{"id":65389,"date":"2023-03-21T17:50:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T16:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/?p=65389"},"modified":"2023-03-21T17:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T16:56:47","slug":"minimalism-aesthetics-of-sobriety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/en\/history-of-graphic-design\/minimalism-aesthetics-of-sobriety","title":{"rendered":"Minimalism: aesthetics of sobriety"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover-minimalisme\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The application of minimalism in almost all areas of life has turned it into a portmanteau word in which we store almost everything (in boxes), and whose original meaning has been diluted... At once a visual discipline <\/strong>(in art, graphics, design, architecture...) and a life discipline <\/strong>(religious asceticism, sobriety), each of which has now become a trend- minimalism consists in simplifying to the purest form, in emptying out by following the rules of order and the doctrine of \"less is more\"<\/strong>, in order to keep only the crux of the matter. Minimalism brings a certain rest to the senses; by leaving room for emptiness one leaves room for the wandering of thought, for movement. In the field of communication, it allows to convey a more readable message, more quickly, and more universal because less culturally connoted.<\/p>\n

Ascetic sobriety and the philosophy of emptiness: the Japanese roots of minimalism<\/h2>\n

The idea or desire to simplify everything is not new, and minimalism as a way of life as we understand it today has its roots in the Zen Buddhist philosophy that promotes a simple life in the present moment, through the practice of meditation. Japanese minimalism gave birth to Danshari \u65ad\u6368\u96e2 (dan \u65ad refuse, sha \u6368 throw away, ri \u96e2 separate), a questioning and detachment from our relationship to objects in this ultra-consumerist society. Danshari allows an appreciation of emptiness, of the very little, of the impermanence of things and of the living<\/strong>, by surrounding ourselves only with useful and beautiful objects. This aestheticism comes from wabi-sabi, an aesthetic and spiritual concept that celebrates imperfection, the irregularity of nature and the cyclical impermanence of time passing. This complete way of life proposes to exist fully, in contrast to a superfluous consumerist world.<\/p>\n

\"minimalisme-japonais\"<\/a>Foto : Maeva Delacroix<\/span><\/p>\n

Minimalist sobriety thus allows us to appreciate Ma, \"distance\" in Japanese: the void that links two elements or two sounds to create harmony. The void, or white space, is particularly emphasized by the minimalists<\/strong>, not as an absence but as \"an element in its own right, participating in the unity of the composition, ensuring concordance between its parts and determining harmony by their magnitude and rhythm\" as Mallarm\u00e9 wrote in 1897 in his poem Un coup de d\u00e9s jamais n'abolira le hasard. \"Emptiness is all-powerful because it can contain everything<\/strong>,\" wrote Kakuso Okakura in his Book of Tea.<\/p>\n

It is doubly interesting to look at Japan when talking about minimalism because it is also the first non-Western nation to industrialize after the war in the 1950s, following its contact with the Americans, paving the way for technological and cultural exchanges. If the term industrial design appears in 1919 in the USA, it already existed since 1880 in Japan, to express the idea of aestheticism added to industrial objects (k\u00f4gy\u00f4-zuan: industry + design). Exchanges with Japan, which had fascinated Europe and its artists since the 19th century, clearly influenced Western visual disciplines and architecture, particularly with this taste for the less.<\/strong> Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, was in admiration of Japanese architecture; he said that \"in the Japanese house, the spiritual links between man and his home have been made perceptible thanks to a humanized technique, linked to the two needs, mental and emotional, of man\" emphasizing the essential role of minimalism as both a visual and spiritual discipline.<\/p>\n

\"minimalisme-japonais-Villa-imperiale-Katsura\"<\/a>Imperial Villa Katsura<\/span><\/p>\n

Sobriety, utility and beauty<\/h3>\n

This same sobriety, both religious and existential, can be found among the Irish Shakers, a marginal society of Protestants who already practiced a certain form of asceticism in England in the 18th century. Present on American territory and more precisely in New York since its migration in 1774, this self-sufficient religious community gathered around a simple and austere life, where utility and simplicity were paramount. Each object of daily life had to be necessary, useful and beautiful.<\/strong> Their manufacturing, obviously handmade, was made like a prayer. Their mantra \"beauty lies in utility\" allows them to manufacture -without taking personnal credit for it- objects and furniture of a very high quality, sober, solid... \"minimalist<\/strong>\". Ornaments were judged futile and as a distraction from the right path.<\/p>\n

\"salon-minimaliste-salle-de-bains\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here's what the Shakers' interiors looked like, and below is an engraving of the community performing one of their \"shaking dances<\/strong>\" which reminds us strangely of the Thriller video... (but not sure they were having that much fun).<\/p>\n

\"danse-ecstatique-shakers\"<\/a><\/p>\n