ART on view On the Grid: Textiles and Minimalism By Jill D’Alessandro The term minimalism, or minimal art, has developed a broad meaning in popular culture 66 over the years but was coined to describe a school of abstract art characterized by a shared visual aesthetic of reductive geometric abstraction, as seen in works by such artists as Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, and Sol LeWitt. Today the movement’s defi nition and even its existence continue to be debated by critics and artists alike. However, certain underlying principles are generally applied to minimalism, including regular, symmetrical, or gridded arrangements; repetition of modular elements; direct use and presentation of materials; and absence of ornamentation. On the Grid: Textiles and Minimalism, at the de Young Museum in San Francisco until February 12, 2017, presents a broad range of textile traditions from around the world that share many of the same characteristics ascribed to minimalist works as a means of underscoring the universality of the movement’s principles. Minimalist art is based upon preexisting systems that conceive of the artwork in advance of its actual execution. These systems, often mathematical, rely on the repetition of simple forms. Textiles, by their very nature, comply with these core elements, and textile artists, like the minimalist artists, predetermine the fi nished work through their selection and processing of materials and in the warping or preparing of the loom. On the Grid examines these processes and further explores both the preeminence of weaving in the textile design vocabulary and its infl uences on the design of painted and dyed pieces that also conform to minimalism’s repetition of forms and its use of the grid as a patterning device. FIG. 1 (top): Man’s headdress, abe. Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands, Melanesia. Late 19th century. Paper mulberry barkcloth (lepau); hand painted. 88.9 x 240 cm. Gift of Jennifer Badger Sultan, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, inv. 2014.73.2.
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