https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av Postmodern Arts Presentation on Minimalism en-us 2021-04-10 21:04:58 UTC 2025-11-06 13:08:50 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f9f1.png dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403161148 Minimalism as a movement emerged in the early 1960's and is characterized by monuments composed of simple geometric shapes in simple arrangements with little embellishment or decoration. The movement is contemporary with Pop Art, and symbolizes resistance to commodity culture the same way that Pop does. However, it takes a completely opposite approach to representing its resistance. Minimalist art turns away from everything to do with pop culture by being as unsymbolic and abstract as possible. In turn, minimalist art challenges the assumption that the meaning of art is tied to skill of an artist, but rather is art because the artist said that it was. More than anything, minimalists were trying to answer the question, "what makes something a work of art?" The main medium for minimalists is sculpture with the movement represented in painting to a lesser degree and even finding it's way into mediums like music. ]]> 2021-04-10 21:11:02 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403161148 dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403192203 As stated previously, minimalism came about at the same time as Pop Art and pursued the same goals in a different manner. The main goal of both movements was to reject the traditional premise of certain levels of skill and originality that were expected in order for a piece to be considered 'art'. This was largely a response to the dominance of Abstract Expressionism, which was focused entirely on every piece of art having some sort of intimate subjective meaning behind it. While Pop Art depicted recognizable or ordinary objects in an overly sentimental way, Minimalism challenged traditional expectations for art by displaying as little actual material or decoration as possible. Many minimalist displays are created using industrial processes which goes to further challenge the idea that art must be created from uncommon materials or be the work of some sort of "genius". The inspiration for using industrial manufacturing processes to produce art was found in Russian Constructivism. This movement was focused on using modular construction techniques made possible through industrial fabrication rather than traditional sculpting methods. Through these means minimalists challenged traditional expectations of art which required there be a meaning tied to a narrative or the artists themselves. ]]> 2021-04-10 21:44:01 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403192203 dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403388271 Frank Stella produced some of the earliest and most catalytic art for the minimalist movement. While subsequent minimalist work would mostly focus on sculpture, Stella produced a series of paintings in 1959 that would set the tone for the movement as a whole. The series Black Paintings was massively influential for the emergence of Minimalism. As seen in the image of The Marriage of Reason and Squalor below, the paintings in the series were all simple geometric designs in black paint only, which repeated themselves. The most important part of the pieces, however, is that there is no underlying meaning to what they mean. Frank Stella himself often said when asked about his art and any meaning it might carry, "What you see is what you see." For minimalists, there is no more reason or meaning needed to make a painting like this a work of art.

Frank Stella, Black Paintings, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, 1959]]> 2021-04-11 02:08:48 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403388271 dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403399118 Carle Andre was to minimalist sculpture what Frank Stella was to minimalist painting. Andre took an innovative approach to creating his sculptures that directly challenged traditional conventions of the sculpting process. Rather than carving stone and wood or modeling clay, Andre focused on using raw industrial materials and, for the most part, merely arranging the components to his liking. His use of raw materials, such as bricks, blocks, and metal plates, defied the assumption that the artist had to alter their medium in some way for a piece to qualify as art. None of Andre's sculptures are held together by anything but gravity as he elected to simply arrange his pieces on the ground or floor. Andre described his work as "sculpture as place," positing that a place was simply "an area within an environment which has been altered in such a way as to make the general environment more conspicuous." No ulterior motive or deeper meaning was necessary for his sculptures. Just a careful hand to manipulate space.

Carl Andre, 10 x 10 Altstadt Copper Square, 1967 ]]> 2021-04-11 02:24:17 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403399118 dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403408366 György Ligeti was a leading avante-garde composer in Europe during the 1950s and 60s. During that same time period Ligeti would compose numerous works that would be featured prominently in films by Stanley Kubrick. Ligeti incorporated minimalism into his music through slow melodies that shifted tonally very slowly and deliberately. While many of his pieces have dense rhythmic sections, they often do not change pattern or tone which lends to the 'manufactured' feel that most minimalist art has. Ligeti's music is certainly more expressive than most minimalist art pieces, but it still maintains the same barebones and stripped-down feeling that minimalist painting and sculpture have.

György Ligeti, Musica ricercata: No. 7, 1951-1953]]> 2021-04-11 02:37:35 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403408366 dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403475271 Agnes Martin, Untitled #14, 1977]]> 2021-04-11 04:11:18 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403475271 dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403480577 Dan Flavin, untitled (to Henri Matisse), 1964]]> 2021-04-11 04:17:57 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403480577 dtbusath https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403483069 Donald Judd, Untitled, 1973]]> 2021-04-11 04:21:11 UTC https://padlet.com/dtbusath/dfkmmyd2n8jng9av/wish/1403483069