MINIMALISMBECAUSE LESS IS MORE

SUBMITTED TO:

MS. KAVITA PANDIYA

DEPARTMENT OF KNITWEAR DESIGNING

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY

HAUZ KHASNEW DELHI - 110016

PREPARED BY:-1.DIKSHA KHURANA

2.SALONI SURI

3.ABHILIPSA SAHU

4.JASLEEN ARORA

5.YASHIKA CHOUDHARY

6.RATIKA BAID

Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts.

DEFINITION:

Minimalism is reducing your work to the essential and using less to do more. In order to do minimalism well we need a strong understanding of basic design principles. When we master minimalism we master design.

ORGIN OF

MINIMALISM

As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in post–World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. It is rooted in the reductive aspects of Modernism, and is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract expressionism and a bridge to Postminimal art practices.

Minimalism emerged in the late 60′s in New York, but its roots are anchored in Europe, in the early ideas of German architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, one of the most important architects of this century. Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe develops his ideas about the purity of the forms (precursor of minimalism) during his tenure in the direction of the School of Art and Design at the Bauhaus in Germany in the late 30′s. After the second world war, he emigrated to the United States, a country where it was known as an influential architect and designer, and became a U.S. citizen.

Minimalism is something we take for granted. The idea that there is virtue in stripping away, that simplicity can be beautiful, and give rise to its own special kind of complexity, is one that feels as old as the world itself – but it’s relatively new.

STEVE REICH 

Purity in art can be achieved through simplicity and unity. Minimalism is a primarily American art movement often characterized as a reaction to the Second World War.

Minimalism always doesn’t mean things in small

quantities , it is ,keeping the essentials.

eg:The famous one-word imaginary poem:

Lighght

-by Aram SaroyaThe word describes itself

Minimalism in Literature-”less is more”

Minimalism in literature in simple terms:

• A sentence should contain no unnecessary words.

• A paragraph no unnecessary sentences ( for the same reason that a drawing

shouldhave no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. )

• Minimalism, in essence, is describing the most, in the least words possible.

• Minimalist authors abstain adverbs and prefer allowing context to dictate meaning.

• The main essence of minimalism : it allows the reader to take active role in creation of the story.

• Allows readers to choose sides based on oblique hint, rather than reacting to the direction of the author.

• Minimalism makes specific demands, with its specific narrative techniques :

Reading “less” demands that the reader do more.

• Minimalist short stories refuses to provide easy answer to the many question it raises.

Elements of minimalistic writing:

• Reduced vocabulary

• Shorter sentences

• Slight narratives which reveal more than resolve

• Use of unadorned language.

• Fewer adjectives and when used, not extravagant .

• Showing , not telling the reader, as a primary means of communicating information.

• Reticence towards the expression of a characters thoughts or feelings.

• An example of such writing would be like this:

Unabridged - I yearned for a break, so I stood up and walked over to the coffee machine. Grabbing a cup of coffee, I walked back to my desk, to find out that someone had turned on the fan above my desk.

Minimalist - I took a coffee break. Walking back to my desk, I heard the fan.

• Here, the emotion of yearning has been toned down to almost nothing as the character simply 'takes a break'. Turning on the fan can be written as 'hearing the fan'. This relies on the reader's sense of logic, as hearing the fan will be related to it being turned on.

A simple example of minimalist poetry is one by George Swede:

M SS NG Thiiief!

• The art of literary minimalism seeded around 1960s and 1970s, a result of the then ongoing meta-fiction trend.

• There are some beliefs that minimalism in prose was actually initiated by the

1940s crime-fiction writers like James M. Cain, the writings of whom were imbued with the least of words and yet put forth a description of many.

• However, literary minimalism was brought to center-stage through the guiding hands of authors such as Ernest Hemingway’s “cat in the rain” (his collection of short-stories and works earlier than the 70s), Raymond Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing”, Ann Beattie and many more around the 1970s.

