Minimalism

The Happy Minimalist: Financial independence, Good health, and a better planet for us all
$15.99
Books like this only compound my loathing for the newly discovered and overused word, "minimalism," and variations thereof. Mr. Lawrence has capped the regurgitated material under a snappy title, capitalizing two popular buzzwords,"happiness" and "minimalism." The piece produced via Xlibris is self-published, which better explains HOW it ever made it to print.

The poor grammar and incorrect spelling it contains was the first red flag. There is nothing written in this book that has not appeared in numerous articles already. And the Internet now abounds with minimalists and their (not-so-minimalist) blogs.

I have seen this book praised on various Internet sites and forums, and it puzzles me. The author states he is subjecting himself to scrutiny (yeah, that usually happens when writers deliver platitude after platitude and conclude with clich���). He adds, "I'm sure you will help keep me honest." Huh? Dude, no offense, but I don't want to pay $13 (plus tax) to read commonplace, redundant material and then be asked to monitor your accountability.

Minimalism DesignSource
$19.95
The DesignSource series is very good if you want some compact, all-photo design books. Minimalism contains a few sections, including some hotel and industrial spaces, but most of it is residential. THe homes featured are featured in many other books on lofts, minimalism, and modern design. If you're browsing through a design section, you'll get familiar with these spaces. They are also featured in other DesignSource books.

THe downsides to these books are that they don't feature sourcing info and because they are so small, the pictures are also smaller. THe upside is that they are compact, so if you're a designer you can lug them around easily, and they are packed with a lot of inspiration.

Minimalism:Origins
$19.95
Very unusual volume: stark cover; Table of Contents consisting of "Paint," "Sound," "Space" and "End" with chapters named A-Z; no Preface--though quite extensive Bibliography. Symmetrical structure--about 135 pp. each on music and art, with the central "Sound" flanked by shorter sections on painting and sculpture, flanked in turn by an engagingly lucid intro and suggestive conclusion: the resonant last words of the book are "no one, by definition, knows."

"Paint" is organized by artist while "Sound" is mainly chronological, since Strickland argues for musical lineage from Young to Riley to Reich to Glass, while his heterodox view of Minimalist painters, most Abstract Expressionists in any other book, presents Newman, Reinhardt et al. as working independently and at philosophical odds with one another. Strickland's sympathy is clearly with Reinhardt's anti-manifestos and against Newman's high-flown theorizing, though he praises his art.

In fact the author seems to have an ingrained suspicion of theorizing in general. An excellent cultural historian, he is not a philosopher, unless maybe a Sceptic confronting the conventional wisdom of art critics. As a music prof, he gets A+ for chutzpah with his "Emperor's New Clothes" approach to mainstream art critics and the commerce of the art world, which he describes on p. 2 as a "futures market." By the time he gets to the sculpture, Strickland's scepticism extends to the artists themselves. That section leads to a conclusion verging on a retraction in its ambivalent review of the Minimalist enterprise.

His views and often droll style are refreshing. His formal dissections of the painting are more detailed than those of the music--establishing his bona fides?--and I'd like some more of the structural analysis he devotes to the transitional Glass Quartet, and more repros of the art and scores--but downloads are generally easy to find, so no big deal. I'd even like some more philosophy, e.g., a discussion of the work in terms of Jamesonian postmodern depthlessness. Since Strickland dismisses the very term postmodernism as "vulgarity" by p. 3 (along with Glass' commercials on "the boob-tube," ersatz-Minimalist advertising and "well-heeled culturophages") you get the feeling that's not on his agenda any more than campaigning for Mr. Congeniality. There are fine books by other music profs dealing mainly with their subject (Potter musicologically, Fink sociologically), but this remains far and away the most comprehensive survey of the artistic/musical movement as a whole, and you can't ask for everything...from A to Z?.

Minimalism
$19.95
Altogether a worthwhile book. Good photos, good writing. I have dipped into into it repeatedly.