# Minimalism

Minimalism in the arts began in post–World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Minimalism in music features repetition and iteration. Minimalist compositions are sometimes known as systems music. In the visual arts and Minimalism is a style that uses pared-down design elements.

## Quotes

* [Also] minimalism is a term that all of us who share so little in common and who are lumped together as minimalists are not terribly happy with.
** Ann Beattie, in Conversations with Ann Beattie, p. 82.
* Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.
** Joshua Becker, Clutterfree with Kids: Change your thinking. Discover new habits. Free your home, p. 28.
* 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.
** Encyclopædia Britannica, in minimalism.
* 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.
** Encyclopedia Britannica, in "minimalism".
* Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged.
** Robert Browning, "Andrea del Sarto" (1855).
*** Used by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as precept for minimalist architecture
* Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
** Albert Einstein, How To Be A Student: 100 Great Ideas And Practical Habits For Students ..., p. 103
* ...la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher.
* Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
** Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Terre des hommes (1939), Ch. 3: L'Avion, p. 60.
* Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that's stripped down.
** Dave Grohl, in Foo Fighters, p. 8.
* The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
** Hans Hofmann, Keys to Manifesting Your Destiny, p43
* One can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in.
** Francis Jourdain, in Minimalist Life, p. 30
* Minimalism wasn't a real idea – it ended before it started.
** Sol LeWitt, in Bomb (2003), Volume 82; Volumes 84-86, p. 26.
* Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
** William Morris, "The Beauty of Life," a lecture before the Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design (19 February 1880), later published in Hopes and Fears for Art: Five Lectures Delivered in Birmingham, London, and Nottingham, 1878 – 1881 (1882).
* Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
* Plurality is never to be posited without necessity.
** William of Occam, Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi (ed. Lugd., 1495), i, dist. 27, qu. 2, K.
* This principle is commonly known as Occam's Razor.
** William of Occam, Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi
* Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; love more, and all good things will be yours.
** Swedish proverb, in Stepping Stones, p. 127
* The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
** Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book that Changes Lives, p. 162
* In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
** Lao Tzu, Ancient China on Postmodern War: Enduring Ideas from the Chinese Strategic ..., p. 204
* Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
** Leonardo da Vinci, Be the Best at What Matters Most: The Only Strategy You will Ever Need, p. 8
* I have my own definition of minimalism, which is that which is created with a minimum of means. I guess I like to think in those broader terms. If one thinks of minimalism according to my definition.
** La Monte Young, Ocean of sound: aether talk, ambient sound and imaginary worlds, p. 178

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Minimalism on Wikipedia
* Media related to Minimalism on Wikimedia Commons
* The dictionary definition of minimalism on Wiktionary
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