Minimalism

Minimalism is an art movement that emphasizes reducing art to its essentials, focusing on the object itself and the viewer's experience, with as little mediation from the artist as possible. It emerged in the post-World War II era in Western art, and is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism. Prominent visual artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. Minimal music features methods like repetition and gradual variation, such as the works of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Julius Eastman and John Adams. The term is sometimes used to describe the plays and novels of Samuel Beckett, the films of Robert Bresson, the stories of Raymond Carver, and the automobile designs of Colin Chapman.The movement preceded postminimalism, which encompasses various practices in contemporary art that extend or critically reflect on minimalism's original aims.