Playing by the Rules: 1960s Abstraction: Minimalism

Playing by the Rules: Six3es Abstrac3on

Minimalist Sculpture

Minimalism •  Minimal art describes abstract geometric pain3ng and sculpture executed in the United States in the 1960s.

•  It is also referred to as “Literalist art” or “ABC art”. •  The predominant organizing principles behind it include the right triangle, the square, and the cube rendered with a minimum of incident or composi3onal maneuvering.

•  Minimalism’s dominant period ranged from 1963-‐1968.

•  Minimal art was dormant in the 1970s, rejected by the end of the decade as hardline and authoritarian by the younger genera3on.

•  Primary Minimalist ar3sts include: Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWiY, and Robert Morris

Minimalism Characteris3cs of Minimalism include:

–  Repe33on of form. – Uniformity. – Absence of metaphor. – Neutral surfaces. –  Employment of industrial materials.

Trends of Minimalist include: –  Monochroma3c coloring. –  Interest in how exhibi3on space was part of the work

itself. –  The vanishing base (sculptors put works right on floor). –  Blurring boundary between pain3ng and sculpture

(pain3ngs oèn look like sculptures hanging on wall).

Minimalism

•  Minimalist art is, in contrast to its predecessors, not about self-‐expression.

•  Minimalist concerns were more aesthe3c than social, although their art style was considered “hip” and “cool”.

•  Minimalist art is objec3ve. •  Minimalist ar3sts rejected the tradi3onal concepts of “truth to material” and instead favored industrial, non-‐art materials and the manufacturing process.

•  It is a modernist concept to maintain some truth to materials, so Minimalism’s rejec3on of that concept secured its nomina3on as a point where postmodernism began.

Minimalism

•  Clement Greenberg’s influence over the art world reaches its zenith.

•  Minimalism, although ar3sts associated with the movement rejected the name, is by no organized effort, a rejec3on Greenbergian aesthe3cs. It is a literal applica3on of it. Minimalists would however challenge Greenbergian formalism and the power of the art cri3c.

•  His legacy is carried on in the wri3ngs of followers Michael Fried (b. 1939) and Rosalind Krauss (b.1941). –  Each play a significant part of carrying on Greenbergian formalism to

this day. •  The bulk of cri3cal literature on Minimalism was wriYen between

1963 and 1968. –  The dominant authori3es are Barbara Rose, Lucy Lippard, and Michael

Fried.

Minimalism

Frank Stella (b. 1936) •  Frank Stella’s Black Painitngs, shown as early as 1959 in the MoMA’s “Sixteen Americans” exhibi3on is considered the inaugural moment of Minimalism. –  The design of his pain3ngs was oèn determined by materials available.

–  The work of Robert Morris (process-‐oriented art) and Michael Heizer (earthworks of the late 1960s) are said to signal its demise.

Frank Stella, Die Fahne Hochl, 1959. Enamel on canvas, 121 ½” x 73”. Whitney Museum of

American Art.

Minimalism Frank Stella (b. 1936) •  Works like Frank Stella’s Empress of India are specifically important to Minimalism.

•  His pain3ngs oèn recall Renaissance shapes and blur the boundary between sculpture and pain3ng.

Frank Stella, Empress of India, 1965. Metallic powder in polymer emulsion paint on canvas, 6'

5" x 18' 8" . Museum of Modern Art.

Minimalism •  Stella’s work is much like the work of Kelly and others. His work

teeters between Minimalism and Post-‐Painterly Abstrac3on. •  Stella, like Kelly, explores the shape of the canvas and like

Johns, allows the whole canvas to figure into the work.

Frank Stella, Empress of India, 1965. Metallic powder in polymer emulsion paint on canvas, 6' 5" x 18' 8" .

Museum of Modern Art.

Ellsworth Kelly, Mandorla, 1988. Bronze, 8’5” x 4’ 5 ½”. Private

collection.

Minimalism "What is important to me is not geometrical shape per se, or color per se, but to make a rela3onship between shape and color which feels to me like my experience. To make what feels to me like reality."

