In the arts, maximalism is an aesthetic characterized by excess and abundance, serving as a reaction against minimalism. [1] The philosophy can be summarized as "more is more", contrasting with the minimalist principal of "less is more".
In the arts, maximalism is an aesthetic characterized by excess and abundance, serving as a reaction against minimalism. [1] The philosophy can be summarized as "more is more", contrasting with the minimalist principal of "less is more".
The term maximalism is sometimes associated with postmodern novels, such as those by David Foster Wallace and Thomas Pynchon, [2] where digression, reference, and elaboration of detail occupy a great fraction of the text. It can refer to anything seen as excessive, overtly complex and "showy", providing redundant overkill in features and attachments, grossness in quantity and quality, or the tendency to add and accumulate to excess.
Novelist John Barth defines literary maximalism through the medieval Roman Catholic Church's opposition between "two...roads to grace:"
the via negativa of the monk's cell and the hermit's cave, and the via affirmativa of immersion in human affairs, of being in the world whether or not one is of it. Critics have aptly borrowed those terms to characterize the difference between Mr. Beckett, for example, and his erstwhile master James Joyce, himself a maximalist except in his early works. [3]
Takayoshi Ishiwari elaborates on Barth's definition by including a postmodern approach to the notion of authenticity. Thus:
Under this label come such writers as, among others, Thomas Pynchon and Barth himself, whose bulky books are in marked contrast with Barthelme's relatively thin novels and collections of short stories. These maximalists are called by such an epithet because they, situated in the age of epistemological uncertainty and therefore knowing that they can never know what is authentic and inauthentic, attempt to include in their fiction everything belonging to that age, to take these authentic and inauthentic things as they are with all their uncertainty and inauthenticity included; their work intends to contain the maximum of the age, in other words, to be the age itself, and because of this their novels are often encyclopedic. As Tom LeClair argues in The Art of Excess, the authors of these ʺmasterworksʺ even ʺgather, represent, and reform the time's excesses into fictions that exceed the time's literary conventions and thereby master the time, the methods of fiction, and the readerʺ. [4]
In his book, Stefano Ercolino lists these seven titles as maximalist novels: [5]
Central to his notions of literary maximalism, Ercolino lists ten characteristics which all seven novels show to some extent, and thus leads him to propose maximalism as a subgenre, these characteristics are: [5]
In music, Richard Taruskin uses the term "maximalism" to describe the modernism of the period from 1890 to 1914, especially in German-speaking regions, defining it as "a radical intensification of means toward accepted or traditional ends". [6] This view has been challenged, however, on the grounds that Taruskin uses the term merely as an "empty signifier" that is filled with "a range of musical features—big orchestration, motivic and harmonic complexity, and so on—that he takes to be typical of modernism". [7] Taruskin, in any case, did not originate this sense of the term, which had been used by the mid-1960s with reference to Russian composers of the same period, of whom Sergei Prokofiev was "the last". [8] Contemporary maximalist music is defined by composer David A. Jaffe as that which "embraces heterogeneity and allows for complex systems of juxtapositions and collisions, in which all outside influences are viewed as potential raw material". [9] Examples include the music of Edgard Varèse, Charles Ives, and Frank Zappa. [10] In a different sense, Milton Babbitt has been described as a "professed maximalist", his goal being, "to make music as much as it can be rather than as little as one can get away with". [11] Richard Toop, on the other hand, considers that musical maximalism "is to be understood at least partly as 'antiminimalism'". [12] Phil Spector's highly influential "Wall of Sound" recording technique, present in recordings such as the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966) (the former, produced by Spector) has been described as maximalist. [13] [14] English rock band Oasis' albums (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) and Be Here Now (1997), along with rapper Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) have also been described as maximalist works. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] Charlemagne Palestine describes his drone-based music as maximalist. [20]
Maximalism as a term in the plastic arts is used by art historian Robert Pincus-Witten to describe a group of artists, including future Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julian Schnabel and David Salle, associated with the turbulent beginnings of Neo-expressionism in the late 1970s. These artist were in part "stimulated out of sheer despair with so long a diet of Reductivist Minimalism". [21] This maximalism was prefigured in the mid-1960s by certain psychoanalytically oriented paintings by Gary Stephan. [22]
