming to the eye. Being in a room where it is a minimalist design scheme makes you calm. Dorothy liked the connection people made with colors and never wanted to see that change with her design. Many people hailed her designs as being costume-y and gaudy. But Dorothy knew all along that what she was doing was what she loved and she really loved color. It seems as though now a days, minimalist took the place of Drapers large colors. But we can still find many of her work in department store and hotels. It is still debated as to which is better for a room but there are many different ways of thinking
Balance can be a difficult characteristic to hold within one’s self as well as their pieces of work. To obtain this quality, an equal amount of time and effort must be put within the creation of any type of design. There should not be any form of emphasis towards a certain topic unless another placed on its opposite. Artists, musicians, and dancers alike have the option to convey these characteristics in their works; either having that balance clearly noticeable, or placing emphasis on other features or a specific one at that. The people under analysis; Pollock, John Cage and Merce Cunningham, all had constructions in which freedom, control, purpose and purposelessness are exhibited. The question, upon examination of these works is whether
For the painting, the repetition that makes up the waves shows small movement in the art which is a part of minimalism. Also in the painting, the people on the sailboat admiring the ocean in all of its beauty and the movement of the buoy as they sail by shows realism, some of us can connect with that image. For the story, having a symbol like the cathedral is simple, but it brings out such a big part of the story at the end, which shows how Raymond Carver uses minimalism in his short story. The story also shows that individuals have stereotypes about people who are different than themselves, mainly the ones they are yet to meet. Stereotyping is done by all people whether we want to admit it or not, but this is how realism is shown in Carver’s short
Barasch, Moshe. Modern Theories of Art, 1 From Winckelmann to Baudelaire. New York and London: New York University Press, 1990. Print.
Simplicity runs through Carson’s veins where “less is more”. Minimalism functions in his design where there are no extreme effects that would overpower his intention. His aim i...
Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel. Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980. New York:, Oxford UP, 2013.
The first theory argues that art is an imitation of reality. The inability to represent reality flawlessly results in a piece of...
This notion of Abstract Expressionism has become an interesting factor between the Contemporary arts making of Abstract arts, specifically paintings. When approaching Artworks from Contemporary Abstract painters, the subject matter dives deeper in meaning than the actual artwork before the viewer. From an outward appearance, some paintings from artist, such as, James Little, juxtaposed to works by Odili Donald Odita, have a lot of formal similarities within the uses of geometrical shapes and balancing colors. However, understanding the means to why each artist paints the way they do, will actually become rather different from first approaching and accessing the paintings.
It is the beauty in the presentation of Judd’s works, deriving from his meticulousness, which really distinguishes himself from other artists associated with minimalism.
Duchamp’s piece was not controversial because of the simplistic nature of the piece, nor the oddity of it- it was controversial because he had not made it himself. People were very opposed to this idea because they believed that art was something made and not found. Duchamp’s “ready-made” art, which were always mass produced objects made by machines, was offensive to them and so they rejected it wholeheartedly. Unlike Fountain, Kandinski’s Little Pleasures was not rejected because of the nature of its ’creation’, it was rejected because people had never before seen art with such a lack of recognizable forms. Before Kandinski, art had always had representations of things from life, and Little Pleasures seemed almost completely arbitrary to them with no connections to the world they lived in. As such, both pieces were, at first, denied the title of “art” because society was unable to break from tradition and admire something
The minimalists are a movement that advocates for the removal of excess in our lives in order to gain more time to live fuller. They argue for not only getting rid of material possessions, but also to get rid of bad relationships, electronic clutter, and even sentimental items. The Minimalists argue to reduce the excess in your life, which echoes Thoreau; however, their true purpose is to argue for living life with purpose.
One of the key ideas of the modern era was to forge the designs of the future on the corpses of the past, disregarding everything from the last era and moving forward with new ideals and styles. Refining and discarding they shaped, molded and constricted the ideas of design until reaching the pinnacle of minimalism. Creating design with pure aesthetics and reducing an object down to its core fundamental elements. Using the ideas of “less is more” or even “using less for more”, the designs ended up simple and elegant with a focus not in quantit...
In order to understand minimal artists’ tendency to produce objects and not images, we need to define minimalism. Michael Delahunt at Artlex (1) refers to minimalism as “A twentieth century style of art stressing the idea of reducing a work of art to the minimum number of colors, values, shapes, lines and textures”. But I think this definition does not completely reflect what minimal artists did. They did not get interested in ‘complex’ things as colors, values, lines etc.
Complexity of a program has often accompanied simplicity of form like early Le Corbusier. More recent explanation for the simplicity in architecture, are various expansions of Mies Van der Rohe, contradictory “Less is more”. In response to Mies van der Rohe’s famous proclamation, Venturi replied: “Less is a bore.”
Peter Walker, one design representative personage of Minimalism, is a famous contemporary international landscape architect. He firmly believed that the object is the thing itself. He has perfectly combined art and landscape design with new significance. Each of his projects are integrated into a wealth of history and traditional knowledge and conform to the needs of the times with the exquisite construction skill. It can be seen concise modern form, classical elements and primitive beauty on his designs.