-‐April, 1965

Anne TruiY, First, 1961. Acrylic paint on wood, 44 ¼" x 17 ¾" x 7”. Bal3more

Museum of Art.

Minimalism

Anne TruiY (1921-‐2004) •  The first exhibi3on of Minimalist art

was a solo show 3tled “Sculpture” featuring the work of Anne TruiY. –  It was held in 1963 at Andre Emmerich

Gallery. –  The show was reviewed by ar3st

Donald Judd and cri3c Michael Fried. •  TruiY selected her materials for formal

and prac3cal purposes. –  She selected wood because it would

take the color. –  TruiY operates by using the materials

to materialize the color while the color dematerializes into the form.

Anne TruiY, A Wall for Apricots, 1968. Acrylic paint on wood, 72 5/8” x 14” x 14”. Bal3more

Museum of Art.

Minimalism Exhibi3on History •  A number of would be Minimalists exhibited together for the

first 3me in the “Black, White, and Gray” show in 1964, at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Haroord, CT.

•  The first true group show however was at the Kaymar Gallery in the early 1960s in NY. It was organized by Dan Flavin.

•  Henry Geldzahler included Morris, Judd, Murray, Andre, Hunman, Insley, Williams, Bell, Bannard, and Zox in the “Shape and Structure” show at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1965.

•  The most sensa3onal NY show of Minimalist art was the “Primary Structures” show organized by Kynaston McShine at the Jewish Museum in 1966.

•  Lawrence Alloway, later in 1966, organized a sister show to McShine’s called “Systemic Pain3ng”. It covered geometric, hard-‐edge, and Minimal pain3ng. –  Ar3sts including Noland, Stella, and Novros were shown.

Minimalism Minimalist influences: •  The roots of Minimalism lie in European abstrac3on.

•  The Bauhaus, de S3jl, and Russian Construc3vism are par3cular influences, especially the works of Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian.

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1913. Oil on canvas, 31.2” x 31.3,” State Russian Museum,

St. Petersburg

Piet Mondrian, Composi@on in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930. Oil on canvas, 20 1/8" x 20 1/8".

Museum of Modern Art.

Minimalism

•  Minimalist ar3sts are also influenced by ar3sts including Pablo Picasso, Constan3n Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, and ar3sts associated with Abstract Expressionism including BarneY Newman and Josef Albers.

•  Minimalism is a reac3on against the painterly subjec3vity of the New York School of Abstrac3on. –  This is a con3nua3on of Post-‐Painterly Abstrac3on’s rejec3on of the gestural work of de Kooning, of ar3st ego, and presence of the ar3st.

Minimalism

Tony Smith (1912-‐1980) •  CigareEe exhibits Minimalist need for viewer interac3on.

Tony Smith, CigareEe, 1961-‐66. Plywood model to be made in steel, 15’ x 26’ x 18.’ As seen outside the Albright-‐Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY .

•  Smith’s work recalls the Baroque emphasis on viewer interac3on with the piece.

•  CigareEe must be viewed from mul3ple angles to fully see and appreciate it.

•  Smith demands the viewer rely on memory and movement to understand the piece.

Tony Smith, CigareEe, 1961-‐66. Plywood model to be made in steel, 15’ x 26’ x 18.’ As seen outside the Albright-‐Knox Art

Gallery, Buffalo NY .

Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1623-‐1624. Marble, 67”. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Minimalism

Tony Smith (1912-‐1980) •  Like Pop, Smith’s Die takes the everyday item and elevates its status to art.

•  Its placement on the ground demonstrates Minimalist dismissal of the base.

Tony Smith, Die, 1962. Steel, edi3on of three, 6’ x 6’ x 6’. Private Collec3on.

Minimalism

•  Smith’s Die recalls Piero Manzoni’s own Pedestal for the World, 1961 and an3cipates earthworks.

Piero Manzoni, Socle du Monde (Pedestal for the World,) 1962. Iron and bronze

32.3” x 39.4” x 39.4”, Herning, Denmark.

Tony Smith, Die, 1962. Steel, edi3on of three, 6’ x 6’ x 6’. Private

Collec3on.

