Minimalism

What is minimalism? Perhaps we can say that this is an art that seeks to escape from itself.

The time of his birth is the 1960s, and the place is the capital of modern art – New York. The laconism of the genre spawned his name – minimal art, minimalism, ABC art. His credo – the less processing of materials and surfaces, the better. And in general, only the concept and the final assembly are often left from the artist’s work, the rest is made industrially, this is considered cool and progressive. Art objects are made of plywood, metal, brick, plexiglass, neon tubes.

Minimalism is simple geometric shapes and lines, a minimum of shades, colors without any frills. Let us recall several milestones in the emergence of the minimalism style of the 1950s – 1960s.
American artist Frank Stella created a series of “black paintings” in the late 1950s – it was a laconic black and white painting with simple lines.

In the next decade, books and articles by British art historian Camilla Gray on the themes of Eastern European avant-garde come out in the United States. They helped the artists on the western side of the Atlantic to learn the traditions of Eastern European constructivism of the beginning of the twentieth century, and this acquaintance influenced the formation of a new direction in art.

In 1962-1963, the first works in the style of minimalism appeared – a kind of answer to the complex forms of abstract expressionism. The simplification fashion has once again changed fashion to complexity. Simple geometric abstractions – the basis of minimalism in painting. Many works of this genre are good wall painting, gently decorating the interior with abstraction.

One of the leading US artists of the postwar era was Donald Judd. Starting as an art critic, but from the late 1940s, he continued his journey in art as a painter, becoming a follower of minimalism. He called his works “specific objects” – (specific objects). He preferred to create works from wood and eventually from metal. The place to show the artist’s installations was open space. The objects he created from plywood, metal and plexiglass industrial method.

A follower of minimalism was the artist Dan Flavin. Since 1961, he created art objects using electric light. Often devoted his work to family and friends. From 1964 to 1990, he worked on a work entitled “The Monument to Vladimir Tatlin,” an artist. His other work was created for a church in Milan, Italy.

The famous minimalist artist and conceptualist, art theorist Sol Levitt is the author of sculptures and graphics, as well as wall paintings. He drew inspiration from Eastern European constructivism and avant-garde. And his creative ideas were embodied with the help of simple geometric shapes.

Later, there was an evolution of minimalism towards such directions as neo-minimalism and post-minimalism. Minimalist artists sought to get away from the boring traditional art, but almost gone from any art in general. They created cold geometric shapes, which, however, relished art curators, art dealers and journalists. Connoisseurs of beauty saw in intellectualism intellectual charm, advancement and rejection of all unnecessary and unnecessary in favor of purity.