MINIMALISM (1960-1970s)
as representing an aspect of the real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UQ35-o7w_4
world (a landscape, a person, or even a
SECTION 5 tin of soup!); or reflecting an experience
MINIMALISM such as an emotion or feeling. With
minimalism, no attempt is made to
WHEN: 1960 – 1970s represent an outside reality, the artist
wants the viewer to respond only to
WHERE: New York, America, later Europe what is in front of them.
WHO: Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre The medium, (or material) from which it
is made, and the form of the work is the
reality. Minimalist painter Frank Stella
famously said about his paintings ‘What
you see is what you see’.
INFLUENCES:
o The minimalist movement
originated as a protest against
Abstract Expressionism (and the
exaggerated importance they
placed on each movement and
brushstroke of the arUst)
o RaKonalism was seen as a point of
departure by the Minimalists.
RaUonalism is a mathemaUcal way
of thinking and the belief that
reason is the foundaKon of
everything and that it is superior
to emoUon.
o Mondrian from
WHAT IS MINIMALISM:
the De SKjl
Minimalism can be seen as extending the movement also
abstract idea that art should have its influenced the
own reality and not be an imitation of ideas of the
some other thing. We usually think of art Minimalists as
, they followed his belief that a movements challenged the
work of art should be completely existing structures for making
conceived by the mind before its and viewing art and argued that
execuKon. the importance given to the art
object is misplaced and leads to
o Ready-mades an elitist art world which only the
influenced privileged few can afford to
their ideas. enjoy.
Ready-mades
involve the
CHARACTERISTICS:
use of an
object as an Minimalists aimed to create works that
artwork. This was started by were “pure” by simplifying art to its
Duchamp who minimized the essence, namely the mediums it’s made
arKst’s role in creaKng the “art from.
object”. The arKst became the one
to make the decisions as to what
to choose to exhibit and how it
should be exhibited.
o Flat fields of colour as seen in
some of the Abstract
Expressionist’s work already
contained elements of
Minimalism. The ‘Colourfield’ Subject matter:
painters such as Newman made
• The simplicity of the medium,
painKngs in which there was • the 3D geometric shapes
nothing else but a line on a flat • and the use of scale is the subject
field of colour or simple matter.
symmetric one-colour painKngs. • The work has no expressive
content or hidden meanings. The
titles do not reveal hidden
meaning.
Composition:
• Arrangement of geometric shapes
in relation to the space around it,
o The development of minimalism is and in relation to other parts was
also linked to that of Conceptual very important.
Art (which also flourished in the • This had to be planned ahead with
1960s and 1970s). Both precision.
as representing an aspect of the real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UQ35-o7w_4
world (a landscape, a person, or even a
SECTION 5 tin of soup!); or reflecting an experience
MINIMALISM such as an emotion or feeling. With
minimalism, no attempt is made to
WHEN: 1960 – 1970s represent an outside reality, the artist
wants the viewer to respond only to
WHERE: New York, America, later Europe what is in front of them.
WHO: Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre The medium, (or material) from which it
is made, and the form of the work is the
reality. Minimalist painter Frank Stella
famously said about his paintings ‘What
you see is what you see’.
INFLUENCES:
o The minimalist movement
originated as a protest against
Abstract Expressionism (and the
exaggerated importance they
placed on each movement and
brushstroke of the arUst)
o RaKonalism was seen as a point of
departure by the Minimalists.
RaUonalism is a mathemaUcal way
of thinking and the belief that
reason is the foundaKon of
everything and that it is superior
to emoUon.
o Mondrian from
WHAT IS MINIMALISM:
the De SKjl
Minimalism can be seen as extending the movement also
abstract idea that art should have its influenced the
own reality and not be an imitation of ideas of the
some other thing. We usually think of art Minimalists as
, they followed his belief that a movements challenged the
work of art should be completely existing structures for making
conceived by the mind before its and viewing art and argued that
execuKon. the importance given to the art
object is misplaced and leads to
o Ready-mades an elitist art world which only the
influenced privileged few can afford to
their ideas. enjoy.
Ready-mades
involve the
CHARACTERISTICS:
use of an
object as an Minimalists aimed to create works that
artwork. This was started by were “pure” by simplifying art to its
Duchamp who minimized the essence, namely the mediums it’s made
arKst’s role in creaKng the “art from.
object”. The arKst became the one
to make the decisions as to what
to choose to exhibit and how it
should be exhibited.
o Flat fields of colour as seen in
some of the Abstract
Expressionist’s work already
contained elements of
Minimalism. The ‘Colourfield’ Subject matter:
painters such as Newman made
• The simplicity of the medium,
painKngs in which there was • the 3D geometric shapes
nothing else but a line on a flat • and the use of scale is the subject
field of colour or simple matter.
symmetric one-colour painKngs. • The work has no expressive
content or hidden meanings. The
titles do not reveal hidden
meaning.
Composition:
• Arrangement of geometric shapes
in relation to the space around it,
o The development of minimalism is and in relation to other parts was
also linked to that of Conceptual very important.
Art (which also flourished in the • This had to be planned ahead with
1960s and 1970s). Both precision.