•  The first ar3st to address the base and produce baseless art was Yves Klein in 1957. –  Klein’s “aerosta3c sculptures” consisted of his releasing 1001 blue balloons into the air.

•  By the mid-‐1960s, this was common prac3ce. –  Argument against the base was grounded in formal and theore3cal no3ons regarding the ontological status of the work of art.

Recrea3on of Yves Klein’s Aesrosta@c Sculptures, 1957. Photographs January 21, 2007. Georges Jean

Raymond Pompidou, Paris.

Minimalism Anthony Caro (b. 1924) •  Caro’s sculptures are some of the

earliest examples of sculptures that are completely self-‐suppor3ve. –  His Midday demonstrates sculpture

in process of elimina3ng the base en3rely.

–  His works, like Twenty Four Hours, use the ground as an ac3ve part of the sculpture.

•  Caro’s pieces emphasize their existence as physical objects in a physical space.

•  Ar3sts and cri3cs argued the base placed the sculpture on a level not shared by the viewer. –  The base idealized sculpture and

emphasized the unreal status of its support.

Anthony Caro, Midday, 1960. Painted steel, 7' 7 ¾” x 37 ⅜" x 12' 1 ¾” Museum of Modern

Art, NY.

Anthony Caro, Twenty Four Hours, 1960. Painted steel, 4.5’ x 7.3’ x 2.7’. Tate

Modern.

Light and Space Movement

Larry Bell (b.1939) •  Bell was a leader of the “Light

and Space” Movement. –  Ar3sts combine interest in

technology and art with light and space.

•  The radical disappearance of the base was also seen in Larry Bell’s work, Un@tled (1967).

•  Bell’s exhibi3on without bases addresses the aesthe3c of the 3me which believed the base was ineffectual and meaninglessness.

Larry Bell, 97, 1997. Beveled glass, 6’x6’x4’. Installa3on view wood Street Gallery,

PiYsburgh, PA.


Robert Irwin (b.1928) •  Irwin’s Un@tled, is a drama3c example of the work, its environment, and their rela3onship.

Robert Irwin, Un@tled, 1965-‐67. Acrylic automobile lacquers on prepared,

shaped aluminum with metal tubes, four 150 waY floodlights, 60” diameter. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Minimalism Donald Judd (1928-‐1994) •  Judd was both an ar3st and art cri3c.

•  His essay, “Specific Objects” (1965) helped to establish Minimalist art.

•  He also claims to have thought of eradica3ng the base prior to other ar3sts wit his work from 1962.

•  His sculptures exhibit Minimalist characteris3cs in their serialism (something inherited from Pop art), monochroma3c color scheme, lack of a base, use of industrial objects, and objec3vity.

Donald Judd, Un@tled (Stack), 1967. Lacquer on galvanized iron, Twelve units, each 9” x 40” x 31“, Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Minimalism

Donald Judd (1928-‐1994) •  His Un@tled, 1977 demonstrates Judd’s removal of the base and op3ng to hang his sculptures on the wall-‐a move that also blurs the boundaries between pain3ng and sculpture.

•  His work u3lizes uniformity of form-‐the pieces create the whole work and that uniformity is repeated without metaphor. Donald Judd, Un@tled (77/23 -‐ Bernstein),

1977. Stainless steel and blue Plexiglas. Private Collec3on.

“A work can be as powerful as it can be thought to be. Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface…”

-‐Donald Judd

Donald Judd, Un@tled, 1977. Concrete, outer ring diameter 49’3,” Münster, Germany.

Minimalism

Robert Morris (b.1931) •  Morris’ work from the early 1960s

is another example of ar3sts abandoning the base to display their sculpture.

•  Some scholars argue these works to be the earliest example of a Minimalist ar3st NOT using the base.

Robert Morris, Two Columns, 1961. Painted plywood, 96” x 24” x 24”.

Private Collec3on.

Minimalism Robert Morris (b.1931) •  Morris was a student of Tony Smith. •  Morris took the gestalt principle as

the driving force behind his sculptures. –  This theory focuses on human

percep3on and the ability to understand visual rela3onships of space and unity.

