Minimal art is also inspired in part by the paintings of Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers, and the works of artists as diverse as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Giorgio Morandi, and others. In a more broad and general sense, one finds European roots of minimalism in the geometric abstractions of painters associated with the Bauhaus, in the works of Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian and other artists associated with the De Stijl movement, and the Russian Constructivist movement, and in the work of the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși. Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915, oil on canvas, 79.5 x 79.5 cm, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow The Argentine artist and philosopher Eduardo Sanguinetti, precursor of minimalism in Latin America, rigorously applies the tendency to reduce expression to a minimum in his musical, written or visual actions, defining minimalism as 'the maximum in the minimum'. The word was first used in English in the early 20th century to describe a 1915 composition by the Soviet painter Kasimir Malevich, Black Square. It has accordingly been used to describe the plays and novels of Samuel Beckett, the films of Robert Bresson, the stories of Raymond Carver, and the automobile designs of Colin Chapman. The term minimalist often colloquially refers to anything or anyone that is spare or stripped to its essentials.

Minimalism in music often features repetition and gradual variation, such as the works of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Julius Eastman and John Adams. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction against abstract expressionism and modernism it anticipated contemporary postminimal art practices, which extend or reflect on minimalism's original objectives. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt and Frank Stella. In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. 4A on Strada Dimitrie Racoviță, Bucharest, Romania, 2017, by Corina Dîndărean Top: Untitled, by Donald Judd, concrete sculpture, 1991, Israel MuseumĬentre: The Zollverein School of Management and Design Essen, Germany, 2005–2006, by SANAAīottom: House no.

Minimalist decor frame