Charlotte Rivers describes how "maximalism celebrates richness and excess in graphic design", characterized by decoration, sensuality, luxury and fantasy, citing examples from the work of illustrator Kam Tang and artist Julie Verhoeven. [23]
Art historian Gao Minglu connects maximalism in Chinese visual art to the literary definition by describing the emphasis on "the spiritual experience of the artist in the process of creation as a self-contemplation outside and beyond the artwork itself...These artists pay more attention to the process of creation and the uncertainty of meaning and instability in a work. Meaning is not reflected directly in a work because they believe that what is in the artist's mind at the moment of creation may not necessarily appear in his work." Examples include the work of artists Ding Yi and Li Huasheng. [24]
In 1995 the "antipreneurial" one-man artist group Stiletto (artist) [25] presented LESS function IS MORE fun as a post-neoist special waste sale of interpassive design-defuncts [26] in a so-called Spätverkauf installation by Laura Kikauka at the Volksbühne Berlin, which she claimed as one of her projects of Maximalism. [27] [28]
Maximalism in fashion is a vibrant and exuberant style that embraces bold colours, intricate patterns, and eclectic combinations. This aesthetic celebrates the idea of "more is more," encouraging individuals to express their creativity and personality through layered textures, diverse prints, and unexpected pairings. Unlike minimalism, which emphasizes simplicity and restraint, maximalism invites a playful approach to dressing, often incorporating vintage pieces, statement accessories, and a mix of cultural influences. As a response to the often sterile nature of contemporary fashion, maximalism allows for a rich tapestry of self-expression, making it a popular choice among those who seek to stand out and make a statement in their wardrobe. [29] [30]
In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism in the modern sense was an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, and it is most strongly associated with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an artistic statement, opting for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music. Influences may be drawn from genres such as experimental music, avant-garde music, classical music, and jazz.
The Crying of Lot 49 is a novella by the American author Thomas Pynchon. It was published on April 27, 1966, by J. B. Lippincott & Co. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-old feud between two mail distribution companies. One of these companies, Thurn and Taxis, actually existed, operating from 1490–1990, and was the first private firm to distribute postal mail. Like most of Pynchon's writing, The Crying of Lot 49 is often described as postmodernist literature. Time included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005".
Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and, more generally, to a practical underground philosophy. It operates with collectively shared pseudonyms and identities, pranks, paradoxes, plagiarism and fakes, and has created multiple contradicting definitions of itself in order to defy categorization and historization.
Postminimalism is an art term coined by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971 and used in various artistic fields for work which is influenced by, or attempts to develop and go beyond, the aesthetic of minimalism. The expression is used specifically in relation to music and the visual arts, but can refer to any field using minimalism as a critical reference point. In music, postminimalism refers to music following minimal music.
Richard Vance Maxfield was a composer of instrumental, electroacoustic, and electronic music.
Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. This style of experimental literature emerged strongly in the United States in the 1960s through the writings of authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Philip K. Dick, Kathy Acker, and John Barth. Postmodernists often challenge authorities, which has been seen as a symptom of the fact that this style of literature first emerged in the context of political tendencies in the 1960s. This inspiration is, among other things, seen through how postmodern literature is highly self-reflexive about the political issues it speaks to.
Kam Tang is an illustrator living and working in Brixton, London. His work is described as maximalist. After earning his degree from the University of Brighton he went on to do a masters at the Royal College of Art. Since graduating he has worked as a freelance creative. His first major commission was for GTF, who called upon him to illustrate the journey from start to finish of a Royal College of Art student for the RCA prospectus. He has since worked for many editorial publications such as The Guardian, Wired, Arena, and more recently Wallpaper* magazine, where his intricate and highly detailed 'Navigator' maps have been a regular feature.