•  His approach toward crea3ng works as part of a total exhibi3on concept was based on the scale of the human body and its experience with the work and the space in which it was shown. –  This approach evolved into site-‐

specific art and has its roots in the work of earlier modern ar3sts SchwiYers and Klein, and Baroque ar3sts like Bernini.

Robert Morris, Exhibi3on, Green Gallery, New York, 1964. Le` to right: Un@tled (Cloud), 1964, painted plywood. Un@tled (Boiler),

1964, painted plywood; Un@tled (Floor Beam), 1964, painted plywood; Un@tled (Titled), 1964,

painted plywood.

•  Morris’ work references earlier ar3sts including SchwiYers and Klein.

Yves Klein, La spécialisa@on de la sensibilité à l’état ma@ère première en sensibilité picturale stabilisée, Le Vide (The Specializa@on of Sensibility in the Raw Material State into Stabilized Pictorial Sensibility, The Void) or Le Vide (The Void) displayed at the Iris Clert

Gallery, Paris, France, 1958.

Kurt SchwiYers, Hanover Merzbau, destroyed. This photograph taken c.

1931.

Minimalism

“The idea becomes a machine that makes art.”

-‐Sol LeWiY

Sol LeWiY, Sculpture Series “A,” 1967. Installa3on view, Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles.

Minimalism Sol LeWiY (1928-‐2007) •  Although he would

become a leader of Conceptualist art, LeWiY’s earlier work embraced the Minimalist aesthe3c.

•  Like Morris, he conceived of his works as they would be installed.

•  His Sculpture Series “A” embraces seriality, uniformity, balance and harmony, a manufactured process, and industrial materials.

Sol LeWiY, Sculpture Series “A,” 1967. Installa3on view, Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles.

Sol LeWiY (1928-‐2007) •  LeWiY’s works were usually

not constructed by the ar3st; he would sell or distribute instruc3ons to the museum or gallery for installa3on. –  This erases the ar3st’s hand

and ego from the finished piece.

•  This concern with process, shared by LeWiY and Morris would become the basis for Process Art and the ul3mate challenge to Minimalist aesthe3c.

Sol LeWiY, Wall Drawing No. 652, On Three Walls, Con@nuous Forms with Color in

Washes Superimposed, 1990. Color ink wash on wall, approximately 30’ x 60’ As pictured in temporary installa3on at Addison Gallery, Andover, MA c. 1993. Currently installed in

Indianapolis Museum of Art .

Minimalism

Sol LeWiY (1928-‐2007) •  LeWiY’s artwork and his wri3ngs lead

Minimalism’s challenge of the Modernist aesthe3c. – Minimalists rejected Greenberg’s ideals.

•  LeWiY’s influen3al essay, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” paved the way for Conceptualism by arguing it was the idea that was most important. –  Conceptualism takes influence from

Dada. Sample of instruc3ons for drawing

by Sol LeWiY.

Minimalism

Carl Andre (b. 1935) •  Andre drew influence from Stella and Brancusi.

•  Rejects Renaissance subtrac3ve process for construc3on of art objects.

•  His pieces use industrial materials in mul3ple to create cohesive whole.

Carl Andre, Pyramid, 1959 (destroyed), 1970 9recreated). Fir wood, 68 7/8” x

31” x 31”. Dallas Museum of Art.

Minimalism

Carl Andre (b. 1935) •  Andre’s sculptures do not use a

base; they are directly in the space of the viewer and demand to be nego3ated when walking through the gallery.

•  Andre applied a very strict work ethic while construc3ng his pieces. –  He took this from working on a train.

–  He would wear a jumper-‐like uniform to the gallery/museum and piece together his sculptures.

Carl Andre, Well, 1964/70. Wood, 84” x 48” x 48”. Museum Ludwig, Köln.

Minimalism

Carl Andre (b. 1935) •  Since 1960s, his works have

been site specific. –  From my personal experience, I actually walked over one while in high school. I was too busy looking on the wall and stepped on a work not unlike his 37 Pieces of Work.

•  This is the interac3on the ar3st wants for his piece, but not all museums allow.

•  37 Pieces of Work was assembled by first placing smaller squares into a square like form to create the larger squares.

