Minimalism exhibit in Singapore: What does Calvin Klein have to do with a piece of rock?
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CNA Lifestyle
Minimalism exhibit in Singapore: What does Calvin Klein accept to practice with a piece of rock?
The National Gallery Singapore and ArtScience Museum's new blockbuster show looks at the history of ane of the well-nigh important fine art movements of the 20th century.
Peter Kennedy'southward Neon Light Installations. (Photo: National Gallery Singapore)
Planning to take lunch at the National Gallery Singapore'due south (NGS) Gallery & Co cafe someday before long? Get a selfie – you're eating inside an artwork.
The place has been transformed into Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed's Work No. 1343, a eating place project where every single item – from the chairs to the utensils to the plates – is different. And that fancy wallpaper design on the adjacent wall? That's also one of his works.
They're both part of NGS and ArtScience Museum's (ASM) articulation blockbuster show on Minimalism, which opens today (Nov 16).
Titled Minimalism: Infinite. Calorie-free. Object., information technology's a sweeping look at one of the most important movements in art during the last century. And only similar Creed'due south cafe and "wallpaper", there are a bunch of other things on display that encourages viewers to ponder, exercise a double-take and, if so-inclined, ask that oh-so-important question: "This is art, ah?"
ALL ABOUT THE Unproblematic THINGS
All-black paintings, stacks of paper, metal boxes, empty rooms, glowing fluorescent bulbs. Things that look like fancy wine racks or jumbo paper weights. A pile of rocks. Even more than rocks.
Information technology might exist tempting for cynics to broadly poke fun at these – which are among the 150 works past 120 artists – only in a way, you probably wouldn't accept hip-hop, techno, Calvin Klein or Marie Kondo without Minimalism.
It was ane of 2 major art movements that were built-in as a reaction to the tumultuous, noisy decade of the 1960s – the political upheavals and the explosion of mass civilisation and commodification.
While Pop Fine art embraced much of these wholeheartedly (howdy, Andy), Minimalism went the other manner and stripped down everything to the nuts. Inspired past, among other things, Zen Buddhism, things were simplified.
"Artists based in New York started to use reduced geometric forms, industrial materials like steel, glass and Perspex, and used repetition. It was likewise about removing the hand of the artists – the works had no trace of them at all," NGS curator Russell Storer told CNA Lifestyle.
He added that the term itself was initially a derogatory one, mockingly given by critics who thought information technology was all nonsense, much like "Impressionism". And we all know how that worked out.
The 2 museums offer complementary ways of looking at Minimalism, with NGS having a more historical perspective and ASM going thematic.
Merely both veer away from a purely Western-centric accept. While artists such as Creed, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Olafur Eliasson and Anish Kapoor are present, the show as well puts the spotlight on practitioners in this part of the world – coming full-circle, in a sense, to Minimalism'due south Zen influence.
You lot've got Southeast Asian artists such as Tang Da Wu, Kim Lim, Jeremy Sharma, Po Po, Simryn Gill, Sopheap Pich and Montien Boonma. NGS looks at "Mono-ha", a Japanese movement parallel to Minimalism and has a couple of Ai Weiwei works, while ASM has Chinese Maximalism (a rather disruptive term that isn't quite nigh maximalism).
The evidence isn't about simply visual arts, too, with both offering programmes that look at strands in trip the light fantastic, performance and, specially in ASM's case, music.
MINIMALISM WITH A SMALL 'M'
While it was a pretty loose "motility", Minimalism has had quite the impact on visual art, opening up to other forms like conceptual and digital art and performance installation.
The joint exhibition just stops curt of showing viewers Minimalism's bear upon outside of fine art today, merely it's there.
Minimalism'southward Dna of keeping things simple, repeating things, appreciating objects as they are, and embracing emptiness tin can be found in the worlds of mode (Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, Rei Kawakubo) and music, for example. (Electronica and hip-hop were indebted to groups similar Kraftwerk, who trace their roots to the advanced scene of John Cage and company.)
More direct nods to Minimalism include those by pop musicians like Drake and Dua Lipa, whose music videos rip off the aesthetics of Light and Space artist James Turrell. The Knowles sisters are also known to love Minimalism – Beyonce'southward a fan of Donald Judd while Solange has created performances on a stage sculpture inspired past Sol LeWitt.
And so in that location'south minimalism with a modest "m", with the clean and unproblematic aesthetics of brands like Muji and the "decluttering" lifestyle philosophies of Marie Kondo, The Minimalists and Fumio Sasaki.
While there might non be a directly link between Minimalism and minimalism, both are reactions to the same affair, says Storer. Today is just every bit "messy" as the 1960s were.
"This whole thought of decluttering and minimalism in lifestyle is very much a reaction to this overwhelming corporeality of data, social media and imagery everywhere we turn. It's going back to basics in our life and trying to escape the bombardment," he said.
"The utopian ideas of Minimalism are very highly-seasoned – pared back, simple, it's about the essentials."
Minimalism: Space. Calorie-free. Object. runs until Apr xiv at the National Gallery Singapore and ArtScience Museum. For more info, visit www.minimalism.sg.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/minimalism-exhibit-singapore-national-gallery-art-science-museum-219871
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