Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The excesses of minimalism

Can something minimal go to extremes? Yes, I read today:
"One London restaurant with a splendidly minimalist men’s room discovered, by unfortunate trial and error, that customers found it difficult to 'read' what was what and, in an urgent retro-fit, it had to label its thrillingly discreet features with helpful instructions:' WC', 'tap', 'basin'. It is said that the late Joseph Ettedgui ... wrapped in white paper every book in his library. They looked beautiful, but were impossible to identify."
The article, "DOES MINIMALISM MATTER?" by Stephen Bayley makes the case that minimalism -- which may have started as early as the 18th century -- is a movement whose popularity peaked and is now being replaced by something else -- maybe chaos.

A minimalist illustration from the article:

http://moreintelligentlife.com/files/minimalismlead.jpg

1 comment:

Jeanie said...

I can't connect to that. I even put clutter in the bathroom. (Which comes in handy at times, but I digress...)