Carl Andre, 37 Pieces of Work, Fall 1969. Aluminum, copper, steel lead,

magnesium, and zinc, 1,296 units (216 of each metal), each unit 12” x 12” x ¾,” overall 36’ x 36.’ Installa3on view from rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum,

NYC

Minimalism Richard Serra (b.1939) •  Serra realized his mature work when he

began working with steel plates and sheets of lead.

•  He would create various construc3ons, like One Ton Prop by carefully balancing the sheets together.

•  He allows the medium to dictate the nature of the design. –  One Ton Prop consists of 4 500 lb. sheets of

lead against one another.

•  Serra’s work presents an inconsistency as the 3tle suggests it can be blown over like a house of cards but the nature of the material speaks otherwise.

Richard Serra, One Ton Prop (House of Cards), 1969

(refabricated 1986). Lead an3mony, four plates, 48” x 48” x 1” Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Richard Serra (b. 1939) •  Serra is best known for his

controversial work, Titled Arc.

•  This piece was inserted in front of the Federal Plaza in NYC as part of the Percent for Arts program.

•  Serra uses his characteris3c material, steel, and exploits its maneuverability-‐you can see the arc 3lts a slight bit in the photograph.

•  The piece caused great controversy in 1981 and, aèr a vola3le court baYle, was removed in the middle of the night and taken to a scrapyard in NJ. Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, 1981. Hot-‐rolled steel,

height, 12’, length 120.’ Original sight Federal Plaza, Foley Square, NY. Removed in 1989.


Minimalist Pain3ng

Minimalism

•  Although Minimalist sculpture is oèn concentrated on when discussing the style, painters were crea3ng under the Minimalist aesthe3c.

•  Painters had, long before sculptors, realized the superfluous nature of the frame-‐Picasso, in 1912, replaces it with rope in S@ll Life with Chair Caning addressing the nature of the frame in its rela3on to the work.

Minimalism

Agnes Mar3n (1912-‐2004) •  Mar3n’s 1960s Minimalist pain3ngs

represent her mature style. •  Sought purity of the canvas and to

present viewer with the medita3ve. •  Stylis3cally, she aligns with Rothko,

Newman, and Hard-‐Edge painters-‐but does not use their process.

Agnes Mar3n, Night Sea, 1963. Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 6’ x 6. Private

Collec3on.’

Mark Rothko, White and Greens in Blue, 1957. Oil on canvas, 8' 4" x 6' 10 ”. Private Collec3on.

BarneY Newman, Onement, I, 1948. Oil on canvas and oil on masking tape on canvas, 27 ¼” x 16 ¼”. Museum of

Modern Art, NY.

Minimalism

When I cover the square with rectangles, it lightens the weight of the square, destroys its power.

-‐Agnes Mar3n •  Un@tled, No.5, 1975 signals

Mar3n’s return to pain3ng aèr a short hiatus. –  Her pain3ngs retain her personal

style of geometric abstrac3on, simplicity of form, and subtle luminous color.

Agnes Mar3n, Un@tled No. 5, 1975. Synthe3c polymer paint and pencil on synthe3c polymer gesso on

canvas, 71 ⅞” x 72 ¼” Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Minimalism

Robert Ryman (b.1930) •  Ryman’s oeuvre is a study of, “how

paint worked” as he said. •  His pain3ngs are more about an

inves3ga3on into process and an3cipate Post-‐Minimalism’s Process Art. –  He studied how paint was applied and

how it interacted with the surface of the canvas and various other types of mateirals.

•  Mid-‐1960s limits self to the color white. –  These pieces recall the all white pain3ngs

of Rauschenberg and Malevich.

Robert Ryman, Points, 1963. Oil on aluminum, 36” x 36”. Collec3on of

the ar3st.

Robert Rauschenberg, White Pain@ngs (Four Panels), 1951. House paint on canvas, 72” x 72”. Ar3st’s estate.

Robert Ryman, Classico III, 1968. Polymer on paper, 7’9” x 7’ 5”. Stedelijk Museum.

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1913. Oil on canvas, 31.2” x 31.3,”

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

Minimalism

Robert Mangold (b. 1937) •  Mangold’s austere pain3ngs are a

reac3on to the excess of Abstract Expressionism.

