Postminimalism is an art term coined (aspost-minimalism) byRobert Pincus-Witten in 1971[1] and used in various artistic fields for work which is influenced by, or attempts to develop and go beyond, the aesthetic ofminimalism.[2] The expression is used specifically in relation tomusic and thevisual arts, but can refer to any field using minimalism as a critical reference point. In music, postminimalism refers to music followingminimal music.
Postminimalist visual art usesminimalism either as aconceptual art aesthetic or agenerative art practice. LikeFluxus, Postminimalism is more of an artistic tendency than a particular style, but in general, postminimalist artworks often use everyday objects, simple materials, and sometimes take on a pureformalist aesthetics orpost-conceptual approaches. However, since postminimalism includes such a diverse and disparate group of artists, it is impossible to enumerate all the continuities and similarities between them. But as two opposing examples, take the work ofEva Hesse and her use ofmodern artgrids andminimalist seriality that were usually hand-made, introducing a human element into minimalism in contrast to the machine fabrication more typical of theminimalism of someone likeCarl Andre.Richard Serra was another prominent postminimalist though his large metal sculptures are completely machine made.[3]
In its general musical usage, "postminimalism" refers to works influenced byminimal music, and it is generally categorized within the meta-genreart music. WriterKyle Gann[4] has employed the term more strictly to denote the style that flourished in the 1980s and 1990s and characterized by:
Minimalist procedures such asadditive and subtractiveprocess are common in postminimalism, though usually in disguised form, and the style has also shown a capacity for absorbing influences from world and popular music (Balinese gamelan,bluegrass, Jewishcantillation, and so on).
