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'Less is more' - does less always give more? A personal evaluation…
'Less is more' - does less always give more? A personal evaluation of Minimalism
Introduction
Albers - white square
does it warrant the level of value and respect that less reductive art commands?
is there more than meets the eye?
It takes but does it give
What is Art?
extends Duchamp idea and exhausts it
The best of M is when it offers some emotion or meaning - eg Mussolini head
Absence of meaning
Formal Qualities
non art materials / cheap
no 'hand' / anonymous/ machine made
geometric / hard edge / unadorned / repeats
no illusion / 'window'
no composition hierarchy
mostly sculpture v paint
refer Duchamp / found object
reductive / pure / simplicity
Scale/ immersive / environment becomes pictorial field
unitary / wholeness
Meaning
Rejection of Ab Ex
no biography
no gesture / emotion / expression
no need to interpret / symbol / metaphor
no conoisseurship
meaning is not 'inside' but in the interaction & context
All about space, object, viewer experience
What you see is what you see - Stella
emphasis on viewer contribution
more about idea, not execution
Turnpike drive reference
Cultural Context
Leaders
No group movement / manifesto
Stella & Newman?
Judd
USA / supremacy of NYC
Conclusion
it needs context of a gallery to hold respect
this art does not add, merely provokes
lacks appeal - because it lacks enough emotional content?
irony - immersive cf to Pollock quotes being 'in ' painting
theme park - sensorial pleasure - challenge
Irony - stella sells for millions!
Triumph of object over subject
an intellectual game for the players
Lost respect for the audience - hockney quote on art & comms
Give & take - takes and does not give
Examples
Steve Reich/ correction / being in the audience (not vicarious)
Mussolini Head/ desire to see whole
Caro Tate 'early one morning - left us cold
500 ton weight - creates emotion ...fear
Architecture gives utility - sense of freedom and mobility - a blank canvas
Positives
Stripped back, de cluttered, fresh, bold, grabby
Anti 'art market'
Sensorial playground
Accessible (but open to ridicule)
Pioneering , truly edgy
Negatives
'So what', indulgent
Elitist, obscure
Ambivalent, irrelevant