• Minimalist authors, or those who are identified with minimalism during certain periods of their writing careers, include the following:

• Raymond Carver,  Bret Easton Ellis, Charles Bukowski, K. J. Stevens, Amy Hempel, Bobbie Ann Mason, Tobias Wolff, Grace Paley, Sandra Cisneros, Mary Robison, Frederick Barthelme, Richard Ford, Patrick Holland and Alicia Erian

MINIMALISTIC MUSIC

“You can kill people with sound. And if you can kill, then maybe there is also the sound that is opposite of killing. And the distance between these two points is very big. And

you are free--you can choose. In art everything is possible, but everything is not

necessary.” ― Arvo Pärt

The term "minimal music" was derived around 1970 by Michael Nyman from the concept of minimalism, which was earlier applied to the visual arts.The idea that there is virtue in stripping away, that simplicity can be beautiful, and give rise to its own special kind of complexity, is one that feels as old as the world itself – but it’s relatively new.In music in particular, minimalism was the single most important idea of the last century, the one that made possible virtually all that we now listen to and hold dear, from punk and techno to ambient and grime. Minimalism wasn’t just a movement, it was a paradigm shift: it brought about a sea change in the way that sound is made, heard and thought of.

STEVE REICH

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who is one of the pioneering composers of minimal music along with La Monte Young,Terry Riley, and Philip Glass. .he was keen to find a new musical language that truthfuly reflected ,as he put it ,”the real contex of tailfins ,chuckberry,and millions of burgers sold”

For Come Out (1966), Reich re-recorded a fragment of Daniel Hamm (of the falsely accused Harlem Six) speaking the words “come out to show them” on two channels, initially playing them in unison. They quickly slip out of sync; gradually the discrepancy widens and becomes a reverberation. The two voices then split into four, looped continuously, then eight, and so on, until the actual words are unintelligible, deconstructed into tiny rhythmic and tonal patterns.

PHILIP GLASS Philip Glass is an American

composer. He is often said to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century.His music is also often controversially described as minimalist, along with the work of the other "major minimalists" La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich.Hearing Reich’s Piano Phase in 1967, and like him drawing influence from the musics of India and Africa, Philip Glass simplified his own compositional style, and set about creating works that relied upon phasing and loop patterns.

• Early works tended to be abstract, but from the mid-1970s his attention shifted towards the stage. His first operatic triumph, Einstein on the Beach, did much to reinvigorate the international contemporary opera scene. Profoundly interested in traditional cultures, Glass often draws on Eastern traditions, as in Monsters of Grace (1997), a multimedia collaboration based on the writings of Rumi.

A year later Reich unveiled his own first major work, It’s Gonna Rain, based around recordings of a sermon about the end of the world given by a black Pentecostal street-preacher. Reich transferred the sermon to multiple tape loops played in and out of phase, with segments cut and rearranged. The effect was astonishing

MINIMALISM IN MOVIES

Minimalism in movie posters is something that is becoming more and more popular, as we can clearly see from the examples showcased above, there are many more minimal posters from recent years compared to the amount seen in the 90′s and earlier.

This Batman Returns poster from 1992 is one of favorite posters in this showcase, as it totally depends on brand identity and the familiarity of the infamous Batman silhouette.

MINMALISM IN MOVIE POSTERS

SUPERMAN BY QUIBE

THE MACHINIST BY DANIEL NORRIS

THE MATRIX BY 3FTDEEP

FIGHT CLUB BY PEDRO VIDOTTO

THE TRUMAN SHOW

BY HESIR

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

BY JON CORELL

JUNO BY KENZO GIUNTO

KILL BILL BY GUILLAUME VASSEUR

127 HOUR BY 3FTDEEP

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES BY ROWAN STOCKS-MOORE

BLOOD DIAMOND

BY EMREWEB

MINMALISM IN ART

Minimalism, chiefly American movement in the visual arts and music originating in New York City in the late 1960s and characterized by extreme simplicity of form and a literal, objective approach.

Minimalist garments & decors

Minimal art, also called ABC art, is the culmination of reductionist tendencies in modern art that first surfaced in the 1913 composition by the Russian painter Kasimir Malevich of a black square on a white ground. The primary structures of the minimalist sculptors Donald Judd,Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Tony Smith, Anthony Caro, Sol LeWitt, John McCracken, Craig Kaufman, Robert Duran, and Robert Morris and the hard-edge painting of Jack Youngerman, Ellsworth Kelly,Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Al Held, and Gene Davis grew out of these artists’ dissatisfaction with Action painting, a branch of American Abstract Expressionism based on intuitive, spontaneous gesture that had dominated American avant-garde art through much of the 1950s.

Use of the hard edge, the simple form, and the linear rather than painterly approach was intended to emphasize two-dimensionality and to allow the viewer an immediate, purely visual response. They turned for inspiration to the impassive, quiet works of Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt, exponents of the colour-field branch of Abstract Expressionist painting.

