maximalist
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more maximalist
form: most maximalist
form: Maximalist
Etymology: From maximal + -ist, by analogy with minimalist.
Senses: examples: text: This, his [Frank Stella's] second Museum of Modern Art retrospective, shows him in his second incarnation, turning his back on Minimalist rationality and opting for a “maximalist,” seemingly free-wheeling Baroque complexity that helped set the stage for New-Expressionism.
ref: 1987 December 6, Roberta Smith, “Schnabel and Stella: Art, Myth and Ego”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Three elephantine examples of that trend have been in the news of late, and they call into question their underlying maximalist presumption that more is more.
ref: 1990 May 27, John Rockwell, “Complete Everything, or Is More Enough?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Mr. Shadbolt's maximalist, when-in-doubt-be-vivid style capaciously suits “Monday's Warriors,” his novel of the wars between the Maoris and the British in New Zealand in the mid-19th century; […]
ref: 1992 May 3, Ivan Doig, “Maps Made by Blind Men”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: The biennial also includes a sprawling cityscape by Chris Burden incorporating thousands of model buildings, cranes and automobiles, a maximalist vision where Mr. Ashkin's is minimalist.
ref: 1997 April 6, Trip Gabriel, “Trafficking in Toxic Waste and Human Loneliness”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Bach's choral music was once often heard in maximalist renditions, undertaken by large ensembles who by sheer vocal and instrumental weight emphasize the majestic side of his compositions.
ref: 1998 May 17, Sarah Bryan Miller, “Classical Brief”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: [Christian] Lacroix's maximalist aesthetic has been at odds with fashion trends in recent years. But fashion is just now beginning to swing back his way, with an emphasis on volume and flounce above sleekness.
ref: 2005 January 26, Jess Cartner-Morley, “Ovation for Lacroix as maximalist look makes a comeback”, in The Guardian:
text: At the moment, for example, while a minimalist aesthetic, or the tail end of one, still manifests itself in a lot of painting and music, we are living in age of maximalist novels—books less concerned with le mot juste than with being full-service entertainment centers.
ref: 2005 April 17, Charles McGrath, “The Souped-Up, Knock-Out, Total Fiction Experience”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: You might call [Louis] Wain’s ‘mad’ style a version of the outsider mode in its paranoid or maximalist aspect.
ref: 2011 July 28, Terry Castle, “Do I like it?”, in London Review of Books, volume 33, number 15, →ISSN:
text: Such a bustling, maximalist extravaganza is in keeping with the excitable energy of the crowd, who are clearly thrilled to revisit the block-party beats of Cruel Summer and tribal doo-wop of Really Sayin’ Somethin’.
ref: 2017 November 14, Graeme Virtue, “Bananarama review – hi-NRG poignancy as pop trio return for first proper tour”, in The Guardian:
text: Returning to the sound of her maximalist electro-pop heyday, Gaga explores buried trauma, mental illness and the complexities of fame on this return to form
ref: 2020 May 29, Michael Cragg, “Lady Gaga: Chromatica review – Gaga rediscovers the riot on her most personal album”, in The Guardian:
text: [Chappell] Roan draws from the mega-pop of the 2010s, from Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift – then laces it with sexually frank asides and lavish doses of camp, and performs it with a maximalist, absurd aesthetic indebted to drag, John Waters and Freddie Mercury.
ref: 2024 August 9, Laura Snapes, “It’s a femininomenon! How Chappell Roan slow-burned her way to stardom”, in The Guardian:
topics: art
arts
entertainment
lifestyle
literature
media
music
publishing
glosses: Preferring redundancy; tending to do or provide more rather than less.
examples: text: Mr. Schmidt agreed that “both the Russians and the Americans want results,” but he warned that they have a long way to go from “maximalist” starting positions.
ref: 1981 November 29, Helmut Schmidt, quotee, “Nuclear Theater”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Jo Leinen, 35 years old, a spokesman for the protest coalition, said today that the Soviet-American arms limitation talks in Geneva are a failure, and blamed the Reagan Administration for having taken “a maximalist position” that doomed the negotiations.
ref: 1983 October 14, James M. Markham, “West Germans Start Missile Protests”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Administration diplomats have by now grown used to such maximalist posturing and they doubt that North Korea will go so far as to undermine the nuclear deal.
ref: 1995 February 10, “High-Risk Bargaining by North Korea”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: So Britain seems to have two foreign policies, a maximalist one based on illusions of the imperial past, and a minimalist one based on fears of the domestic future. It is time some-one put them together.
ref: 1997 October 22, Roy Denman, “British Foreign Policy: Riding Off in Two Directions at Once”, in International Herald Tribune, →ISSN:
text: […] Truman would not make available the resources and the manpower to fix the problem. He had a maximalist moment—and a maximalist document—before him. He was not ready to back a maximalist policy.
ref: 2014, Stephen Sestanovich, Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama, Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 49:
text: White’s detention ratchets up the rising tension between Iran and the US, which under Trump has pursued a maximalist campaign against Tehran that includes pulling out of its nuclear deal with world powers.
ref: 2019 January 9, “Iran confirms it has detained US navy veteran Michael White”, in The Guardian:
text: The Ukrainian government has noted Mr. Putin has never backed away from his maximalist demands, interpreting the goal of “demilitarizing” and “de-Nazifying” Ukraine as halting Western military assistance and installing a pro-Russian government in Kyiv.
ref: 2024 February 9, Paul Sonne, Anton Troianovski, “Putin to U.S.: Let’s Make a Deal on Ukraine (on My Terms)”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
topics: diplomacy
government
politics
glosses: Aggressive, expansive.
examples: text: Again, the progressive view was that the Mother of Jesus should receive all veneration for holiness, but not the title of mediator between God and man. Much of the Curia supported a “maximalist” cult of the Virgin.
ref: 1964 September 17, “Powers of Curia Likely to be Cut”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: The case of the Bar Kokhba Revolt is an excellent example of how far the Minimalist and Maximalist interpretations of biblical and even ancient history can be verified.
ref: 2009, Richard A. Freund, Digging through the Bible, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 329:
topics: Christianity
lifestyle
religion
glosses: Relating to religious or Biblical maximalism.
examples: text: His inclusion in the official delegation to Moscow caused surprise today and was seen as indicative of the Italian Communists' aversion to Maximalist currents in international communism.
ref: 1961 October 4, Paul Hofmann, “Communists in West Expected to Back Khrushchev Against Soviet and Chinese Left-Wing Extremists”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
topics: communism
government
human-sciences
ideology
philosophy
politics
sciences
glosses: Relating to far-left communism.