Minimalism or minimalist art can be seen as extending the abstract idea that art should have its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. With minimalism, no attempt is made to represent an outside reality, the artist wants the viewer to respond only to what is in front of them
The development of minimalism
Minimalism emerged in the late 1950s
- It flourished in the 1960s and 1970s with Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin and Robert Morris becoming some of the movement’s most important innovators
Qualities of minimalist art
aesthetically, minimalist art offers a highly purified form of beauty
- It can also be seen as representing such qualities as truth, order, simplicity and harmony
- Sol LeWitt (Two Open Modular Cubes/Half-Off) (1972) Tate
- Donald Judd (Untitled) (1973) Tate
Minimalism and Early Abstraction
Earlier abstract movements were an important influence on the ideas and techniques of minimalism.
- In 1962, Camilla Gray’s “The Great Experiment in Art: 1863-1922” was published in England, and concerns of the Russian constuctivist and suprematist movements of the 1910s and 1920s became more widely understood, inspiring minimalist sculptors like Dan Flavin.
