MINIMALISM - SPACE, LIGHT & OBJECT

Minimalism was one of the most influential movements of the 20th century, questioning the role of art amidst the radical social changes in the 1960s.

In conjunction with the two-part special exhibition Minimalism: Space. Light. Object., held across National Gallery Singapore and ArtScience Museum, this symposium will delve into the Asian influences and enduring legacies of this movement.

Here are some artists I enjoyed reading up about who had interests in Minimalism before going to the exhibition.

ALEXANDRA MUNROE ECSTATIC MINIMALISM: ASIAN INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN ART OF THE 1960S

Asian art and philosophies have been one of the greatest inspirations for new forms of artistic expression in modern and contemporary art in America. They are also the least appreciated.

In the Guggenheim’s award-winning show The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989, curator Alexandra Munroe explored how the art, literature, and philosophical systems of “the East” were reconstructed and transformed by American cultural and intellectual currents, influencing new visual and conceptual languages.

Alexandra Munroe, Ph.D. is a curator, Asia scholar and author focusing on art, culture and institutional global strategy. She is the Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art and Senior Advisor, Global Arts at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation where she has led the Guggenheim’s Asian Art Initiative since its founding in 2006.

She has worked on over 40 exhibitions and is known for establishing international critical acclaim for artists including Cai Guo Qiang, Daido Moriyama, Yayoi Kusama, Lee Ufan, Mu Xin, and Yoko Ono, and historic avant-garde movements such as Gutai, Mono-ha, Japanese otaku culture, and Korean Tanseakwa.

LYNN ZELEVANSKY GLOBAL MINIMALISM

Lynn Zelevansky traces the meaning of Minimalism from its original association with a small group of mostly male artists who emerged in 1960s New York, to a descriptor for diverse artistic manifestations across the globe.

This was accompanied by a shift from a Minimalism in which all meaning resided in the art object to a multivalent definition that embraces metaphor and turns the object into a vehicle for social action.

Zelevansky considered questions such as: Why were the formal aspects of Minimalism—reduced geometric form, repetition and modularity, systems for art making—so attractive to younger generations? And was Minimalism ever as philosophically monolithic or as exclusively American as it seemed at its inception?

MINIMALISM IN GERMAN ELECTRONIC MUSIC (1990S–PRESENT)

In the 1970s, a new generation of musicians, including the pioneering band Kraftwerk, created electronic music that drew on minimalist repetition and industrial sounds, which came to be known as “Krautrock”. Their compositions were an enormous influence on early techno, and in the late 1990s, a second generation of techno musicians emerged who pushed the minimalist style even further.

Alexis Waltz, traces the evolution of the electronic music scene in Germany over the past three decades.

By researching and reading about these people it is clear that the term 'minimalism' can be found in any sort of artistic medium whether that be photography, sculpture, paintings and even music! This movement really does cover all bases and can be as experimental as you want.

Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.

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