The minimalists, who believed that Action painting was too personal and insubstantial, adopted the point of view that a work of art should not refer to anything other than itself. For that reason they attempted to rid their works of any extra-visual association.

Minimal Art emerged as a movement in the 1950s and continued through the Sixties and Seventies. It is a term used to describe paintings and sculpture that thrive on simplicity in both content and form, and seek to remove any sign of personal expressivity. The aim of Minimalism is to allow the viewer to experience the work more intensely without the distractions of composition, theme and so on. There are examples of the Minimalist theory being exercised as early as the 18th century when Goethe constructed an Altar of Good Fortune made simply of a stone sphere and cube. But the 20th century sees the movement come into its own.

Minimal Art is related to a number of other movements such as Conceptual Art in the way the finished work exists merely to convey a theory, Pop Art in their shared fascination with the impersonal and Land Art in the construction of simple shapes. Minimal Art proved highly successful and has been enormously influential on the development of art in the 20th century.

Minimalism is an art movement, born in the twentieth century, which describes various forms of art, music, literature, design and architecture, where the work is reduced to the bare essentials.In web design, minimalism refers to the use of the smallest amount of images, colors, shapes, values and lines. The site is stripped down to the fundamentals required to convey the message. Minimalist web designs generally rely on type and simple shapes to do the communicating.

Robert Morris, an influential theorist and artist, wrote a three part essay, "Notes on Sculpture 1-3", originally published across three issues of Artforumin 1966. In these essays, Morris attempted to define a conceptual framework and formal elements for himself and one that would embrace the practices of his contemporaries. These essays paid great attention to the idea of the gestalt - "parts... bound together in such a way that they create a maximum resistance to perceptual separation." Morris later described an art represented by a "marked lateral spread and no regularized units or symmetrical intervals..." in "Notes on Sculpture 4: Beyond Objects", originally published in Artforum, 1969, continuing to say that "indeterminacy of arrangement of parts is a literal aspect of the physical existence of the thing."

Minimal sculpture is composed of extremely simple, monumental geometric forms made of fibreglass, plastic, sheet metal, or aluminum, either left raw or solidly painted with bright industrial colours. Like the painters, minimalist sculptors attempted to make their works totally objective, unexpressive, and non-referential.

In both music and the visual arts, minimalism was an attempt to explore the essential elements of an art form. In minimalist visual arts, the personal, gestural elements were stripped away in order to reveal the objective, purely visual elements of painting and sculpture. In minimalist music, the traditional treatment of form and development was rejected in favour of explorations of timbre and rhythm—musical elements largely unfamiliar to Western listeners.

Minimalist photography is known to be the art of less. Such calm pictures focus mainly on a few essential elements for composing the perfect shot. This type of photography art provides a challenge — by arranging only one or two elements in a scene to share a particular message across.

MINIMALISM IN FASHION

Men’s Fashion: The Art of Minimalism

ON THE RUNAWAYS:Many renowned designers have seemingly more simple design. pushed their ideas and feelings onto the catwalk with the resounding message being that less is more; and with that, fewer colours and patterns create an overall more subdued yet elegant aesthetic. It would be confused to infer designers have not put as much effort into creating garments with all sorts of elaborate detailing and textures, with those that have crafted a less cluttered and

Casual MinimalismMinimalism does not only

pertain smart clothing. Casual minimalism is one

just as easily achieved as a tailored approach, but is most likely aimed more at post-grads and older. Dressing for the

weekend can be as simple as a good pair of shoes or ‘adult’ trainers

(clean, obviously), coupled with good

quality jeans and shirt underneath a V-neck or cardigan, one of which

should be the same colour as your shoes or

jeans.

AccessoriesDetails are of the utmost importance when you are not wearing any bold statement pieces. Therefore acquiring or utilising accessories will add a touch of flavour to your outfit which can only make it more interesting. An idea might be for your clothes to be one of two colours, and to have one statement accessory to add a more obvious point of interest to your look. A true minimalist might worry that such a ploy could shade the minimalistic aspect of the rest of the look – as he might if you also had too many accessories – which is why sensibly picking one or two intriguing details is vital

MINIMALIST TREND

“LESS IS MORE”

1.Develop your personal style. 2.Don’t chase trends.3.Don’t read fashion magazines.4.Realize you’re not in the spotlight. 5. Be aware of the impact.6. Think timeless. .7. Shop your closet. 

