Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by
Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971
[Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 569. .] and used in various artistic fields for work which is influenced by, or attempts to develop and go beyond, the aesthetic of
minimalism. The expression is used specifically in relation to
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
and the
visual arts, but can refer to any field using minimalism as a critical reference point.
In music, postminimalism refers to music following
minimal music.
Visual art
Postminimalist visual art uses
minimalism either as a
conceptual art aesthetic or a
generative art practice. Like
Fluxus, Postminimalism is more of an artistic tendency than a particular style, but in general, postminimalist artworks often use everyday objects, simple materials, and sometimes take on a pure
formalist aesthetics or
post-conceptual approaches. However, since postminimalism includes such a diverse and disparate group of artists, it is impossible to enumerate all the continuities and similarities between them. But as two opposing examples, take the work of
Eva Hesse and her use of
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...
grids and
minimalist seriality that were usually hand-made, introducing a human element into minimalism in contrast to the machine fabrication more typical of the
minimalism of someone like
Carl Andre.
Richard Serra was another prominent postminimalist though his large metal sculptures are completely machine made.
[Smith, Roberta (14 April 2011).]
Richard Serra's Drawings at Metropolitan Museum of Art
, ''NYTimes.com''. Accessed 8 June 2012.
Music
In its general musical usage, "postminimalism" refers to works influenced by
minimal music, and it is generally categorized within the meta-genre
art music. Writer
Kyle Gann[Kyle Gann. 2001.]
Minimal Music, Maximal Impact: Minimalism's Immediate Legacy: Postminimalism
. ''New Music Box: The Web Magazine from the American Music Center'' (1 November) (Accessed 4 February 2012). has employed the term more strictly to denote the style that flourished in the 1980s and 1990s and characterized by:
#a steady
pulse, usually continuing throughout a work or movement;
#a
diatonic pitch language,
tonal in effect but avoiding traditional
functional tonality;
#general evenness of
dynamics, without strong climaxes or nuanced emotionalism; and
#unlike
minimalism, an avoidance of obvious or linear formal design.
Minimalist procedures such as
additive and subtractive
process are common in postminimalism, though usually in disguised form, and the style has also shown a capacity for absorbing influences from world and popular music (
Balinese gamelan,
bluegrass, Jewish
cantillation, and so on).
See also
*
Holy minimalism
*
Lyrical Abstraction
*
Neo-expressionism
*
New York School
*
Fluxus
*
Casualism
*
Conceptual art
*
Appropriation (art)
*
Institutional Critique
*
Postmodern art
*
Post-conceptualism
*
Art software
*
Computer art
*
Internet art
*
Electronic art
*
Systems art
*
Cyberarts
*
New Media
*
New Media Art
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Computer generated music
*
Generative art
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Monochrome painting
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Neo-minimalism
*
Timbral listening
*
Totalism (music)
References
External links
Minimal Music, Maximal Impactby
Kyle Gann © 2001 NewMusicBox
A Discography of Postminimal, Totalist, and Rare Minimalist Musicby Kyle Gann
MINUS SPACE reductive art
{{Western art movements
1971 neologisms
20th-century classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary art movements
1970s in art
1980s in art
1990s in art