Experimental literature is a genre of literature that is generally "difficult to define with any sort of precision." It experiments with the conventions of literature, including boundaries of genres and styles; for example, it can be written in the form of prose narratives or poetry, but the text may be set on the page in differing configurations than that of normal prose paragraphs or in the classical stanza form of verse. It may also incorporate art or photography. Furthermore, while experimental literature was traditionally handwritten, the digital age has seen an exponential use of writing experimental works with word processors.
The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art", was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the High School of Performing Arts were formed into a two-campus high school. The schools fully merged in 1984 into the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & the Arts.
Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting:
Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics and systems theory, reflecting on natural systems, social systems, and the social signs of the art world itself.
Art pop is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop art's integration of high and low culture, and emphasizes signs, style, and gesture over personal expression. Art pop musicians may deviate from traditional pop audiences and rock music conventions, instead exploring postmodern approaches and ideas such as pop's status as commercial art, notions of artifice and the self, and questions of historical authenticity.
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics, unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations.
The encyclopedic novel is a genre of complex literary fiction which incorporates elements across a wide range of scientific, academic, and literary subjects. The concept was coined by Edward Mendelson in criticism of Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, defined as an encyclopedia-like attempt to "render the full range of knowledge and beliefs of a national culture, while identifying the ideological perspectives from which that culture shapes and interprets its knowledge". In more general terms, the encyclopedic novel is a long, complex work of fiction that incorporates extensive information, often from specialized disciplines of science and the humanities. Mendelson's essays examine the encyclopedic tendency in the history of literature, considering the Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, Faust, and Moby-Dick, with an emphasis on the modern Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow. Commonly cited examples of encyclopedic novels in the postmodern period include, in addition to Pynchon, Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations (1991), David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996), and Don DeLillo's Underworld (1997). Other literary critics have explored the concept since, attempting to understand the function and effect of "encyclopedic" narratives, and coining the related terms systems novel and maximalist novel.
Laura Kikauka is a Canadian installation and performance artist. Kikauka is known for her sculptural installations and performances incorporating found objects and electronics.
Spätverkauf, Spätkauf or "Späti" is a type of convenience shop found generally in East German cities, such as Berlin, Dresden or Leipzig, which is known to operate late at night past the usual shopping hours, often 24 hours per day.
Frances Barth is an American visual artist best known for paintings situated between abstraction, landscape and mapping, and in her later career, video and narrative works. She emerged during a period in which contemporary painters sought a way forward beyond 1960s minimalism and conceptualism, producing work that combined modernist formalism, geometric abstraction, referential elements and metaphor. Critic Karen Wilkin wrote, "Barth's paintings play a variety of spatial languages against each other, from aerial views that suggest mapping, to suggestions of perspectival space, to relentless flatness ... [she] questions the very pictorial conventions she deploys, creating ambiguous imagery and equally ambiguous space that seems to shift as we look."
Maximalist film or maximalist cinema is related to the art and philosophy of maximalism.
Systems novel is a literary genre named by Tom LeClair in his 1987 book In the Loop: Don DeLillo and the Systems Novel, and explored further in LeClair's 1989 book, The Art of Excess: Mastery in Contemporary American Fiction. LeClair used systems theory to critique novels by authors including Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis and Ursula Le Guin. Citing Fritjof Capra's description of systems theory as a "new vision of reality" LeClair invoked ideas from thinkers such as James Lovelock, Gregory Bateson and Douglas Hofstadter to analyse how the novels in question depicted processes and relationships within social, cultural, economic and political systems. LeClair's systems novels were all "long, large and dense" and all in some way striving for "mastery", showing similarity to Moby-Dick and Absalom, Absalom! in "range of reference, artistic sophistication, and desire for profound effect."
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