Maximalist

Maximalist

Maximalist is a quality of excessive redundancy oft exhibited by way of the overt accumulation of appurtenances that reflect current society. In other references the term refers to either the ostentatious displays of the extensive possessions of the super-rich or the obsessive collecting as frequently found in the behavior of garage sale shoppers who accumulate common household goods past reason.

The term maximalist can also refer to anything which is excessive, overtly complex and "showy", or providing redundant overkill in features and attachments, grossness in quantity and quality and maximalism the tendency to add and accumulate to excess.

The movement of maximalism in reference to the arts was founded by the artist and filmmaker Daryush Shokof in 1990 in Cologne, Germany. Maximalism vis-a-vis the arts is a new way of creating art. Many common elements are shared in the art works by artists who participate in the maximalist movement. The movement was initiated by Daryush Shokof as he wrote in his one-man show catalog of paintings at Galleria Verlato in Milano, Italy in 1990; "Unbalancing the chaos = Balance = Life = Maximalism".

Daryush Shokof wrote a lengthy manifesto with the title Maximalism. It was published in different catalogues of his one-man shows, as well as the maximalists' group shows in Europe and in the US from 1990 to 1993.

The text to Maximalism opens as below with additional writings about his philosophical thoughts derived from his manifest that lead to his yekishim ideologies later in 1995;

Maximalism believes in life as the most important phenomenon that occupies mankind's thoughts. Life for a Maximalist means actions committed by every moving creature. Further on a Maximalist observes the beauty or the evil of all moving creatures but does not submit or yield negatively to a state of chaos as thinking of all possible movements to be out of man's control. In other words even though knowing it is not the man's decision or desire that makes the world go around, however, it is the lust of life to positively, constructively and playfully continue on being.

Shokof developed these thoughts in his more than 500 paintings exhibited worldwide and further elaborated yekishim, a word created from a mix of two Persian words, "yeki=one" and "shim=to become" so to mean "to become one" by Shokof , his final manifest. Yekishim is his own ideology regarding why man is on planet earth, which he believes is only for one reason alone; to reach "Yekishim", meaning 'for human beings to become One and united on earth'.