American Minimalism

In the late 1960s, American minimalism was a movement in visual arts and music which originated in New York City among artists who were self-consciously condemning the recent art they thought had become academic. This significant shift in American art was a reaction to the critical and popular success of Abstract Expressionism. Minimalist removed the suggestions of biography from their art and metaphors of any kind. They sought to break down the traditional ideas of sculpture, to erase the distinctions between painting and sculpture.

Minimalist introduced a new vocabulary of simplified geometric forms that are made from humble industrial materials such as aluminum and fiberglass. Works created by minimalists resembled factory-built products that compelled the viewer to experience the quality of height, weight, and gravity as a material presence.

One of the key composers of American minimalism is Frank Stella. His work is a key momentum in modern art. Stella’s series of Black Paintings (1958 -1960) act as a bold counter-movement against the eminent Abstract Expressionism. This masterpiece is a monochromatic rectangular-shaped on a heavy chassis projecting from the wall to the surrounding space as it urges it, viewers, to move back. Stella challenged the traditional connection between painting and sculpture that was advocated by ‘Clement Greenberg’, one of the abstract expressionist artists. His work and his famous statement, “What you see is what you see’ act as a foundation in the development of American Minimalism.