Minimalism (art)

Minimalism (art), type of art in which form is reduced to utmost simplicity and composition restricted to geometry so as to preclude the emotional engagement of the viewer with the ultimate aim of making form, space, colour, and materials the essence of the painting or sculpture. Minimal art emerged as an art form in the late 1950s; it was a style largely of the 1960s and 1970s, and was principally an American phenomenon. Although Minimalism began in the form of painting it is in sculpture that it reached its greatest development.

The ethos of Minimalism was anticipated in the Suprematist paintings of Kasimir Malevich. Starting from the initial premise that art should be reduced to simple geometric forms and strong, plain colours, Malevich eventually took Suprematism to its ultimate conclusion with his white-on-white paintings, in which geometric elements are delineated in white on a white background. Minimalism also has antecedents in the ready-made sculpture of Marcel Duchamp. The catalyst for the development of Minimal art was, however, the reaction of certain artists against Abstract Expressionism, a movement that, by the late 1950s, seemed to them to be distasteful for its excessive emotional content and lack of aesthetic discipline.

Minimal art was launched in 1959 when Frank Stella showed four large paintings, consisting of parallel stripes on a black canvas, in the Sixteen Americans exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. These austere and enigmatic works were a reaction against what Stella described as “the slosh of Abstract Expressionism” and he famously stated: “My painting is based on the fact that only what can be seen is what is there...what you see is what you see.”

Minimal sculpture emerged during the early 1960s with one-man shows in New York by Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Dan Flavin, and Carl Andre. Judd’s sculptures consist of uniform box-like shapes, in wood, metal, or plexiglass, painted in strong colours and placed at mathematically precise intervals on the wall or floor. Morris dispensed with colour in his sculpture, painting all his works grey. In 1965 he exhibited nine identical L-beams displayed in different positions so as to highlight their shape when perceived from different angles. Flavin made sculptures out of fluorescent tubes, using their light to define space. André used interchangeable modular units, such as neatly stacked blocks of wood, bricks, or metal plates, to create sculpture. With the open-cube constructions and geometric wall paintings of Sol LeWitt, Minimal art took on a more minutely geometric character. The fact that all these Minimalist sculptures could be assembled and endlessly copied simply by following the artists’ instructions rather than by the artists themselves challenged conventional views about, and traditional reactions to, art.

Minimalism has also played a part in the work of the choreographer Yvonne Rainer, of the Judson Dance Theater in New York—see Postmodernism (dance). In such pieces as Carriage Discreteness, dance attempted to parallel the repetition of tasks performed in everyday life. Minimalism is also evident in the work of Philip Glass and Steve Reich—see Minimalism (music).