Editing Maximalism

{{Short description|Art movement}}
{{about|the art movement}}
[[File:Studio Job Headquarters.jpg|thumb|[[Studio Job]] Headquarters, [[Antwerp]], [[Belgium]], by [[Job Smeets]], 2018<ref>{{cite book|last1=|first1=|title=MAXIMALISM Bold, Bedazzled, Glad and Tasseled Interiors|date=2023|publisher=Phaidon|isbn=978-1-83866-692-7|page=266|url=|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Half Cab 33 DX 30Th Anniversary shoes, unknown designer, produced by Vans, circa 2024, suede (02).jpg|thumb|[[Vans (brand)|Vans]] Half Cab 33 DX 30th Anniversary shoes, an example of maximalist design]]
[[File:Maximalist necklace, unknown designer, produced by Pull&Bear, circa 2023, 70% acrylic, 10% glass, 10% ceramic, 5% zinc, 5% iron, Ref. 7991507 (01).jpg|thumb|Maximalist necklace, unknown designer, produced by [[Pull&Bear]], {{circa}} 2023, [[Acrylate polymer|acrylic]], glass, ceramic, zinc, iron]]
In [[the arts]], '''maximalism''' is an [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]] characterized by excess and abundance, serving as a reaction against [[minimalism]].<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/maximalism-decor-vintage-1.6757699 It sparks joy. The rise of maximalism, where there's no such thing as too much|CBC News]</ref> The philosophy can be summarized as "more is more", contrasting with the minimalist principle of "less is more".

==Literature==
The term ''maximalism'' is sometimes associated with [[Postmodern literature|postmodern novels]], such as those by [[David Foster Wallace]] and [[Thomas Pynchon]],<ref>[https://americanwritersmuseum.org/minimalism-vs-maximalism/ "Minimalism vs. Maximalism"], [[American Writers Museum]]</ref> where digression, reference, and elaboration of detail occupy a great fraction of the text. It can refer to anything seen as excessive, overtly complex and "showy", providing redundant overkill in features and attachments, grossness in quantity and quality, or the tendency to add and accumulate to excess.

Novelist [[John Barth]] defines literary maximalism through the medieval Roman Catholic Church's opposition between "two...roads to grace":
<blockquote>the ''via negativa'' of the monk's cell and the hermit's cave, and the ''via affirmativa'' of immersion in human affairs, of being in the world whether or not one is of it. [[Critic]]s have aptly borrowed those terms to characterize the difference between Mr. [[Samuel Beckett|Beckett]], for example, and his erstwhile master [[James Joyce]], himself a maximalist except in his early works.<ref>[[John Barth|Barth, John]]. "A Few Words About Minimalism", ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'', p. 1. December 28, 1986.</ref></blockquote>

Literary scholar Takayoshi Ishiwari elaborates on Barth's definition by including a [[postmodern]] approach to the notion of [[authenticity (philosophy)|authenticity]]. Thus:
<blockquote>Under this label come such writers as, among others, Thomas Pynchon and Barth himself, whose bulky books are in marked contrast with [[Donald Barthelme|Barthelme's]] relatively thin novels and collections of short stories. These maximalists are called by such an epithet because they, situated in the age of [[epistemology|epistemological]] uncertainty and therefore knowing that they can never know what is authentic and inauthentic, attempt to include in their fiction everything belonging to that age, to take these authentic and inauthentic things as they are with all their uncertainty and inauthenticity included; their work intends to contain the maximum of the age, in other words, to be the age itself, and because of this their novels are often encyclopedic. As Tom LeClair argues in ''The Art of Excess'', the authors of these "[[masterpiece|masterwork]]s" even "gather, represent, and reform the time's excesses into fictions that exceed the time's literary conventions and thereby master the time, the methods of fiction, and the reader".<ref>Ishiwari, Takayoshi. ʺThe Body That Speaks: Donald Barthelme's ''The Dead Father as Installation''ʺ, Unpublished Master's thesis, p. 1. Osaka University, 1996. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606215128/http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~KP7T-ISWR/|date=2011-06-06}}</ref></blockquote>

