Reporting for Minimalist/Minimalism Art.

1. Hello!
I’m
Mimme.

2. Minimalis
m
1960-1970

3. ⬗ Minimalism is characterized by a
combination of basic essentials,
context and place, emptiness,
infinite space, limited colors,
simplicity, and the use of
concrete, glass and natural
materials and light.
⬗ “Less is more” that’s the concept
on Minimalism.

4. ⬗ Minimalism began as an art
movement after World War II and
rose to prominence as a design
aesthetic in the 1960s and 1970s.
Some cite Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe as being the first leader of
minimalist design and his basic,
yet striking structures are
constructed simply to maximize
space and a feeling of openness.

5. The development
of Minimalism...

6. Minimalism emerged in the late
1950s when artists such as Frank Stella,
whose Black Paintings were exhibited at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York
in 1959, began to turn away from the
gestural art of the previous generation.
It flourished in the 1960s and 1970s
with Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald
Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin and
Robert Morris becoming the
movement’s most important
innovators.

7. The development of
minimalism is linked to that of
conceptual art (which also flourished
in the 1960s and 1970s). Both
movements challenged the existing
structures for making, disseminating
and viewing art and argued that the
importance given to the art object is
misplaced and leads to a rigid and
elitist art world which only the
privileged few can afford to enjoy.

8. Visual Artist and
their Art

9. Frank Stella 1936-present
A painter, sculptor, and printmaker,
Frank Stella is considered to be one
of the most influential living
American artists. His striped works
and monumental prints
revolutionized artistic practices in
relation to not only Minimalism but
also Abstraction. Whilst he cites
abstract artists such as Pollock and
Kline as his influences, he grew to
become one of the founding

10. Die Fahne Hoch!
(1959)
‘Die Fahne Hoch!’ Was named after
the official marching song of the
Nazis, but appears to be meaningless
with the exception of its title. It is a
one work within a larger series of
black paintings by Stella. In this
painting, the lighter lines are in fact
raw canvas that was left blank
between its broad black stripes. This
monochromatic work is one of the
best-known works to challenge the
Abstract Expressionist movement.

11. Robert Morris 1931-
2018
Robert Morris as a Minimalist
artist, but also a Conceptual one.
Morris was performing at a ballet
company when he came across
large grey painted plywood
boxes as stage props.

12. Untitled (mirrored cubes)
(1965/71)
Taking them to his practice, he covered
these boxes in mirrors, advancing their
visual properties and altering the
modes of perception that surrounded
them. Walking around these boxes,
viewers are forced to confront
themselves in their reflections.
Suddenly, the act of admiring an
artwork is cut by the act of looking. It
has been cited to “invade” a gallery
space due to this nature, evolving the
experience of art beyond the visual.

13. Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin made works that
were non-representational, yet
their titles highlighted a strong
allure to nature. Martin was known
for the grid work in her paintings
that blend together Minimalism
and Colour Field. She used these
grids as an organizational element
to her works, creating infinite
variations of calming canvases with
subtle colors.

14. With my Back to the
World (1997)
Thoroughly influenced by Zen Buddism
and Taoism, Martin also led a hermetic
lifestyle in New Mexico for most of her life.
She was also diagnosed with
schizophrenia in her 40s. ‘With my Back to
the World’ was made in her mid-80s while
she lived in an assisted living facility. Her
pastel bands of blue, peach and yellow
continued to highlight how art was
exclusive of the corrupt outside world, as
she reduced her the sizes of her canvases
to handle them with more ease.

15. Ellsworth Kelly
Having served in the second World War,
Ellsworth Kelly took his observations of
nature and architectural forms to mature
his practice in experimental ways.
Through a rigorous study of abstraction,
his paintings and sculptures went on to
develop Minimalism as a whole. The ‘Red
Yellow Blue’ series affected the course of
color-field painting and was created as
Kelly began to “uncover the nearly infinite
possibilities of monochrome, color
spectrum, chance ordering, and multi-
panel composition.”

16. Red Yellow Blue II
(1953)
‘Red Yellow Blue II’ is composed of seven panels, with a
black panel in the center the divides yet joins the three
panels on its either side. Two blue panels unify the
sequence on both ends, underlining Kelly’s
understanding of composition. This painting is the
largest out of the works he made during his time in
Paris and is considered to be one of his finest and most
influential works on canvas.

17. Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt created 1,350 wall drawings across
the four decades of his career, comprising
roughly 3,500 installations at over 1,200
venues. These drawings were anything from
straight lines in black pencil lead, to colorful
wavy rendered lines, to monochromatic
geometric forms, to bright panels in acrylic
paint. He allowed others to help him execute
these works as he, in line with notions of
Minimalism, rejected the traditional
importance of an artist’s own hand. His Wall
Drawings were explorations into architecture
and art, as they took on the forms of respective
spaces that they were made in.

18. Wall Drawings
Wall Drawing #260 at San Francisco
Museum of Art, 1975
Wall Drawing #340,
July 1980
Wall Drawing
#1138: Forms
composed of bands
of color, 2004,
Acrylic paint,
Lisson Gallery,
London

19. Judy Chicago
By creating works that
test the limits of color
through her self-designed
diagrams and spatial
patterning, Judy Chicago
grew to be known as a
pioneering Minimal and
Feminist artist.

