A Theory of Minimalism

Description

The explosion of minimalism into the worlds of visual arts, music and literature in the mid-to-late twentieth century presents one of the most radical and decisive revolutions in aesthetic history. Detested by some, embraced by others, minimalism's influence was immediate, pervasive and lasting, significantly changing the way we hear music, see art and read literature. In The Theory of Minimalism, Marc Botha offers the first general theory of minimalism, equally applicable to literature, the visual arts and music. He argues that minimalism establishes an aesthetic paradigm for rethinking realism in genuinely radical terms. In dialogue with thinkers from both the analytic and continental traditions – including Kant, Danto, Agamben, Badiou and Meillassoux – Botha develops a constellation of concepts which together encapsulate the transhistorcial and transdisciplinary reach of minimalism. Illustrated by a range of historical, canonical and contemporary minimalist works of different media, from the caves of early Christian ascetics to Samuel Beckett's late prose, Botha offers a bold and provocative argument which will equip readers with the tools to engage critically with past, present and future minimalism, and to recognize how, in a culture caught between the poles of excess and austerity, minimalism still matters. FC Half title Also available from Bloomsbury Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Preface 1 Intermittency: On the Transhistoricism of Minimalism 1.1 Minimum Minimalism as existential modality: Frans Vanderlinde’s Elimination/Incarnation (1967) 1.2 Intermittency The transhistorical register of minimalism: Dan Flavin’s monument 1 to V. Tatlin (1964) 1.3 Margins At the periphery of minimalism: Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1655) John Lee Byars’s The Book of the Hundred Questions (1969) 1.4 Movement Minimalism as a dynamic movement: La Monte Young’s Trio for Strings (1958) 1.5 Minimalism Name as paradigm: Donald Judd’s Untitled (Stack) (1967) 1.6 Transition Between modernism and postmodernism: Ronaldo Azeredo’s VELOCIDADE (1957) Ai Weiwei’s A Ton of Tea (2007) 2 Encounters: On the Politics of Minimalism 2.1. Threshold Between art and non-art: Carl Andre’s Venus Forge (1980) 2.2 Encounter Minimalism and the sustained encounter: La Monte Young’s Dream Houses (1966–70) 2.3 Perception Embodied perception as a generative process: Robert Morris’s untitled (3 Ls) (1965–70) 2.4 Disruption Minimalism and the politics of public space: Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc (1981) 2.5 Force Micro-political apertures to macro-political events: Frank Stella’s Arbeit Macht Frei (1967) 2.6 Anticipation Unexpected epiphanies and the politics of the everyday: Raymond Carver’s ‘Fat’ (1971) 3 Objecthood: On the Materialism of Minimalism 3.1 Objects Minimalism and theoretical objecthood: Steve Reich’s Clapping Music (1972) 3.2 Form The architecture of objecthood: Sol LeWitt’s Incomplete Open Cubes (1974) Frank Stella’s Tomlinson Court Park (1967) Teju Cole’s Seven Short Stories About Drones (2013) 3.3 Immanence Presence and scale: Steve Reich’s Four Organs (1970) Barnett Newman’s Cathedra (1951) 3.4 Medium On migratory objecthood: Dan Flavin’s untitled (to the real Dan Hill) 1b (1978) 3.5 Nonreferentiality Mimetic economy and minimalism: Ellsworth Kelly’s Spectrum IV (1967) Robert Lax’s ‘is’ (1962) 3.6 Process Minimalism in motion: Ian Hamilton Finlay’s acrobats (1964) Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music (1968/1973) 4 The Real: On the Persistence of Minimalism 4.1 Verisimilitude Competing realities: Raymond Carver’s ‘The Bath’ (1981) 4.2 Generativity Approximating the real: Alain Robbe-Grillet’s ‘In the Corridors of the Underground’ (1963) 4.3 Transfiguration A minimalism more-real: Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) 4.4 Persistence Contingency and absolute becoming: Eva Hesse’s Contingent (1969) Steve Reich’s Piano Phase (1967) 5 Quantity: On the Radicality of Minimalism 5.1 Compossibility One and many: Robert Barry’s [This work has been and continues to be refined since 1969] (1971) 5.2 Quantification Quantity as quality in minimalist aesthetics: Donald Judd’s Untitled (Six boxes) (1974) Frank Stella’s Empress of India (1965) 5.3 Continuity The logic of persistence: Yves Klein’s Monotone Symphony (1949) Steve McCaffery’s Panopticon (1984) 5.4 Calculation Autotelism and modular process: Philip Glass’s Two Pages (1968) Samuel Beckett’s ‘what is the word’ (1988) Robert Lax’s ‘word’ (1962) Sol LeWitt’s Maquette for One, Two, Three (1979) 5.5 Number The consequences of counting: Dan Flavin’s the nominal three (to William of Ockham) (1964) Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach (1976) Nico Muhly’s Mothertongue (2007) 6 Austerity: On the Lessness of Minimalism 6.1 Asceticism The austerities of the cell: The Carthusian monastery and monastic cell Samuel Beckett’s ‘For to end yet again’ (1960/1975) 6.2 Clarity The minimalism of waiting: John Adams’s Shaker Loops (1978/1983) 6.3 Icon Towards a holy minimalism: Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel (1978) Robert Lax’s jacob & the angel (1981) 6.4 Theurgy Minimalist ritual: Velimir Khlebnikov’s Incantation by Laughter (1910) John Cage’s Empty Words (1974) Meredith Monk’s Facing North (1990) 7 Minimum: On the Extremes of Minimalism 7.1 Negation Sublation and saying no: Ad Reinhardt’s Abstract Painting (1957) Bruce Nauman’s Clown Torture (1987) 7.2 Taking-Place Something in nothing: Richard Serra’s Gutter Corner Splash: Night Shift (1969/1995) Samuel Beckett’s Texts for Nothing (1950–2) 7.3 Nothingness Approaching zero: Maurice Blanchot’s Death Sentence (1948) 7.4 Atopia Minimalism beyond minimum: Alvin Lucier’s I Am Sitting in a Room (1969) Samuel Beckett’s Imagination Dead Imagine (1965) Cy Twombly’s Arcadia (1958) Ian Hamilton Finlay’s The Present Order (1984) Illustrations Notes Bibliography Index