One of the most extreme of the abstract art forms, minimalist art evolved as a reaction to abstract expressionism, seeking to remove personal ideals and symbolism from art entirely to leave just the work of art itself, and the space in which it was exhibited to confer any kind of meaning on the viewer. Seeping into sculpture, design, and architecture, minimalism has remained in our world ever since, however the deliberately anonymous nature of the work means that artworks tend to be recognised more than the actual artists; so below are some of the key artists who developed and defined modern minimalism.
Donald Judd
Considered one of the leading minimalist artists, and one of the leaders of its theory, Judd nevertheless often rejected the label, even though his concepts of Specific Objects and seeking of autonomy for the constructed object, and the space created by it, were fundamental. Initially working as an Expressionist painter, he soon developed a basic artistic vocabulary of boxes, progressions, and stacks, and began sculpting them in simple industrial materials. Throughout his career his pieces gradually got larger as he drew inspiration from the desert landscapes around him in California, eventually growing to a 340 acre ex military site which he filled with his own work and that of others. An extensive producer of art prints, furniture and writings on art, Judd’s theories were hugely influential to the movement, even if he didn’t recognise it as such.
Dan Flavin
Best known for his artworks created from fluorescent lighting tubes, Flavin began his career as an abstract expressionist, and experimented with collage made from found objects in the street. Whilst working as a security guard he began sketching ideas for simple sculptures that incorporated fluorescent lights, and quickly progressed to simply using fluorescent tubes in a limited palette of colours and forms. These were often arranged so as to cast unusual shadows and colours from positioning in corners and corridors, until his work was a complete environment of light filling a room.
Frank Stella
Another artist initially interested in abstract expressionism, he gradually found himself seduced by flat planes of colour, particularly in the works of Barnett Newman, or Jasper John’s target paintings, seeing a painting as a flat surface with paint on it and nothing more. His minimalist works gained rapid recognition, working first with pin stripes in various colours, he began shaping canvasses and creating elaborate designs with uniform curves and straight lines. As his career progressed he introduced relief and began to use elements of collage as his work became more elaborate, expanding away from minimalism to a range of abstract forms and styles.
Sol LeWitt
A prolific artist across a range of mediums including painting, photography, art prints, and sculpture, his work tends to revolve around towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and progressions, some that can sit on a desk, and others which can fill a gallery hall. He became widely known for his modular cuboid structures, connecting them together in a range of ways which would eventually use a mathematical formula for the proportions of positive and negative space in each sculpture. His two dimensional work often came in the form of drawings directly onto the wall of an art gallery space, creating interesting intersections of line and grid-like patterns once again constructed from squares and cubes. LeWitt was a huge influence on the movement, as one of the first to consider the fundamental relationship between idea, artist, and artwork.
Tony Smith
A pioneer of minimalist sculpture, much of Smith’s work defines the movement, and only exists from his dissatisfaction with working as an architect. He began studying sculpture and began to hit on ideas and interesting shapes and forms that went beyond simple design work; he saw geometric shapes linked together at scale could create remarkable sculpture. Working as a teacher, in his spare time he played with small maquettes of ideas until he took a leap of working with a professional welding company to start producing large metalworks which he would become famous for. He began exhibiting pieces across the US, picking up commissions and appearing on the cover of Time as one of the leading figures of minimalism.
