Famous Minimalist Artists That Defined The Genre

Famous Minimalist Artists

Minimalism as a genre occupies various forms of expression across art, design, music, and literature. It surfaced as a reaction to Abstract Expressionism in the 60’s.

That Defined the Genre

BY THE ARTLING

Minimalist artists sought to move away from the expressive characteristics of Abstract Expressionism as they felt those works to be too excessive and emotional, and that they detracted from the essence of art itself. Minimalist artists, in complete contrast, were composed of simple lines and forms. All the elements of expression, biography, complex subjects, and social agendas are removed, leaving viewers to interpret their works for what they are a purified form of beauty and truth. Due to such a strong focus on basic elements, Minimalist Art was and is known as ABC Art.

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. ‘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 within the genre. Standing out from the traditional neatness. 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’. Art as Object, 1958-1968’. 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. Art as Object, 1958-1968’. 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. ‘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 within the genre. 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.

Robert Morris

‘Untitled (mirrored cubes)’ not only exemplified 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. 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. 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. 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. ‘Untitled (mirrored cubes)’ not only exemplified 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. 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. 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. 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. She used these grids as an organizational element to her works, creating infinite variations of calming canvases with subtle colors. ‘With my Back to the World’ was made in her mid-80s while she lived in an assisted.

Dan Flavin

‘Untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim) 3’ is one of many works made by Dan Flavin composed of fluorescent light and metal fixtures. For over three decades, 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. Incredibly straightforward, this work also embodies a deep sophistication. 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. 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.” ‘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. ‘Untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim) 3’ is one of many works made by Dan Flavin composed of fluorescent light

Untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim) 3 (1977)

and metal fixtures. For over three decades, 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. Incredibly straightforward, this work also embodies a deep sophistication. 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.”

Veja Celmins

Vija Celmins was fascinated by images from an early age. As a young girl she moved with her parents from Latvia to Indianapolis in the USA and began collecting pictures from comic books and picture playing cards. ‘I had stacks of comics because I had sort of taught myself how to read, because I couldn’t speak English. I only spoke Latvian, really.’ Her interest in images continued, and in the 1960s Celmins began using photographs she found in magazines and books as a source for her art. Around this time she was also making sculpture based on everyday functional objects. Other artists in the 1960s such as Andy Warhol and Richard Hamilton were also making paintings and prints of found objects and images. These artists – known as pop artists – were using these sources to comment on popular culture and the brash consumerism of the day. Although Celmins’s work from

this period is often discussed in relation to pop art, her ideas had more in common with the object paintings of artists such as René Magritte and Giorgio Morandi. She was inspired by their experimentation with object size and scale, and their depiction of objects detached from their original function. Celmins's early object paintings, alongside her interest in scientific imagery, led to her making drawings and prints of seas, night skies and deserts. The first drawings she made using this type of imagery were based on photographs of planets and the surface of the moon. The late 1960s saw the culmination of the great ‘space race’ between the Soviet Union and the USA. On 20 July 1969 the spaceflight Apollo 11 landed on the moon and the media was full of dramatic images of outer space. Ceelmins was inspired by these images and began to use them in her work. Vija Celmins was fascinated by images from an early age. As a young girl she moved with her parents from Latvia to Indianapolis in the USA and began collecting pictures from comic books and picture playing cards. ‘I had stacks of comics because I had sort of taught myself how to read, because I couldn’t speak English. I only spoke Latvian, really.’ Her interest in images continued, and in the 1960s Celmins began using photographs she found in magazines and books as a source for her art. Around this time she was also making sculpture based on everyday functional objects. Other artists in the 1960s such as Andy Warhol and Richard Hamilton were also making paintings and prints of found objects and images. These artists – known as pop artists – were using these sources to comment on popular culture and the brash consumerism of the day. Although Celmins’s work from this period is often discussed in relation to pop art, her ideas had more in common with the object paintings.

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. Although Lewitt passed away in 2007, his works live on as a result of his artistic ethos. These days, a handful of artists exist who withhold the right to recreate his Wall Drawings allowing them to adorn the walls of institutions around the world. Although Lewitt passed away in 2007, his works live on as a result of his artistic ethos.architecture and art, as they took on the forms of respective spaces that they were made in. 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. Although Lewitt passed away in 2007, his works live on as a result of his artistic ethos. These days, a handful of artists exist who withhold the right to recreate his Wall Drawings allowing them to adorn the walls of institutions around the world. Although Lewitt passed away in 2007, his works live on as a result of his artistic ethos. 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. Although Lewitt passed away in 2007, his works live on as a result of his artistic ethos. These days, a handful of artists exist who withhold the right to recreate his Wall Drawings allowing them to adorn the walls of institutions around the world. 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. Although Lewitt passed away in 2007, his works live on as a result of his artistic ethos. These days, a handful of artists exist who withhold the right to recreate his Wall Drawings allowing them to adorn the walls of institutions around the world.

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 York. 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. 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 fathers of Minimalism. ‘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 one a 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 bestknown works to challenge the Abstract Expressionist movement. This monochromatic work is one of the best-known works to challenge the Abstract Expressionist movement. 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 York. 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. 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 of painter, sculptor, and printmaker.