by Kate Jonuska
an exploration of minimalism with intention
SHARPEN YOUR SENSES, readers, and open your minds to the artistic clarity and power embodied in “The Art of Less: An Exploration of Essence.” Both experts in minimalism in modern art and design, authors Sarah Dorweiler and Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen blow away stereotypes about clean lines and neutral palettes, instead revealing the philosophical heart and sensory power that draws them to the minimalist movement.
“What compels us, though difficult to name, often emerges when the unnecessary is stripped away. It is not minimalism as a style but an attention to essence: a way of working that asks what is indispensable and what is not,” the authors write. “… We are interested in what remains when decisions are made with care—when form is allowed to settle into its most necessary expression.”
Packed with stunning photography and thoughtful profiles of international talents in architecture, fine art and design, the pages of “The Art of Less” offer all the enlightenment and inspiration of a museum, each one a feast for the senses. Though the designs highlighted are minimalist, each one helps illustrate that to work with space is to engage with human perception.
“Architecture has to settle in the body,” says Danielle Siggerud, a featured Danish architect who uses scale, acoustics and bold materials to elicit strong reactions from those who live in her spaces. Rather than aiming for sterility, she explains, “It’s about removing what isn’t necessary so what remains can actually be felt.”
This stripped-down essence of design is appealing in a world where much of life unfolds in the digital ether or at a physical distance. In fact, the authors argue that the current saturation of our lives—with images, information, choices—leaves us craving deeper, more material connections that minimalism just might satisfy.
“The excess that surrounds us is physical as well as digital and psychological, shaping how we see, how we focus, and how we relate to space,” write Dorweiler and Bjerre- Poulsen. “In such a context, the desire for clarity is not aesthetic but cognitive; not stylistic but deeply human.”
