#116: The Meaning of Minimalism
Everywhere, all the time, it seems like we\u2019re being sold on the idea that getting rid of things will solve our problems\u2014from the life-changing magic of Marie Kondo to the streamlining of all those DVDs into digital subscriptions\u2014and it\u2019s all being sold under the label of minimalism. In his new book, The Longing for Less, Kyle Chayka criticizes this trend as a kind of upscale austerity designed to get you to buy and consume things. Maybe fewer things, but things nonetheless. Have we lost the true meaning of minimalism? Chayka takes readers through a history of art, design, and philosophy that goes much further back than the 1960s work of Agnes Martin, Donald Judd, and John Cage, to show that maybe the most meaningful part of \u201cminimalism\u201d is the search for meaning. Chayka has written for The New York Times Magazine, n+1, and The Paris Review, and he joins us in the studio to offer up a brand of minimalism that won\u2019t bankrupt you, emotionally or financially.
Go beyond the episode:
- Kyle Chayka\u2019s The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism
- Watch a short documentary about the painter Agnes Martin from the Tate
- View Donald Judd's massive installations in Marfa or New York, and be sure to stop by Walter De Maria\u2019s The Earth Room while you're at it
- Poke around Philip Johnson\u2019s Glass House
- Listen to Julius Eastman's hypnotic composition \u201cStay on It\u201d (and read more about him here)
- Two Japanese touchstones of minimalism: Sei Sh\u014dnagon\u2019s The Pillow Book and Junichir\u014d Tanizaki\u2019s In Praise of Shadows
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