Aesthetically, minimalist art offers a highly purified form of beauty. It can also be seen as representing such qualities as truth (because it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is), order, simplicity and harmony (Tate Gallery, n.d.)
The beauty of drawings relies on the ability of the artist in conceptualizing their ideas into something tangible object. If we go beyond our imagination, the nature of our artworks will be getting pure and simple. The simplest presentation will lead to complex thought to the audience. It may involve the higher-order thinking the involves polemics and critical review from the audience. From the layman perception, ‘simple’ may lead to ‘boredom’ and ‘confusion.’
So, the word ‘minimal’ in the thesaurus is related to ‘minimum’, ‘very little’ and ‘the smallest amount’ which connotes the characteristic of minimalism. tate.org (n.d.) describe minimalist as aesthetically, minimalist art offers a highly purified form of beauty. It can also be seen as representing such qualities as truth (because it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is), order, simplicity and harmony.
Now, let’s observe on one of minimalist, Frank Stella’s works, Harran II, Stella’s seems to demonstrate his imagination by emphasizing ‘picture-as-object’ (as described in Wikipedia) which is very close to Kantian’s Aesthetic. Guichard (n.d.) stated Kant said: “Something is beautiful if it gives pleasure without interest.” He added, “The Kantian ideal of beauty and taste could be said to have promoted disinterestedness that went hand and hand with the repression of touch and dematerialization of art.” So what I understand “to be a minimalist artist, we should free ourselves from a physical substance”. It has to be pure and ‘naive’ in the sense of our consciousness while creating our art.
The drawings above are my attempts to demonstrate the ideas of minimalist in the drawing. Perhaps through the simplification of drawing elements might lead to the simplified image and complex way in appreciating it.
tate.org(n.d.). Minimalism. Retrieved From https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/minimalism
Stella, F. (1967). Harran II [Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas, 120 x 240 inches.]. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1967). Retrieved from: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/4003
Wikipedia (13 May 2020). Frank Stella. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stella
Guichard, C.(n.d.)# 91 The Picture as Thing. Retrieved from https://www.sciencespo.fr/artsetsocietes/en/archives/1420
One thought on “Minimalism in ‘drawings’”