Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in post-World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, and Frank Stella. It is rooted in the reductive aspects of Modernism, and is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism and a bridge to Postmodern art practices.

The term has expanded to encompass a movement in music which features repetition and iteration, as in the compositions of Steve Reich, LaMonte Young, Philip Glass, John Adams, and Terry Riley. (See also Postminimalism).

The term "minimalist" is often applied colloquially to designate anything which is spare or stripped to its essentials. It has also been used to describe the plays and novels of Samuel Beckett, the films of Robert Bresson, the stories of Raymond Carver, and even the automobile designs of Colin Chapman.

Musical minimalism

main: Minimalist music

In art music of the last 40 years, the term minimalism is sometimes applied to music which displays some or all of the following features: repetition (often of short musical phrases, with minimal variations over long periods of time, ostinati) or stasis (often in the form of drones and long tones); emphasis on consonant harmony; a steady pulse; hypnotic effect; sometimes use of phase shifting where sound waves gradually move out of sync with each other. Prime examples are the compositions of John Cage and LaMonte Young.

The term minimalism, endowed independently by composer-critics Michael Nyman and Tom Johnson, has been controversial, but was in wide use by the mid-1970s. The application of a visual art term to music has been protested; however, not only do minimalist sculpture and music share a certain spare simplicity of means and an aversion to ornamental detail, but many of the early minimalist concerts happened in connection with exhibits of minimalist art by Sol LeWitt and others. Several composers associated with minimalism have disavowed the term, notably Philip Glass, who has reportedly said, "That word should be stamped out!!"

A more recent form of minimalistic music is Minimal techno, a sub-genre of Techno music. In its most basic form it can consist of little more that a single ostinato motif (often called a loop) played in common time with a bass drum sounding on the quarter note pulse. In other examples basic rhythm patterns are layered to create polyrhythmic accompaniment to the same 4/4 bass drum pulse. Sherburne (2004) calls the latter technique massification and the former skeletalism. Cox C. & Warner D. ed.(2004), Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, London.