 FASHION TRENDS FROM YOUR MINIMALIST LIFE

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, one of the definitions of "minimalism" is the "use of the fewest and barest essentials or elements, as in the arts, literature, or design". You may be interested in having a minimalist wardrobe because it is low maintenance. Perhaps you notice that people in minimalist clothes tend to look simple and sophisticated. Applying minimalism to your wardrobe is about choosing quality over quantity. It's not just about black and white.

A Minimalist’s Train of Thought

•Less money spent means more money saved•More money saved means the longer you can live in financial peace and security•Financial peace and security comes from owning less•Less stuff owned means less to carry around, move or have to travel with•Less responsibility for your stuff also means less maintenance and more time•The more time you have, the more relaxed you will feel•The more relaxed you are, the less you will care about stuff

STANDARD, CLASSIC WARDROBE OF A MINIMALIST MENAssumed criterion:1.Business casual during the week2.Fun on the weekends (possibly with or without children)3.Also attend events such as weddings & dinners on occasion4.You do laundry weekly, because as a minimalist, you will not have many (clean) outfits to last for months without laundry5.Live in a place with 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter

If you care less about stuff, it means you’ll care less about imageIf you care less about image, you will care more about experiences and memoriesIf you care more about experiences and memories, you will be happier with lessIf you are happier with less, you’ll never want or need for moreThe less you want or need for more, the more you will feel free- The Everyday Minimalist

Minimalist designA BRIEF HISTORY

• Minimalist design dates to the work of Dutch De Stijl artists from early 1900s.

• These furniture builders created pieces that promote harmony, order and were simple in nature.

• The movement was led by architect Ludwig Miles van der Rohe whose design motto was "less is more."

Other significant minimalist designers were :

• Buckminster Fuller, whose goal was "doing more with less,"

• Dieter Rams whose motto was "less is better."

Van der Rohe – ‘Less Is More’• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 to

1969) was a German architect who was considered a pioneer of modern architecture.

• His architectural style during post-World War I laid the groundwork for minimalist design.

• Van der Rohe strived for simplicity and clarity in his architectural designs by:

• Using modern materials like steel and plates of glass

• Having a minimal structural framework• Including lots of open space.

Tadao Ando• The Japanese architect Tadao Ando

creates buildings, in which light, water, wind and concrete co-exist to perfection. Ando uses mainly concrete and glass.

• The Famous Minimalist Architect uses the natural resources to their full extent, so as to restore the natural binding between the building and nature, lost in the cities’ modernization process.

• One of his favourite elements is water. That’s why he builds his buildings close to water areas, added naturally and harmoniously to the exterior.

• Ascetically clean shapes, where beauty is the only leading power – this is a characteristic element of Tadao Ando’s minimalistic style.

 Alvaro Catalan de Ocon CANDIL MILANO LAMP• Alvaro Catalán de Ocón's Candil Milano

aims to create a focus on the beauty of light by reducing all other components to enhance the sensory experience.

• While the technical principle remains the same, reducing the lamp to its three basic elements, in this case the use of materials reflects on the different physical properties necessary to make the electrical apparatus work.

• Copper and brass are optimum conductors, while wood acts as a perfect insulator.

Bruna Canepa- minimalistic renderings

Bruna Canepa’s collection of minimalistic renderings, reminiscent of Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian

• Bruna Canepa is a São Paulo-based illustrator and architect student, fascinated with space and buildings from her native city.

• Her diagrams combine clean geometrics with simple yet effective coloration to create these exploded view drawings.

• With her innovative illustrations and futuristic style, Canepa is certainly one to watch.

Alexander Wang 

• FOOTWEAR, NYFW, S/S 13, S/S 2013, WOMEN

• Alexander Wang’s minimalist lines shined in his new S/S 13 collection.

• For Spring, the NY-based designer proposes sleek single-sole sandals as base for geometric T-strap uppers.

• His touch of irreverence is manifested through supporting “garters” that emerge from the counter and buckle just below the knee.

• A polished and semi-gloss surface adds to the minimal approach to Wang’s footwear selections, which appear in stark basics such as black, white and silver.

Yigal Azrouël MONASTIC MINIMALISM SEPTEMBER 9, 2012 NEW YORK, S/S 2013, WOMEN

Yigal Azrouël continued to move in a minimalist direction for S/S 13, stating “nature’s architecture” as inspiration for the collection that felt more monastic than organic.

• Simplicity was taken to an

extreme — silhouettes were either tents or columns, and a limited assortment of fabrics in a neutral palette maintained the calm effect.

