Minimalism

Movements in Modern Art

by David Batchelor

Many people have difficulty in appreciating Carl Andre's "Equivalent VIII", consisting of 120 bricks, as a work of art. This publication shows not only how "the bricks" are indeed sculpture, but that minimalist works such as this present some of the most interesting and imaginative work of the 1960s. Minimalism emerged and developed as a reaction against the emotiveness of abstract expressionism. Although most of the artists involved did not regard themselves as part of a group, there are certain key factors which define minimalist it is abstract, three-dimensional, modular, serial, geometric, preconceived in design and industrial in execution. This introduction examines the implications of these characteristics, looking in particular at the work of key Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt. It also focuses on the different emphases in each artist's work. The book also looks at the varied types of criticism and interpretation to which minimalism has been subject over the years. It ends by discussing how minimalism, which has influenced almost every subsequent art movement, has continuing relevance for artists today.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's just consider the paintings - canvasses of varying sizes with a uniform coating of one colour or another, and that's it. The history of painted squares in Western art appears to be approximately as follows.

1) Black Square on White by Kazimir Malevich, 1913.

It's always bracing to find how many radical ideas were tried out even before the 1920s. KM's painting is a black square on the white canvas background and according to his madcap philosophising, all past, present and future paintings were this summarised and consumed. To adapt a phrase from the woman in the cafe in When Harry Met Sally, I'll have what he's just had.

2) White Square on White by Kazimir melevich, 1918.

A breakthrough, as now Malevich dispenses with the frankly unnecessary other colour. "I want you to plunge into whiteness and swim in this infinity" said KM. Okay, where do I stash my clothes? I don't want any cheeky gallery-goers making off with them.

3) White Painting by Robert Rauschenberg, 1951. (there was more than one)

John Cage called these paintings "airports for lights, shadows and particles" whereby he intended to alert us to the profound truth that if we thought the white painting contained nothing we were wrong, the void is an illusion, there is always something there, ah grasshopper, you have much to learn, let's read Alan W Watts. (Note : must reread Alan W Watts).

4) Abstract Painting, 1956 and Abstract Painting No 5 by Ad Reinhardt, 1962

"The one object of fifty years of abstract art is to present art as art and nothing else, making it purer and emptier, more absolute and more exclusive - non-objective, non-representational, non-figurative, non-imagist, non-subjective, non-expressionist" says Advert (professionally known as Ad).
This was indeed a mystical holy grail for avant-gardists in the 20th century, to try and remove themselves from being hi-jacked by the filth of commerce, the loud brutality of politics and the horror of psychology. Of course it's all crazy talk, you can't do it, you're stuck here with the rest of us stupid yahoos, and you have to eat and pay the rent and fall in and out of love like everybody. This kind of quest for purity is religious and you can see it most clearly in Mark Rothko.

Actually Ad Reinhardt got stuck in his own metaphysical corner because he declared his monochrome to the the ultimate picture and then proceeded to paint nothing else.

5) Affectionate, 1954, Apparition, 1959 and Study for a Homage to the Square, 1972 by Josef Albers

I don't have any notes about these but yes, they're all white squares.

6) Blue Monochrome by Yves Klein, 1960

A few of YK's monochromes were carmine pink but the famous electric ultramarine took over rapidly. By 1960 the canvasses were 6 feet by 5 feet. In 1957 YK exhibited eleven identical monochromes. All of the paintings were priced differently.

7) Bordeaux : Black Blue Black by Bob Law, 1977

8) Cast, Archive, Untitled and Alternate (and many others) by Richard Ryman, 1965-88

Ryman subverts the declared quest for purity by doing his white monochromes with many different materials (oil, baked enamel, paper, vinyl, acetate emulsion), different brushes, different surfaces (canvas, linen, cotten, wood, cardboard, steel, plexiglass, aluminium). One art critic wrote that RR presents his white painting "with such ardor that the coolest of cool paintings begins to emit an unexpected warmth, its pervasive white so nuanced that monochromy appears imperceptibly to break up into a rainbow array of chromatics". Okay, maybe I'll have what he's having too.

***

Minimalism seems like the moment when some artists said Hold on, let's just calm down a little here, I can't hear myself think! It was clear and calm. I like it a lot. But as you see, art abhors a vacuum and no one wants to bend your ear more about stillness, silence and purity than a guy who's just painted a large white canvas.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

مینیمالیسم یا کمینه‌گرایی یا هنر کمینه یا هنر موجز یک مکتب هنری است که اساس آثار و بیان خود را بر پایه سادگی بیان و روش‌های ساده و خالی از پیچیدگی معمول فلسفی یا شبه فلسفی بنیان گذاشته‌است. کمینه‌گرایی را می‌توان زاییده هنرمندان روس دورهٔ پس از انقلاب اکتبر روسیه دانست که ساختارگرا بودند و به خلاصه‌نمایی و اشکال هندسی گرایش داشتند. مانند مالویچ با اثر سفید روی سفیدش. تجربیات هنرمندان روسیه در دهه ۱۹۵۰ و ۶۰ بر هنرمندان اروپا و آمریکا مانند مجموعه تابلوهای تماماً سفید رابرت راشنبرگ جوان و کارهای تک‌رنگ ایو کلین، و سری آکروم پیرو مانتزونی اثر گذاشت و به نوع دیگری بر کارهای میناکاری روی مس رابرت ریمن و آثار اگنس مارتین که ترکیب شیارهای نامحسوس روی زمینه تک‌رنگ بود، تأثیر گذاشت.

[Dallas Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book (published essay) was unlikely to have been written for me (or, rather, for me as a general reading type), but I still reserve to right to critique it. I feel this was a missed opportunity, a chance to explain Minimalism in a way anyone can understand even at an essay level. Yet the author still couldn’t resist the academic over-language many educated people use; just because they’re writing for an Fine Arts student doesn’t mean they can’t write in a simpler way. I still gained a lot from this book, a better understanding of this style of art, but it could have been much more interesting if he’d put his thesaurus away.

[Kamakana · Rating 4 out of 5]

...now this is what i like: clean art, industrial-strength, honest art, no illusions, no pretensions, just one thing after another, what you see is what you see... brief book, one essay focused primarily on five artists who are critiqued as minimalist even when they would not call themselves that: Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris... good reproductions, good on sculpture... and then ending with that wonderful cube Accession II by Eva Hesse...

[Ivan Labayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

summer-flirtish guide, but less transitory, for us asking, what have judd, lewitt, andre and company have done decades ago to art and how is that comparable with what godard, rohmer and company have done to film in about the same period?

[Dre · Rating 4 out of 5]

coisa l-i-n-d-a.

[Rose London · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great intro to the key artists and their distinctive styles. However, more reading is necessary to really understand the "movement" (If there ever was one!)