"Less is more," said the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, echoing the words of Robert Browning in Andrea del Sarto (1855) and the gist of Hesiod (c. 700 B.C.), who advised "how much more is the half than the whole." In its broadest sense minimalism refers to any form of human expression whose elements have been reduced, simplified, or even eliminated altogether. More specifically, the term has come to denote movements in painting, sculpture, architecture, and music—largely American—which flowered in the 1960s and were still influential at the close of the twentieth century. While many of its best examples have provided viewers or listeners with genuinely moving aesthetic experiences, minimalism is also notable for the degree to which it has tested both artistic limits and the patience of audiences. In twentieth-century popular culture minimal forms from the highway billboard to the 60-second sound bite have exemplified...