Postmodernism and Minimalism movement
Various art movements have been learned this semester. However, none of them has affected and changed my thinking of art like postmodernism and minimalism. Postmodernism focuses on art that reacts to the aesthetics associated with its predecessor movement, modernism (Holt, 1995). To some extent, the movement rejects modernism’s ideas. On the other hand, the Minimalism movement is identified with the form’s extreme simplicity and an objective, a literal approach to art (Johnson, 2020). According to minimalists, art should not imitate other things but have its individual. The two movements appear to deviate from the typical and prior considerations used in the creation of art.
Initially, I used to think that for art to be identified as appealing, aesthetics had to be considered during its creation. However, this thinking was changed after learning about postmodernism. Postmodernism broke the rules associated with style in art (Holt, 1995). Before, it was noted that an artwork should reflect the artist or align with the widely regarded social constructs. Hence, it appears to question and confront societal views and art itself by mocking artistic importance in artworks. For instance, postmodernism utilizes pop imagery and even industrial materials from both and high cultures in the creation of its artworks (Holt, 1995). It calls for art to be seen as what it is as in the direct artwork “I shop therefore I am”. Therefore, through learning this movement, I learned that art could be anything I perceive it to be as long as some of its significant characteristics are fulfilled. Otherwise, I can merge various styles to come up with art, even if it will lack the definitive features.
Also, I used to think that art always had to have a hidden meaning or interpretation and that an artwork should identify its developer. However, this perception was altered after learning about minimalism. Minimalists removed the idea of symbolic, meaningful, personal, or emotional content in artworks (Johnson, 2020). Instead, just like postmodernism, it called for art to be seen or experienced for what it is with no hidden interpretations. The artwork choice made minimalists to be distanced from abstract expressionism. Thus, I learned that artwork should not necessarily be complicated. It can be anything as long as it fulfills the basic features. It does not need to refer to certain outside elements as in Sol Lewitt’s Two Open Modular Cubes. Hence, art can be made simple and with nothing else to make it appealing to the viewers. Ideally, minimalism advocates for artists to disregard individuality when developing artworks (Johnson, 2020). Therefore, minimalists appear to dissociate from modernism, which identified that artworks should bear the identity of the individual who made it.
Also, I discovered that minimalist art is significantly aligned with conceptual art. Minimalists perceive art to be what is seen with no hidden meanings. Therefore, anything made as art is considered artwork. Conceptual art, on the other hand, notes that art should not be dependent on the developer’s skills. Whatever an artist made was considered an art. Hence, anything an artist developed or had an idea of was to be seen as art in its sense, just like in minimalism, which calls for art to be seen as it is and that it should not identify the creator. Postmodernism, on the other hand, appears to show some similarities in strategy with avant-garde. Artists associated with postmodernism are always described to be utilizing avant-garde strategies in their elimination of the clear distinctions between art and popular culture in their work. Therefore, despite the two movements changing my thinking of art, I identified that they are aligned to other art movements.