•  Mentored by Al Held, Mangold he learned to bring aYen3on to the objectness of the pain3ng.

•  His works use the background to offset the purposeful “error” of design. –  This inserts a humanness into the piece and a sense of changeableness.

–  His works find the ability to rest between the bravura of Abstract Expressionism and the coolness of Minimalism.

–  It also exhibits the increasing challenge Minimalism faced during the 1970s.

Robert Mangold, Un@tled from Seven Aqua@nts. 1973 (published 1974). One from a porcolio of

seven aqua@nts, plate: 15 ⅞ x 15 ¾” . John Weber Gallery, NY.

Minimalism

Dorethea Rockburne (b. 1921) •  Rockburne’s personal style takes

Minimalism into the realm of Italian Arte Povera through her use of modest materials.

•  She creates her pieces directly on the wall or aYaches drawing paper which she oèn pierces to reveal the wall beneath. –  Sol LeWiY also does this with his designs.

•  She, like many Minimalists, never abandons the concept of making parts to complete the whole. Dorethea Rockburne, Indica@on Drawing Series:

Neighborhood from Drawing Which Makes Itself, 1973. Wall drawing pencil and colored pencil with vellum, various dimensions, Museum of Modern

Art, NY.

Minimalism Jo Baer (b. 1929) •  Baer takes explora3on of the

canvas to new dimensions. •  She relieved the work of the

ar3st’s hand by not including any brushwork on the canvas-‐this she believed helped the audience to focus on the en3re piece. –  She applied Gestalt psychology to

her work in ways similar to Morris. •  She includes stripes in her

Wrapped Around pieces. –  The bands are painted and then

applied to the canvas. –  The viewer must look closely at

the edges to realize the whole. –  She plays with the borders

because according to Gestalt psychology this is what helps the human mind to process the shape.

Jo Baer, Un@tled (Wrapped Around Triptych-‐Blue, Green, Lavender), 1969-‐74.

Oil on canvas, each panel 48” x 52”. Collection of the artist.


West Coast Minimalism

The Ferus Studs and The C.A. Cool School

The Ferus Gang (Group Portrait of Ar@sts from the Ferus Gallery), 1962. (Le` to Right: John Altoon, Craig Kauffman, Allen Lynch, Ed Kienholz, Ed Moses, Robert Irwin, Billy Al

Bengston). Photo by Patricia Faure.

The Ferus Gang (Group Portrait of Ar@sts from the Ferus Gallery), 1962. Clockwise From The Upper Le`: Billy Al Bengston, Allen Lynch, Robert Irwin,

Craig Kaufman, John Altoon, Ed Kienholz, Ed Moses(Center). Photo by Patricia Faure.


•  By the mid-‐1960s California ar3sts had embraced Minimalism and given it a uniquely West Coast spin. –  In Los Angeles, both the Fe3sh Finish Movement and the Light and Space Movement put their own par3cular spin on East Coast Minimalism.

• West Coast ar3sts benefit from the leòver industry of World War II-‐its ship building yards and temporary housing as well as its car culture play an important role in aesthe3c and materials used and explored.


•  West Coast Minimalism is known as Finish Fe3sh, the L.A. Look or the Slick Look, it is also known as the Cool School.

•  The Light and Space Movement, also found on the West Coast saw ar3sts incorpora3ng the latest technologies of the Southern California based engineering and aerospace industries to develop sensuous, light-‐filled objects. – Ar3sts associated with these styles are said to prefer result over process, clean over messy, detail over approxima3on, professionalism over individuality, and icon over ac3on.


•  These schools are contemporaneous to East Coast Minimalism. –  The L.A. School was, however, less theore3cally based and more upbeat and had a more accessible personality.

•  Most ar3sts of the L.A. Look created art with a clean-‐edged, me3culous style sugges3ve of industrial fabrica3on. –  They share this is common with Post-‐Painterly Abstrac3on and East Coast Minimalist ar3sts.

