Main Body
7. Art And Music in the 1970s, Part One
Clayton Funk
In our discussion of Abstract Expressionism, artists were trying to reduce art to its essence. In this chapter we will discuss other ways artists explored the reduction of visual form that caused viewers to reflect on themselves. Minimalism in art and music was an effort to create a form with a minimum of material and process. That means that one of Donald Judd’s cube-shaped sculptures was reduced to the simple form of a cube, and nothing more. Minimal Music was similar in that an entire musical work could be composed from a very simple tune of, say, four notes. Like minimalism, Conceptual art was a shift of focus away from representational images and to an idea as the basis for a work. Instead of creating, say, an image of something we recognize, like a figure or a landscape, they focused on ideas. The summaries will lead you to biographies and more information about the artists for you to study.
Minimalism
Minimal Art
Painterly Abstraction brought the reductive process possibilities of pure painting to a logical end. But all was not said and done. Artists in the 1960s and 1970s who explored reductive notions found a new way to embody their ideas in visual form. These artists explored the reductive tradition with highly experimental three-dimensional work. This new approach to art was eventually called Minimal Art. A diverse group of artists were at one point or another during their careers classified as minimalists. These artists included Robert Morris, Daniel Buren, Dan Flavin, Tony Smith, Sol Lewitt, Ellsworth Kelly, Donald Judd, Dorothea Rockburn, Fred Sandback, Carl Andre, Richard Serra, and Eva Hesse.
The name Minimal was applied to this style because the art seemed to have a minimal amount of art content. It certainly did not represent objects and people as Pop Art did nor did it seem to have any of the emotional or expressive characteristic of Abstract Expressionism. In fact, it was usually so simple that it seemed to lack complexities even under the surface. The minimal artists were more interested in pure shape, color, and texture of the object and how it related to the viewer in space.
The work was often placed on the floor, instead of a pedestal, to occupy the visitor’s space and ensure that their attention was captured. The Minimalists created work which drew in the viewer to participate and contemplate what its meaning or purpose was to themselves. They were interested in how a space could be transformed or altered by their art.
The artists also went so far as to dismiss themselves from the art making process itself and sometimes the physical piece was made by technicians in factories, who followed a set of instructions or diagrams with precision. Overall, the Minimalists were interested in continuity and order. They were interested in what comes next and what the final piece was as a whole. Their work did not refer to any other subject matter, because that would design