Minimalist Art And Its Impact On Western Modern Landscape Design

There was an advance in gardens undertaking of our country with the development of economy and the improvement of science and technology. The people from all professions in our country had also begun to pay close attention to the development trends of the western landscape architecture as the impact of the western modern landscape architecture on the world strengthened progressively.The western modern landscape architecture demonstrated pluralistic inclination with its development. Various kinds of school of arts in modernism offered new sources for the landscape design. As the summary and development of modernism the minimalist art had a profound influence on western landscape architecture. Further study to the initiation, formation and development of the minimalist art contributed to understand the reason how it exerted an influence on gardens and was able to analyze the characters of the minimalist gardens better.The Minimalist Art came into being in the early 1960s and occupied a leading position in the art circles at that time. It concealed in the modernism at its beginning, matured gradually and became a kind of ideological trend with the development of modernism. The art movement had its unique theory ideas, creative technique and artistic characteristic and influenced the Land Art and the Idea Art of the same period.Along with the mutual permeation between the fields of art and design, the Minimalist Art had brought about an influence on gardens and then formed the Minimalist gardens. The kind of gardens emphasized the characters of landscape itself and aroused attention from people rapidly through introducing element of natural environment innovatively, using traditional element uniquely, involving new element of design and applying the forms of succinct and primitive strip, circle, cone, etc. and the way of non-related composition of a picture.Some designers also formed their personal styles with characteristics of the minimalist stile for example: Walker's succinct gardens, Martha's random choice to materials for creation, Latz's using net lattice to control heavy size and so on. All these reflected the influence of the Minimalist Art in different degree.The Minimalist gardens had certain adaptability. It was not only influenced by the designers who have a partiality for it, but also restricted by the social conditions and culture. The landscape design in our country should utilize it rightly and innovatively.