•  The glossy look was sugges3ve of the machine made-‐ it references suryoards and automobiles, CA was known for its surfer popula3on and low-‐rider subculture. –  Its shares the mass produc3on approach with Pop ar3sts, especially Andy Warhol and his silkscreens.


•  Los Angeles ar3sts became notable for their use of new materials, –  This is how the varia3on of names like ‘L.A. glass and plas3c’ or ‘Finish–Fe3sh’ came to be applied.

–  These ar3sts experimented with industrial materials such as spray paints, plas3c and treated glass, and fiberglass.

–  Leaders in the use of non-‐tradi3onal materials and the interest in light were Robert Irwin (b.1928), Larry Bell (b.1939), Craig Kauffman (b 1932) and DeWain Valen3ne (b 1936), who made wall-‐hung works as well as free-‐standing sculptures.

•  This work paved the way for the Light and Space Movement of the 1970s.

West Coast Abstrac3on: Finish Fe3sh Judy Chicago (b. 1939) •  Although she is best known for

her pioneering efforts in Feminist Art and Art Prac3ce, Chicago had worked in the Finish Fe3sh style of Minimalism.

•  She was the only woman “man-‐enough” as she states in her autobiography to hang with the Ferus Group.

•  Rainbow Picket, first created in 1965 and then re-‐created in 2004 is one example of her work with the Cool School. –  No3ce how her work shares

much in common with the columns of Robert Morris and Carl Andre.

Judy Chicago. Rainbow PickeE, 1965–2004. Plywood, canvas, and latex paint, each column is 1’ cubed and arranged at 45° angle to wall. Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Judy Chicago (b. 1939) •  Like many in the L.A. School, Chicago experimented with media; here she uses an airbrush (new at the 3me) on a car hood. –  This is also typical of the fascina3on with car culture typical of West Coast ar3sts at the 3me.

Judy Chicago, Car Hood, 1964. Sprayed acrylic lacquer on Corvair car hood, 42 15/16” x 49 3/16” x 4 5/16”. Moderna

Museet, Stockholm.

Light and Space

•  The art of the Light and Space Movement inves3gates human percep3on and sensa3on.

•  It evolves out of the L.A. School or L.A. Look. •  These works are self-‐contained en33es frequently made of industrial materials such as plas3c, resin, and glass -‐ which were designed to convey nothing of the personal touch of the fabricator.


Larry Bell (b.1939) •  Bell was a leader of the “Light and Space” Movement.

•  Like most ar3sts associated with Minimalism, Bell was concerned with the perceptual experience stemming from the viewer’s interac3on with their work.

Larry Bell, 97, 1997. Beveled glass, 6’x6’x4’. Installa3on view wood Street Gallery,

PiYsburgh, PA.


Larry Bell (b.1939) •  Bell’s art addresses the

rela3onship between the art object and its environment through the sculptural and reflec3ve proper3es of his work.

•  His latest works fully realize the capacity for human interac3on. Robert Irwin, Black³, 2008. Edi3on of 3, Tergal voile,

light construc3on, framing materials and pain3ngs (urethane paint and lacquer on aircra` honeycomb aluminium), dimensions variable. Each pain3ng: 60”

x 60“

Larry Bell, Un@tled, 1964. bismuth, chromium, gold, and rhodium on gold-‐plated brass, 14 ¼" x

14 3/8" x 14 3/8". Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.


I like to think of my glass construc@ons as tapestries of reflected and transmiEed light

-‐Larry Bell

Light and Space Movement Larry Bell (b.1939) •  Aèr pain3ng in the Abstract

Expressionist tradi3on, Bell began incorpora3ng fragments and shards of clear and mirrored glass into his composi3ons.

•  At the same 3me, his pain3ng began to exhibit angular geometric composi3ons that alluded to or represented three-‐dimensional forms. –  These works frequently depicted

rec3linear forms with truncated corners.

–  These evolved into a series of shadow boxes or “ghost boxes”, three-‐dimensional cases whose surfaces oèn featured shapes reminiscent of those in his preceding pain3ngs. Larry Bell, Un@tled, 1967. Glass,

coa3ngs and metal, 14 ¼” x 14 ¼” x 14 ¼”. Tate, London.


