Making a Connection: Art
Introduction
Like in music and literature, the minimalist movement struck the art industry as well. Minimalist artists characterized their works by a deliberate lack of content. These artists did this to give their work a presence that can be viewed in a much more literal way. Like in minimalist literature, the artist does not put in anything that is not absolutely necessary. Without additional distractions, the viewer can see what the artist is trying to express much more clearly. The minimalist art movement occurred in the 1960's just as in music and literature. Some of the leading artists in the movement include Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Robert Morris, and Carl Andre. They helped pave the way for many more minimalist artists.
Minimalist art holds many of the same characteristics that minimalist literature possesses. It is most apparent in minimalist poetry. Minimalist poems are typically short and very direct. The previously referenced poem The Red Wheelbarrow is a great example. This same feature is seen in minimalist art. Watch the video below. It discusses a piece of Donald Judd's art and gives great insight into the minimalist aspects and the depth of the piece.
This next picture is a painting of a barn. Notice how the background represents the landscape while also drawing attention to the red barn. The red barn is meant to stick out because it is the main subject of the painting. Notice that the artist provides only enough detail to portray the setting. This same sort of thing is done in minimalist writing by means of using few adjectives to not clutter the deeper meaning of a work. By doing so, the author's message is clearly displayed in the same sort of way that the red barn is displayed. As you can see, a minimalist piece of art is very similar to a minimalist writing.
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Minimalism could also be seen in photography. Minimalist photographers portrayed the same characteristics that minimalist artists used in their photos. Their topics are always clearly defined. The same relations to minimalist literature for photography can be explained in the above section regarding the relations between minimalist literature and art. Look how clearly displayed the subject of the following photo is. The water droplet is surrounded by water; however, due to the shading of the drop, it sticks out. This shading makes the subject of the photo very obvious to the viewer.
To learn more about minimalist photography, visit the link below.
Conclusion
There are definite similarities between minimalist art and literature. Both have the common goal of exposing their subject in a way that makes it as obvious as possible. For artists, this is normally done by not putting in excess detail. This is done to emphasize the subject and to not distract the viewer. Minimalist writers also do not want to distract their subjects. To refrain from this, they make their works very concise and leave out unnecessary details. As you can see, aspects of minimalist writing can be seen in minimalist art and photography.