Minimalism

The term Minimalism was coined to describe the work of a group of American artists who, in the 1960s, produced a decidedly unexpressionistic, reductive work with a hard industrial feel. While numerous minimalist painters exist, among them Robert Ryman, Robert Mangold and Brice Marden, most of the key Minimalists – Andre, Flavin Judd, LeWitt and Morris – produced sculptures or, as some put it, ‘specific objects’ or ‘objects in a world of objects’. Although none of the artists actually accepted the term ‘Minimalism’, their common use of serial, modular or repeating forms (from Carl Andre’s floor sculptures of readymade bricks or Judd’s stacked boxes), as well as the abstraction and industrial production of the work, drew these artists’ work together.;These artists’ aim was to create an art that was non-hierarchical (no single part of the work takes precedence of any other) and thus democratic.;In his introductory Survey, James Meyer explains the key characteristics and issues involved in this much-debated movement, while the extensive images in the Works section, with explanatory commentary,