===Maximalist novels===
In his book, Stefano Ercolino lists these seven titles as maximalist novels:<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|jstor=23252885|title=The Maximalist Novel|author=Stefano Ercolino|journal=Comparative Literature|publisher=Duke University Press|volume=64|number=3|date=Summer 2012|pages=241–256|doi=10.1215/00104124-1672925 }}</ref>
*''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'' ([[Thomas Pynchon]], 1973)
*''[[Infinite Jest]]'' ([[David Foster Wallace]], 1996)
*''[[Underworld (novel)|Underworld]]'' ([[Don DeLillo]], 1997)
*''[[White Teeth]]'' ([[Zadie Smith]], 2000)
*''[[The Corrections]]'' ([[Jonathan Franzen]], 2001)
*''[[2666]]'' ([[Roberto Bolaño]], 2004)
*''[[2005 dopo Cristo]]'' ([[Babette Factory]], 2005)

Central to his notions of literary maximalism, Ercolino lists ten characteristics which all seven novels show to some extent, and thus leads him to propose maximalism as a subgenre, these characteristics are:<ref name=":0" />

# Length
# Encyclopedic mode
# Dissonant chorality
# Diegetic exuberance
# Completeness
# Narratorial omniscience
# Paranoid imagination
# Intersemioticity
# Ethical commitment
# Hybrid realism

