Minimalism raises eyebrows at Berry

Class places minimalist art around campus

Many college students are involved in the arts, but in November, Berry College students were given the chance to look at an art that is not really talked about.

Thomas Mew, professor of art at Berry College for the past 37 years, teaches a modern art class every Monday. He recentely split his class up into two groups and had them each do a project on minimalism.

For the project, the groups had to create a piece of minimalist art and present it to the Berry community by putting it in or outside of the Krannert Student Center. They also had to write a report about minimalism and take pictures of people’s reactions.

Rebekah Larisey, a student in Mew’s class, worked on one of the projects. Her group decided to make a black, hanging box that was hollow on the inside. They placed it in the hallway near the Berry Bean’ry.

Hannah Marshall was involved in the other project—a tall, orange frame made out of paper pipes that straddled one of the main sidewalks outside of Krannert. The idea was taken from minimalist artist Sol LeWitt.

"X with Columns" is a piece by American conceptual and minimal artist Sol LeWitt, whose geometric forms in outdoor spaces helped to give Marshall's group inspiration for their piece.

Photo Courtesy of Walker Art Center

“Minimalism is basically what some people consider one of the more important art movements of the 20th century,” said Mew. “It is about trying to create something great with as little as possible, using very simple objects.”

The History
The history behind minimalism is simple, as well.

Beginning in the 1960s, minimalist artists desired to produce works that did not look familiar. They desired to allow the audience to view a composition more intensely and closely by removing the distractions of a central theme. Self-expression, symbolism and imagery were rejected and simplistic, abstract design became the focus.

“The purpose of minimalism is to create art using the least amount of material. It progressed from cold indoors to a movement called earthworks—using the environment to create artwork,” Marshall said. “Ours is in the middle. We used earthy colors and it even looks like it is coming out of the sidewalk. People create their own artwork when they walk through it. They are the art.”

Eyebrows raised
The response the Berry community gave to the projects differed, but for the most part people were interested in what was going on.

“Minimalism is not really talked about,” said Larisey. “Some people were interested, but I could tell most people had never heard of it before.”

Marshall said other students had their own opinions. “I was talking with someone later in Krannert about it and another student, not knowing that I was involved in the projects, overheard us and said, ‘Oh yeah, that was really ugly!’”

For Mew, a bad reaction is not what matters.“I wanted to get other people on campus to be curious about ‘what in the world is this?’ and ‘why is it here?’ If they thought that, then it served its purpose,” said Mew.

Although the projects did make people on campus curious, the history behind minimalism gives it meaning that is hard to find otherwise and that might have helped many to form their own opinion.

“Some people were afraid to walk through [the frame],” said Larisey. “Minimalism is one of the first times where people are invited to be a part of the art. It is important to know where art had been up to that point to understand it.”

Marshall agrees that knowing the history behind the art is vital to understanding the creativity and beauty.

{C. A. H.}