Minimalism or Minimal Art is an art movement in the visual arts (painting, sculpture, object art) that emerged in the early 1960s in the USA as a counter-movement to the gestural painting of Abstract Expressionism. Minimalism has been represented in architecture since the 1980s.
Minimalism strives for objectivity, schematic clarity, logic and depersonalisation. Typical of minimalist sculptures and objects are the reduction to simple and clear, mostly geometric basic structures (so-called primary structures), often in serial repetition, industrial production as well as the use of finished products, e.g. stone and metal tiles (Carl Andre), neon tubes (Dan Flavin), steel frames (Donald Judd), or oversized enlargement (Ronald Bladen, Tony Smith).
1960-today
Minimal Art
This gave rise to their own orders, with their own rules and laws, which operated with opposites such as beginning and end, fullness and emptiness. Other representatives of minimalist sculpture are John McCracken, Sol LeWitt, Walter De Maria, Robert Morris, Larry Bell, Anne Truitt and Fred Sandback. Although colours and forms were also reduced to the simplest in painting (to basic structures, monochrome and geometric surfaces), minimalism is mainly applied to three-dimensional art. Based on constructivist ideas, important pioneers of this painterly conception of art were James Rosenquist, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Jo Baer or Agnes Martin.
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