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Minimalism

By Meyer, James
Minimalism

Details

Authors: Meyer, James
Copyright: 2010
Format: Paperback
GTIN13: 9780714856537
ISBN10: 0714856533
Page Count: 200
Dimensions: 9.84x0.61x11.36
Publisher: Phaidon Press

Strand Notes

Coined in the 1960s, the term Minimalism describes the work of a group of American artists, including Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt. Inspired by mathematics and industrial processes, the Minimalists created geometric works whose simple forms produced sophisticated explorations of serialsity, harmony and space. In addition, providing an accessible introduction to the works, this book documents the careers of Minimalism's leading figures, as well as the practrices of artists who were associated with the movement, among them the sculptors Larry Bell, Eva Hesse, and painters Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Rober Ryman and Frank Stella, among others. Addenda. Illus. 200p.

Description

Minimalism offers the first straightforward and useful summary of the output and outlook of the artists associated with minimalism in its heyday, as well as its subsequent development into more nuanced visual forms and its relationship to postmodernism. Editor James Meyer is a specialist who has written extensively on Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Sol LeWitt, four of the seminal minimalists (the fifth is Robert Morris). Despite the intellectual thorniness of this art, Meyer avoids the turgidity that marks much of the writing associated with it.

Tracing the origins of minimalism primarily to Frank Stella's "Black Paintings" of 1959, Meyer outlines the shifting, often warring definitions of this new kind of art. Once sculptors Andre and Judd had made their mark, there was doubt that painters could be minimalists. Brice Marden and Robert Ryman made the cut because their work was believed to be purely about the process of painting. Interestingly, although this was overwhelmingly a male club, curators also initially embraced the work of several women artists (including Agnes Martin and Anne Truitt) who retained such minimalist no-noes as irregular, handmade marks, color that could be perceived independently of form, and a belief in transcendent meaning.

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