Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971Chilvers, 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 generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

and the

visual arts The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

, but can refer to any field using minimalism as a critical reference point. In music, "postminimalism" refers to music following

minimal music Minimal music (also called minimalism)"Minimalism in music has been defined as an aesthetic, a style, and a technique, each of which has been a suitable description of the term at certain points in the development of minimal music. However, two o ...

Visual art

In visual art, postminimalist art uses minimalism either as an aesthetic or conceptual reference point. Postminimalism is more an artistic tendency than a particular movement. Postminimalist artworks are usually everyday objects, use simple materials, and sometimes take on a "pure", formalist aesthetic. However, since postminimalism includes such a diverse and disparate group of artists, it is impossible to enumerate all the continuities and similarities between them. The work of

Eva Hesse Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 – May 29, 1970) was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 196 ...

is also postminimalist: it uses "grids" and "seriality", themes often found in minimalism, but is also usually hand-made, introducing a human element into her art, in contrast to the machine or custom-made works of minimalism.

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration of ...

is a prominent post-minimalist.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

, and it is generally categorized within the meta-genre

art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...

. Writer Kyle GannKyle 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 In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the ...

, usually continuing throughout a work or movement; #a

diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a p ...

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 Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...

, bluegrass, Jewish cantillation, and so on). For a musical style derived from minimalism, see

Totalism (music) Totalism is a style of art music that arose in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to minimalism. It paralleled postminimalism but involved a younger generation of creators, born in the 1950s. This term, invented by writer and composer Kyle Gann, has ...

References

External links

Minimal Music, Maximal Impact
by Kyle Gann © 2001 NewMusicBox
A Discography of Postminimal, Totalist, and Rare Minimalist Music
by Kyle Gann
MINUS SPACE reductive art
{{Avant-garde 1971 neologisms 20th-century classical music Contemporary classical music Contemporary art movements 1970s in art 1980s in art 1990s in art

Visual art

Music

See also

References

External links