==Music==
In music, [[Richard Taruskin]] uses the term "maximalism" to describe the [[Modernism (music)|modernism]] of the period from 1890 to 1914, especially in German-speaking regions, defining it as "a radical intensification of means toward accepted or traditional ends".<ref>[[Richard Taruskin]], ''Music in the Early Twentieth Century''. Oxford History of Western Music 4 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p.&nbsp;5. {{ISBN|978-0-19-522273-9|978-0-19-516979-9}}.</ref> This view has been challenged, however, on the grounds that Taruskin uses the term merely as an "empty signifier" that is filled with "a range of musical features—big orchestration, motivic and harmonic complexity, and so on—that he takes to be typical of modernism".<ref>[[J. P. E. Harper-Scott]], ''The Quilting Points of Musical Modernism: Revolution, Reaction, and William Walton''. Music in Context (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p.&nbsp;22. {{ISBN|9780521765213}}.</ref> Taruskin, in any case, did not originate this sense of the term, which had been used by the mid-1960s with reference to Russian composers of the same period, of whom [[Sergei Prokofiev]] was "the last".<ref>[[Martin Cooper (musicologist)|Martin Cooper]], ''Ideas and Music'' (London: Barrie & Rockliffe, 1965): 58.</ref> Contemporary maximalist music is defined by composer [[David A. Jaffe]] as that which "embraces heterogeneity and allows for complex systems of juxtapositions and collisions, in which all outside influences are viewed as potential raw material".<ref>[[David A. Jaffe|Jaffe, David]]. "Orchestrating the Chimera—Musical Hybrids, Technology, and the Development of a 'Maximalist' Musical Style", ''[[Leonardo Music Journal]]''. vol. 5, 1995.</ref> Examples include the music of [[Edgard Varèse]], [[Charles Ives]], and [[Frank Zappa]].<ref>[[Michel Delville|Delville, Michel]] and Norris, Andrew. "Disciplined Excess: The Minimalist / Maximalist Interface in Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart", ''Interval(le)s'', p. 4, vol. I, 1 (Autumn 2004).</ref> In a different sense, [[Milton Babbitt]] has been described as a "professed maximalist", his goal being, "to make music as much as it can be rather than as little as one can get away with".<ref>[[Milton Babbitt]], ''Words about Music'', edited by Stephen Dembski and Joseph N. Straus (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), p.&nbsp;183. Cited on p.&nbsp;147 of Richard Kurth, (1994). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40213958 Untitled review of ''An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt'' by Andrew Mead (1994)], ''[[Intégral (journal)|Intégral]]'', vol. 8 (1994), pp.&nbsp;147–182 (Subscription access). A similar statement from five years earlier is found in ''Contemporary Music 1982 Catalogue'' (New York: C. F. Peters Corporation, 1982), 10: "the goal of attempting to make music as much as it might be, rather than as little as one obviously can get away with music's being", cited by Joseph Dubiel, "Three Essays on Milton Babbitt (Part Two)", ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'' 29, no. 1 (Winter 1991): 90–122, citation on pp.&nbsp;94 & 119n13. A third citation is found in the sleeve notes to Milton Babbitt, ''Piano Works'', [[Robert Taub]] (piano), Harmonia Mundi LP HMC 5160, CD HMC 90 5160, Cassette HMC 405 160 (Los Angeles: Harmonia Mundi U.S.A., 1986), cited by Dan Warburton on p. 142 of "A Working Terminology for Minimal Music", ''[[Intégral (journal)|Intégral]]'' 2 (1988): 135–159.</ref> [[Richard Toop]], on the other hand, considers that musical maximalism "is to be understood at least partly as 'antiminimalism'".<ref>[[Richard Toop]], "On Complexity", ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'' 31, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 42–57, citation on p.&nbsp;54.</ref> [[Phil Spector]]'s highly influential "[[Wall of Sound]]" recording technique, present in recordings such as [[the Ronettes]]' "[[Be My Baby]]" and [[the Beach Boys]]' ''[[Pet Sounds]]'' (1966) (the former, produced by Spector) has been described as maximalist.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hamilton |first=Jack |date=2021-01-18 |title=Phil Spector Transformed Pop Music and Destroyed Lives |language=en-US |work=Slate |url=https://slate.com/culture/2021/01/phil-spector-dead-murderer-producer-wall-of-sound.html |access-date=2023-10-03 |issn=1091-2339}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shah |first=Neil |date=2021-01-17 |title=Phil Spector, Pop-Music Revolutionary Convicted of Murder, Dies at 81 |url= |work=Wall Street Journal |language= |issn=}}</ref> English rock band [[Oasis (band)|Oasis]]' albums ''[[(What's the Story) Morning Glory?]]'' (1995) and ''[[Be Here Now (album)|Be Here Now]]'' (1997), along with rapper [[Kanye West]]'s ''[[My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy]]'' (2010) have also been described as maximalist works.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/revisiting-the-radical-black-fever-dream-of-kanye-wests-my-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy-1122/ |title=Revisiting the Radical Black Fever Dream of Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' |last=Josephs |first=Brian |magazine=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]|date=November 22, 2015 |access-date=November 21, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fleming |first=John |date=2020-09-27 |title="(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" Could Have Been Even Better |url=https://www.soundwordscentral.com/single-post/oasis-whats-the-story-morning-glory-25 |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=Sound Words Central |language=en}}</ref><ref>[[Jon Caramanica|Caramanica, Jon]] (November 17, 2010). [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/arts/music/21kanye.html?_r=1&ref=arts "Kanye West, Still Unfiltered, on Eve of Fifth Album"]. ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved on 2016-11-21.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-21 |title=Oasis' Be Here Now remains a glorious tribute to overproduced hubris |url=https://www.avclub.com/oasis-be-here-now-25th-anniversary-1848508976 |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=The A.V. Club |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-08-18 |title=Oasis \'Be Here Now\' Turns 20 |url=https://www.stereogum.com/1958181/be-here-now-turns-20/reviews/the-anniversary/ |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=Stereogum |language=en}}</ref> [[Charlemagne Palestine]] describes his [[Drone (music)|drone]]-based music as maximalist.<ref>[https://15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-interview-charlemagne-palestine/page-1/ ''Fifteen Questions'' Interview with Charlemagne Palestine: ''The Bare Maximum'']</ref>

