Minimalism

Minimalism is a style of abstract art that rose to prominence in America in the 1960s and ‘70s. Taking inspiration from Constructivism, De Stijl, and the readymades of Marcel Duchamp, Minimalist artists rejected the heroic narratives of Abstract Expressionism in favour of pared down, purely self-referential geometric forms. While the action painters of the 1950s emphasized artistic subjectivity and emotional expression, this new generation of artists used prefabricated industrial materials and an economy of means to eradicate signs of authorship. Emptied of external references, the art object’s literal presence – it’s physical qualities, relationship to its surroundings, and the phenomenological experience of the viewer encountering the work – is foregrounded.

Frank Stella famously proclaimed: “What you see is what you see.” Minimalism embraces this literalism, highlighting the physical properties of the art object – its scale, weight, placement and materiality – over symbolic or emotional meaning. Taking geometric abstraction to its logical extreme, Minimalist artwork uses precise, hard-edged forms, often squares and rectangles, to create nonhierarchical, mathematically regular compositions. Factory-made and shop-bought materials further downplay the artist’s hand and emphasize anonymity. The emphasis on form also invites a heightened awareness of the installation space or site, and a contextual interpretation of the artwork. While the movement is most closely associated with sculpture, Minimalists sought to dissolve traditional distinctions between art forms with unexpected materials and presentations. Indeed, Minimalist painting is decidedly un-painterly, without visible brushstrokes, and often features sculptural elements.

Minimalism presented a fundamental challenge to traditional understandings of how art was valued and experienced. By stripping away artistic subjectivity and expression, Minimalist works foreground the viewer’s encounter with the art object and its environment. In the late ‘60s and beyond, Postminimalist artists like Richard Serra, Eva Hesse and Bruce Nauman referenced the ideas of Minimalism while eschewing its extreme formalist rhetoric, paving the way for a diverse array of artistic styles from Earth Art to Feminist Art. In addition to the visual arts, the Minimalist influence extended to architecture, interior design, music, dance, fashion and cuisine; it remains an important tendency in many aspects of contemporary culture.