Minimalism is a way of making art, design, music, or even a room with only a few simple pieces. A painting might be a white canvas and one black line. A concert piece might repeat one small pattern. A flat might have a table, two chairs, and almost nothing else on the walls. The feeling people want is clean, calm, and strong: when you take nearly everything away, what is left can speak more loudly. In museums and design talk it is the name of a real style, especially from the later 1900s. Though actually everyday speakers now stretch it a lot. Someone who owns few clothes or keeps a tidy desk may say they “believe in minimalism,” which is more a lifestyle slogan than the art movement. That looser use is very common, and not wrong in casual talk, but a teacher of painting still means the strict, spare style. It is a somewhat educated word — at home in galleries, architecture, and magazines more than in the playground.