==Visual arts==
Maximalism as a term in the [[plastic arts]] is used by art historian [[Robert Pincus-Witten]] to describe a group of artists, including future Oscar-nominated filmmaker [[Julian Schnabel]] and [[David Salle]], associated with the turbulent beginnings of [[Neo-expressionism]] in the late 1970s. These artist were in part "stimulated out of sheer despair with so long a diet of [[Minimalism|Reductivist Minimalism]]".{{sfn|Pincus-Witten|2002|p=219}} This maximalism was prefigured in the mid-1960s by certain psychoanalytically oriented paintings by [[Gary Stephan]].{{sfn|Pincus-Witten|2002|p=209}}

Charlotte Rivers describes how "maximalism celebrates richness and excess in graphic design", characterized by decoration, sensuality, luxury and fantasy, citing examples from the work of illustrator [[Kam Tang]] and artist [[Julie Verhoeven]].<ref>Rivers, Charlotte (2008). ''Maximalism: The Graphic Design of Decadence& Excess'', p. 11. {{ISBN|2-88893-019-6}}.</ref>

Art historian [[Gao Minglu]] connects maximalism in Chinese visual art to the literary definition by describing the emphasis on "the spiritual experience of the artist in the process of creation as a self-contemplation outside and beyond the artwork itself...These artists pay more attention to the process of creation and the uncertainty of meaning and instability in a work. Meaning is not reflected directly in a work because they believe that what is in the artist's mind at the moment of creation may not necessarily appear in his work." Examples include the work of artists [[Ding Yi (artist)|Ding Yi]] and [[Li Huasheng]].<ref>Kristin E. M. Riemer (October 9, 2003). [http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol35/vol35n7/articles/ChineseMaximalism.html "Chinese Maximalism debuts"], ''[[University at Buffalo|UB]] Reporter''.</ref>

In 1995 the "antipreneurial" one-man artist group ''Stiletto''<ref>"Stiletto, who describes himself as an 'antipreneurship expert' and the 'head of one-man artist group Stiletto Studios', started Design Vertreib ''(Vertreib is a made-up term, deliberately misspelling Vertrieb (distribution), in order to take on the meaning of Vertreibung (expulsion – as in ... from a consumer's paradise) as a deconstructive means of processive disturbation. Also Vertreib is the second half of the German word Zeitvertreib (pastime, diversion). It also recurs to one of Duchamp's explanations of Readymades as pastimes attempting the disposal of art.)'' in the 1990s as an undertaking for 'Beleuchtungskörperbau'. Building upon the Readymade principle of his 1980s design-critical artworks, he follows a modular construction principle, relying almost entirely on pre-existing standard industrial components, that he describes as 'liberated from design'." (in: [[Vitra Design Museum]]: ''Atlas of Furniture Design'', Weil am Rhein, Germany, 2019, on ''CONSUMER'S REST Lounge Chair'' by ''Stiletto (Stiletto Studios)'', page 726)</ref> presented ''LESS function IS MORE fun'' as a post-[[Neoism#Influences on other artists and subcultures|neoist]] special waste sale of [[Interpassivity|interpassive]] [[Détournement|design-defuncts]]<ref name="cramer">''tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE'' on neoist interpassivity and [[The Seven By Nine Squares|Florian Cramer's relationship to neoism]] in a book review of Florian Cramer's book publication "Anti-Media." http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2013Anti-Media.html</ref> in a so-called ''[[Spätkauf|Spätverkauf]]'' installation by [[Laura Kikauka]] at the [[Volksbühne Berlin]], which she claimed as one of her projects of ''Maximalism''.<ref name="de Picciotto Kaput 2018">[[Danielle de Picciotto]]: [http://www.kaput-mag.com/stories_en/laura-kikauka_rediscovering-the-art-of-slowing-down/ ''Laura Kikauka: "Rediscovering the art of slowing down"''], ''Kaput – Magagazin für Insolvenz & Pop'', 6 February 2018</ref><ref>{{ill|Kurt Leiner|de|lt=''QRT''}}:''Handelskunst mit Angebots-Sondermüll'' (special waste offer), announcement and short review of the sales exhibition ''LESS function IS MORE fun'' as part of the ''Spätverkauf'' project by the artist group ''Funny Farm'' (Laura Kikauka and Gordon Monahan) at the [[Kiosk]] of the Volksbühne Berlin. (in [[030 (magazine)|(030) Magazin]], No. 25/1995, ''[030]'' Media Verlag, Berlin, December 1995)</ref>

