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Minimalism is one of the most influential art movements of the 1960s. It emerged from New York City. Many artists moved away from Abstract Expressionism and turned to Minimalism as an artform that challenged preconceived notions of what art could be. Painters and sculptors avoided adding too much symbolism and emotional content, but instead focused on the essence of the forms and materials used. Minimalism is an extreme type of abstract art that argues that art should have its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. The artist only wants the audience to respond to what is in front of them; it is not focused on the imagination of what things could be. Minimalism was meant to be enjoyed by more than just the upper class as it was meant for everyone. (artincontext.org)

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Influence: Response to Abstract Expressionism

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Influence: Response to Abstract Expressionism

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Minimalism was influenced by the idea of abstract expressionism as it tries to move away from what it stood for. Abstract expressionism focuses on conveying spirituality and emotion through art creating an experience of contemplation. Minimalism rejects these ideas as it is focused on removing such concepts from art. In the idea of a minimalist, the art is what is in front of you and nothing more. They worked to change the aesthetic feel of art with new sleek, geometric shapes and lines. Minimalism made an effort to remove the emotion and spirit out of art so that the audience could focus on the actual presence of the object in front of them. (Tate.org.uk)

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Another key influence on the Minimalist style was Dada art. Dad art was abstract and focused on hidden meaning behind the paintings. The paintings were purposely meant to be shocking. Although minimalism was a direct attack of this idea, there were other aspects of Dada art that are very prominent in the minimalist style. The one that will be focused on will be the use of readymades. Readymades are an ordinary, manufactured object, altered and repurposed as art. In the dada art form they took commercially manufactured projects and made slight changes and called it art. This was shocking at the time to the art community. Famous minimalist, Dan Flavin, also used readymades as he used factory sourced LED lights and then rearranged them to make art. It is further used in Steve Reich’s music as he uses unconventional sounds such as different train horns to make music. Although this itself might not be a readymade, it is fair to say that some inspiration did come from the Dada art movement. (https://www.invaluable.com/blog/minimalist-art-through-the-ages/)

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Stella’s precisely parallel paintings called Black Paintings were paintings of black lines on a black canvas. She used regular house paint to make an effect of a completely 2 dimensional surface covered in paint. Minimalist art tends to avoid allusions and try to imitate something that it is not. Paintings before this movement tended to be a window into the three-dimensional world, however Stella and her paintings were a direct counter to this idea. Her paintings used repeated geometric shapes and stripes. They tended to be unemotional, typical of minimalist art. (artincontext.org)

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A prominent artpiece of the minimalist movement was a creation of vertically-suspended stacks. They were created with two materials: aluminum and plexiglas. Donald Judd said that his works were “neither painting nor sculpture”. Another key aspect of this creation is the fact that it does not have a name. It is simply named “Untitled”. Many of Judd’s art pieces do not have a name. This fits with the minimalist idea. Minimalism sought to strip away unnecessary parts of art and reduce it down to the essence of a piece. The act of removing the name eliminated an external emotion and influence of the art piece. The viewer can analyze the artwork without the influence of descriptive titles that might otherwise change the essence of the piece for the audience. (Theartstory.org)

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One of Steve Reich’s most famous pieces is called “Different Trains”. Steve Reich is a composer and he uses unconventional methods to produce his music. In this case he uses the sounds of trains and snippets of audio of the testimonies of Holocaust concentration camp survivors. In this piece, he is commentating on his life and the train rides he would take from New York to LA as a child. He is commentating on how different hsi life would have been if he lived in Europe as a child during World War II. This piece is played by a string quartet. Steve Reich demonstrates minimalist ideas in that he layers his music and uses tons of repetition in his pieces. He uses repetition not only in the patterns of music, but also in the recorded interview. The use of layers of sounds and the repetition of patterns creates a hypnotic effect on the audience. (https://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/difftrains.html)

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Different Trains: America, Before the War

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Different Trains: America, Before the War

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Another song from the composer Steve Reich is called “Clapping Music”. Clapping Music was composed in 1972 and is one of Reich’s most well known and accessible works. It requires no instruments besides the performer’s hands. One musician claps his hands in a steady pattern of repetition while the other person has a part that varies more. Repetition is fundamental in minimalist art. This repetition creates a sense of layering and phasing of the piece. These subtle changes push the two musicians out of sync creating new rhythms. It is considered minimalist because of its simplicity in both patterns and musical instruments. (BBC.com)

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Steve Reich & Wolfram Winkel - Clapping Music

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Dan Flavin was another artist that pioneered Minimalist art. Born in 1933 in New York City, Flavin did not have the conventional start to becoming an artist. He worked in the US Air Force and National Weather Analysis Center. He had almost no formal education in the art of painting and instead studied history. After finding joy as an artist, Flavin worked for 30 years to pursue the arts through fluorescent light. He limited himself to art that specifically could be bought commercially available in standard shapes, sizes and colors. His use of readymade showed an influence from previous styles of artwork. He once said that “One might not think of light as a matter of fact, but I do. And it is, as I said, as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find” (Flavin). He too named many of his pieces “untitled” fitting the minimalist model of stripping away the unnecessary and focusing on the object in front of you. (Theartstory.org)