Larry Bell (b.1939) •  His work evolved into a

series of shadow boxes or “ghost boxes”, three-‐dimensional cases whose surfaces oèn featured shapes reminiscent of those in his preceding pain3ngs. •  This piece from 2005 is

reminiscent of that phase of produc3on.

Larry Bell, SSSS Shadow Box, 2005. Wood and coated glass, 21” x 21” x 5”. Artnet.


Larry Bell (b.1939) •  The op3cal ambigui3es created by the reflec3ons of the viewer's image and the ambient space became the hallmark of Bell's work.

Larry Bell (in hat), Standing Wall Installa@on Pasadena Art Museum, 1972.

Photo Patricia Faure


Robert Irwin (b.1928) •  Irwin’s Un@tled, is a drama3c example of the work, its environment, and their rela3onship.

Robert Irwin, Un@tled, 1965-‐67. Acrylic automobile lacquers on prepared,

shaped aluminum with metal tubes, four 150 waY floodlights, 60” diameter. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.


Robert Irwin (b.1928) •  To get the desired effect, Irwin’s works are site specific.

Robert Irwin, Un@tled, 1965-‐67. Acrylic automobile lacquers on prepared, shaped aluminum with metal

tubes, four 150 waY floodlights, 60” diameter. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

“A work can be as powerful as it can be thought to be. Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface…”

-‐Donald Judd

Donald Judd, Un@tled, 1977. Concrete, outer ring diameter 49’3,” Münster, Germany.

Minimalism •  By the 1970s, Minimalism’s

popularity (and Greenberg’s influence) was beginning to wane.

•  Ar3sts grew frustrated with the amount of power of the cri3c (gallery and museums) over the art economy.

•  In retalia3on, ar3sts began to make work outside the museum and gallery system forcing the audience to commit to the work, to travel to see it and thus taking the artwork out of posi3on to be commodified.

•  This resulted in a new wave of works referred to as Earthworks, Site-‐specific, and Earth Art.

•  Ar3sts had started to challenge the placing of art within the closed environment or gallery space by increasing scale or dimension of their pieces. Donald Judd, Un@tled, 1977. Concrete, outer

ring diameter 49’3,” Münster, Germany.

Minimalism

Ronald Bladen (1918-‐1988) •  Bladen’s work, in the tradi3on of

Duchamp, dominates the gallery space.

•  His Big X, creates barriers within the space it occupies-‐an expression of frustra3on most ar3sts were feeling at the 3me.

Ronald Bladen, The Big X, 1967. Painted wood and model to be made in metal, 22’8” x

24’6”. Fischbach Gallery, NY.

Minimalism •  The pluralism of the 1970s

would allow ar3sts previously marginalized-‐women and ar3sts of color (men and women) to make commentary on the state of the art world.

•  Ar3st Miriam “Mimi” Shapiro (b.1923), a leading feminist ar3st and scholar, created The Big Ox, in 1968. One cannot help but see a resemblance.

–  Shapiro trades in Bladen’s colossal sculpture for smaller, two dimensional form.

–  She later described this work as an3cipa3ng her vaginal imagery, a vocabulary she realized with fellow feminist, Judy Chicago.

Ronald Bladen, The Big X, 1967. Painted wood and model to be made in metal, 22’8” x 24’6”. Fischbach

Gallery, NY.

Miriam Schapiro, Big Ox No 2, 1968. Acrylic on canvas, 90” x

108”. Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego,

CA.

•  Miriam Shapiro would join forces with Judy Chicago and the two would launch the first all women’s art classes.

•  These classes taught women not only how to create art, but the history of female ar3sts-‐a history that had previously been stricken from the record.

•  The two would develop a feminist vocabulary centered on vaginal imagery.

Miriam Schapiro, Big Ox No 2, 1968. Acrylic on canvas, 90” x

108”. Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego,

CA.

Judy Chicago, Car Hood, 1964. Sprayed acrylic

lacquer on Corvair car hood, 42 15/16” x 49 3/16” x 4 5/16”. Moderna Museet,

Stockholm.

Education

Playing by the Rules: 1960s Abstraction: Minimalism