== Fashion ==
Maximalism in fashion is a vibrant and exuberant style that embraces [[Warm colours|bold colours]], intricate patterns, and eclectic combinations. This aesthetic celebrates the idea of "more is more," encouraging individuals to express their creativity and personality through layered textures, diverse prints, and unexpected pairings. Unlike [[minimalism]], which emphasizes simplicity and restraint, maximalism invites a playful approach to dressing, often incorporating [[Vintage clothing|vintage]] pieces, [[Fashion statement|statement accessories]], and a mix of [[Culture|cultural]] influences. As a response to the often sterile nature of contemporary fashion, maximalism allows for a rich tapestry of self-expression, making it a popular choice among those who seek to stand out and make a statement in their wardrobe.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Admin |date=2022-02-13 |title=Maximalism ~ the rise of art and fashion |url=https://theconnoisseurofficial.com/maximalism-art-fashion/ |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=The Connoisseur |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-31 |title=The Bold Return of Maximalist Fashion |url=https://www.essence.com/fashion/the-return-of-maximalist-fashion/ |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=Essence |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Baroque]]
* [[Collage]]
* ''[[Horror vacui (art)|Horror vacui]]''
* [[Hyperpop]]
* [[Hysterical realism]]
* [[Maximalist film]]
* [[New Complexity]]
* [[Postminimalism]]
* [[Principle of plenitude]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
'''Sources'''
* {{cite book|last=Pincus-Witten|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Pincus-Witten|chapter=Gary Stephan: The Brief Against Matisse|title=Talking Painting: Dialogues with Twelve Contemporary Abstract Painters|editor=David Ryan|pages=208–220|series=Routledge Harwood Critical Voices|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=9780415276290}}

==Further reading==
* [[Michel Delville|Delville, Michel]], and Andrew Norris (2005). ''Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism''. Cambridge, UK: Salt Publishers. {{ISBN|1-84471-059-9}}.
*{{cite web | url=https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21506030/maximalism-minimalism-home-design-jungalow | title=Home design has gotten overstuffed, garish, and glorious. Good! | date=14 October 2020|publisher=[[Vox Media|Vox magazine]]|first=Rebecca|last=Jennings}}
* Menezes, Flo (2014). ''Nova Ars Subtilior: Essays zur maximalistischen Musik'', edited by Ralph Paland. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag. {{ISBN|978-3-95593-058-5}}. 
* [[Robert Pincus-Witten|Pincus-Witten, Robert]] (1981). "Maximalism". ''[[Arts Magazine]]'' 55, no.&nbsp;6:172–176.
* Pincus-Witten, Robert (1983). ''Entries (Maximalism): Art at the Turn of the Decade''. Art and Criticism Series. New York: Out of London Press. {{ISBN|9780915570201}}.
* Pincus-Witten, Robert (1987). ''Postminimalism into Maximalism: American Art 1966–86''. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.

==External links==
*[https://www.esquire.com/uk/design/a26132036/maximalism-or-minimalism-lifestyle-debate/ "Maximalism or Minimalism?"]—article on ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]''
*[https://pitchfork.com/features/article/8721-maximal-nation/ Maximal Nation]—''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''

{{Western art movements}}

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[[Category:Postmodern art]]