Minimalism: Reflections of You

Ceiling Piece (detail), Peter Kennedy, 1970Minimalism is a term thrown about by everyone in the commercial arena these days, but the art movement originated in New York in the 1960s. It was founded on the principle that ‘less is more’. The exhibition Less Is More – Minimalism + Post-Minimalism Art in Australia at Heide Museum of Modern Art explores the work of 34 Australian artists, many of them contemporary. Key American pieces provide a touchstone and counterpoint to the Australian work.

In minimalism, art was streamlined. It did away with all extraneous detail, and was reduced to simple shapes or textures that were constructed of one or two materials. Often reflection and light played a part, such as in Peter Kennedy’s luminous and futuristic Ceiling Piece (1970), constructed from coloured tube lighting (below).

Ceiling Piece, Peter Kennedy, 1970The art was about the object itself, not a representation of the world within a two-dimensional space. In order to minimise the composition, simple abstract shapes or modular forms were repeated in sequences or grids. In Post-Minimalism, artists introduced soft, pliable materials, amorphous shapes and new mediums such as video.

But simplicity of form does not necessarily equate with simplicity of experience.

Mirrorchrome, Giles Ryder, 2006I.O.U., Mikala Dwyer, 2009Though the forms are uncomplicated and might not deliberately convey the artist’s vision of the world, shapes do carry the weight of the history of the world in symbolism. We all have this history subsumed within our consciousness, so we cannot help but respond to these apparently simple shapes in our individual fashion. Stark and shocking, they are in fact as complex as human beings – they reflect ourselves – sometimes literally, as in Giles Rider’s shocking pink Mirrorchrome (2006). And what of Mikala Dwyer’s huge, reflective I.O.U (2009)? Its weight is literally and metaphorically crushing. There is nowhere to hide from it. In the silent face of them, we must ask questions, and perhaps go down paths we would prefer to leave untrodden.

White Cube Fur Garden, Kathy Temin, 2007But sometimes they are more tactile, more friendly, such as Kathy Temin’s White Cube Fur Garden (2007), or soothing and sensuous as Daniel von Sturmer’s Painted Video (Sequence 4) (2009) where paint pools hypnotically, forming ever-widening circles that somewhat resemble a target.

As curator Sue Cramer states, ‘Though it began in the 1960s, Minimal art has generated some of the most influential and important ideas used by artists today, and for this reason it has a particular relevance for contemporary audiences. The movement was interpreted and re-worked by Australian artists … and after a period of being out of favour has been re-engaged with by subsequent generations of Post-Minimal artists …’

On until 4 November 2012, Less is More at Heide Museum of Modern Art is a rewarding experience, worth the half-day trip out.

Untitled, Donald Judd, 1969–71Cubic Modular Piece No 3, Sol Lewitt, 1968Untitled Floor Structure, Nigel Lendon, 1969Ceiling Piece (detail), Peter Kennedy, 1970