Minimalism Art artists in Asia
The development of Minimal Art in Asia is a profound and distinct story. It did not emerge as a direct imitation of Western Minimalism but rather evolved from deep within local artistic, philosophical, and spiritual traditions, often converging with similar formal concerns around simplicity, materiality, and repetition.
Asian Minimalism is frequently more introspective, metaphysical, and connected to nature and ancient thought (like Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism) than its Western counterpart.
Here is a list of key artists and movements associated with Minimal Art in Asia:
Japan: The Mono-ha (School of Things) Movement
This is arguably the most significant and defined Minimalist-related movement in Asia. Emerging in the late 1960s (parallel to Western Post-Minimalism), Mono-ha artists focused on the encounter between natural and industrial materials, arranged in unaltered, transient states. The goal was not to create a new object but to reveal the world as it is by emphasizing the relationships between things.
- Nobuo Sekine (1942-2019): Created the seminal work Phase—Mother Earth (1968), which involved digging a cylindrical hole in the ground and compacting the earth into a perfect cylinder of the same dimensions next to it. This simple act highlighted the essence of “thing-ness.”
- Lee Ufan (b. 1936, Korean-born): The key theorist of Mono-ha. His Relatum series (which continues today) involves placing a natural stone in relation to a single industrial steel plate or glass pane, creating a tense, quiet, and philosophical dialogue between the materials.
- Susumu Koshimizu (b. 1944): Known for works like From Surface to Surface (1971), where he cut a massive, uncarved timber block in half and precisely placed the two halves next to each other, focusing on the material’s inherent properties.
- Kishio Suga (b. 1944): Creates intricate yet minimal installations using wood, stone, wire, glass, and paraffin. His work Parallel Strata (1969) uses planks of wood, wire, and rocks to create a precarious but balanced intervention in space.
Korea: Dansaekhwa (Monochromatic Painting)
While primarily a painting movement, Dansaekhwa (Tansaekhwa) shares Minimalism’s core tenets of reduction, repetition, and emphasis on process and materiality. It is deeply rooted in Korean spirituality and a meditative, physical engagement with the canvas.
- Park Seo-Bo (1931-2023): A founding father of Dansaekhwa. His lifelong Écriture series involves drawing fine, repeated lines into a wet, monochromatic pulp of paper and pigment, creating a textured, meditative surface that records the artist’s bodily rhythm.
- Ha Chong-Hyun (b. 1935): Known for his Conjunction series. He pushes thick oil paint through the back of a burlap canvas to the front, focusing on the physical confrontation with the material and the resulting textured, monochromatic surface.
- Lee Ufan: Also a central figure in Dansaekhwa. His
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