CUTLINE Collection• Designed by Alessandro Busana, the CUTLINE Collection is

predominantly minimalist aside from its quirky dissection. Made out of wood that has been painted a light gray, the radical cuts expose the natural grain.

Palladium Introduces Lite Technology for Spring

   • MARCH 23, 2012 Palladium has unveiled

a minimal technology for their upcoming spring and fall collections.

• As longtime fans of the Palladium brand, it’s surprising – at first – to hear that a company who started making rubber tires for the 1920 s aviation industry ′would be introducing a super lightweight technology in to their well-known sturdy lugged soles.

Alberto Campo Baeza• Alberto Campo Baeza is among

the minimalist architects whose unique blend answers to any and all preferences, as it includes hints, characteristic of many different cultures, most notably the Italian and Japanese architectural trends.

• One of his most famous projects is the minimalist architecture house Casa Guerrero, built in Cádiz, Spain.

• Through his works, Alberto Campo Baeza has established himself as a master of minimalism.

• His ideas are renowned worldwide and go on to influence the entire Spanish  architecture and worldwide minimalist architects .

INFLUENCERS ON

MINIMALISM

What were the influences on Minimalism?

 • Although radical, and rejecting many of the concerns of the immediately preceding Abstract Expressionist movement, like all art movements Minimalism did not emerge out of nowhere. While Minimalism abandoned the gestural expressionism of the previous generation, the Abstract Expressionists' emphasis on formal qualities, such as the structure of the canvas surface and nature of the medium, over those of representation, paved the way for the Minimalists.

DAN FLAVIN

• “One might not think of light as a matter of fact, but I do. And it is, as I said, as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find.” —

Dan Flavin

• As one of the pioneers of Minimalism, Dan Flavin is best known for works that are entirely constructed with fluorescent light tubes. He might be considered as the first artist who physically employed electronic lighting into art. His works also established a new tradition of perceiving art and a new way of adapting specific work to specific places through various forms of installation and what was later known as environmental art.

• Flavin’s legacy can be seen not only in the fields of art but architecture and design as well, creating a bridge between the early painters and today’s tech artists, and influencing a generation of new media practitioners like UVA, Rioji Ikeda and many others.

ROBERT MORRIS Robert Morris (born 9 February 1931,

Kansas City, Missouri) is an American sculptor, conceptual artist and writer. He is regarded as one of the most prominent theorists of Minimalism along with Donald Judd but he has also made important contributions to the development of performance art, minimalism, land art, the Process Art movement and installation art.

“Notes on Sculpture 1-3,” originally published across three issues of Artforum in 1966. In these essays, Morris attempted to define a conceptual framework and formal elements for himself and one that would embrace the practices of his contemporaries.

DONALD JUDD• Donald Judd was an American

born painter, writer and sculptor. His work placed him at the forefront of the Minimalist movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

• Judd rejected Abstract Expressionism through lack of imagery, composition, and by reducing painting and sculpture to its basic elements through using natural light, simple lines, industrial materials, and solid colors on flat surfaces.

MARCEL DUCHAMP• Fountain is a 1917 work widely

attributed to Marcel Duchamp. The scandalous work was a porcelain urinal, which was signed "R.Mutt" and titled Fountain. Submitted for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, Fountain was rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee.

• Fountain was displayed and photographed at Alfred Stieglitz’s studio, and the photo published in The Blind Man, but the original has been lost.

JOHN MCCRAKEN• Mr. McCracken approached

Minimalism — known for its literal-mindedness, industrial fabrication and resistance to interpretation — with a sense of play, craft and spirituality that was distinctly his own while also reflecting his California roots.

• He was one of the few artists affiliated with the movement who did not object to its name and who made most of his work by hand, sanding and polishing his enamel, lacquer or resin surfaces until their colors achieved a flawless and reflective perfection.

DIETER RAMS• To designers, Dieter Rams

should be an even more familiar name. Rams is a German industrial designer who was born in 1932 and was head designer at the Braun company, where he helped design things like record players, radios, calculators, and consumer appliances.

• Rams heavily pursued minimalist design, focusing on including only the essential aspects of a product so that it’s not filled with non-essentials. Rams’ self-described design approach is:

• Less, but better.

COMPILED BY:•DIKSHA KHURANA

RESEARCH DONE BY:•DIKSHA KHURANA

•JASLEEN ARORA

•SALONI SURI

•RATIKA BAID

•YASHIKA CHOUDHARY

•ABHILIPSA SAHU

THANKYOU

MINIMALISM

A SUB CULTURE STUDY