20. Rainbow Pickett
(1965)
Created for her first solo show at the Rolf
Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles in January
1966, Rainbow Pickett is a room-sized
sculptural installation composed of six
trapezoids of different colors and lengths.
This work was also shown at the
foundational exhibition, ‘Primary
Structures’ at the Jewish Museum, where
critic Clement Greenberg stated that it was
one of the best works in the space. It was
reconstructed in 2004 as the original
‘Rainbow Pickett’ was destroyed by Chicago
due to hefty storage costs, later becoming
the hallmark piece for LAMOCA’s ‘A Minimal
Future? Art as Object, 1958-1968’.

21. Dan Flavin
Flavin explored the artistic
possibilities of fluorescent light,
limiting his practice to
commercially available materials.
Rejecting the aforementioned
notions of Abstract Expressionism,
he took to using such hardware
and inserted them into the world
of high art.

22. Untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim) 3
(1977)
‘Untitled (in honor of Harold
Joachim) 3’ is one of many works
made by Dan Flavin composed of
fluorescent light and metal
fixtures. Flavin’s light works wash
walls with colors and go beyond
the space they inhabit. They also
go beyond their sculptural entity to
bathe visitors in warm and artificial
glows, creating experiences
around them.

23. Eva Hesse
A German-born American sculptor,
Eva Hesse is best-known for her
pioneering work in latex,
fiberglass, and plastic. She is also
known as one of the artists who
ushered in the post-minimal art
movements in the 1960s. In the
spirit of Minimalism, Hesse’s
practice explored how the simplest
of materials could be used to
exemplify much more.

24. Untitled (Rope Piece)
(1970)
‘Untitled (Rope Piece)’ was made
in 1970 as Hesse was dying, as
was finished with the help of her
friends. Made with latex over
rope, string, and wire, it mimics a
tangled drawing in space,
suspended from the ceiling.
Standing out from the traditional
neatness of Minimalism, it is
through its modes of composition
that allows it to be perceived

25. Donald Judd
Donald Judd strongly disavows his
association with Minimalism, yet is known
as one of its founding fathers. He
abandoned his practice as a painter for
sculpture in the early 1960s and went on
to uncover a personal rejection of
European artistic values. He began
fabricating works that could not be
classified as painting or sculpture. Like
Ellsworth Kelly, Judy Chicago, Sol Lewitt,
and Dan Flavin, his works were exhibited
at the seminal 1966 exhibit ‘Primary
Structures’ at the Jewish Museum in New

26. Untitled (1980)
In the 1980s, Judd began creating
vertically suspended stacks such as
‘Untitled (1980). These works, still unable
to be classified as painting or sculpture,
created a new vocabulary of art due to
their experiential nature. Using two
different materials, aluminum and
Plexiglass, this work offers viewers two
conflicting experiences - opaque intrusive
forms from the side, and obscure depths
of space from the front.

27. Minimal Music

28. Stephen Michael
Reich
Stephen Michael Reich is an
American composer known
for his contribution to the
development of minimal
music in the mid to late 1960s.
Reich's work is marked by its
use of repetitive figures, slow
harmonic rhythm, and
canons.

29. Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American
composer and pianist. He is
widely regarded as one of the
most influential composers of
the late 20th century. Glass's
work has been associated
with minimalism, being built
up from repetitive phrases
and shifting layers.

30. Terrence "Terry" Mitchell
Riley
Terrence "Terry" Mitchell Riley, is
an American composer and
performing musician best known
as a pioneer of the minimalist
school of composition. Influenced
by jazz and Indian classical music,
his music became notable for its
innovative use of repetition, tape
music techniques, and delay
systems.

31. La Monte Thornton Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an
American composer, musician, and
artist recognized as one of the first
American minimalist composers and
a central figure in post-war avant-
garde music. He is best known for
his exploration of sustained tones,
beginning with his 1958 composition
Trio for Strings.

32. Impacts of Minimalism
⬗ Minimalism greatest effect is encouraging people to
think, perceive and behave in a new direction: towards
less materialism and more positive life experience.
⬗ It removed all forms of self expression and
individuality.
⬗ Through the removal of decorative and figurative
elements minimalistic art focused on the textural and
material elements in a pure abstract form.
⬗ Minimalistic art offers a highly purified form of

33. Impacts of Minimalism
⬗ Minimalism can also be seen representing such
qualities as truth(peace , order and harmony) because
it does not pretend to be anything rather than what it
is.
⬗ It re-defines the nature of life. It was quality over
quantity that minimalists follow.
⬗ It implemented a minimalistic lifestyle whereby
people can live with fewer possessions focusing only
on the ones they need.

34. Thanks!

35. References:
• https://theartling.com/en/artzine/famous-minimalist-art/
• https://www.britannica.com/art/Minimalism
• https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/minimalism
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Reich
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Riley
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Monte_Young