HUM100: SEMIFINAL TERM

COURSE TITLE Art Appreciation COURSE CODE HUM100

COURSE CO4: Ability to assess the origin of the different art movements taken up
OUTCOME in the class and appreciate its meaning and value of the
works of art under such art movements.
MODULE 4 A Journey Through Art History – Art Movements Part 4
LESSON After successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
LEARNING a) build knowledge and appreciation about the different
OUTCOME/S art movements: constructivism, optical art, pop art, and
minimalism;
b) differentiate the four art movements; and
c) have a glimpse of the work of arts from the four art
movements.

TOPIC/S Art Movements

A. Constructivism
B. Optical Art
C. Pop Art
D. Minimalism

 LESSON PROPER

A JOURNEY THROUGH ART HISTORY

A. CONSTRUCTIVISM
What is Constructivism?
 Constructivism was a Russian avant-garde art movement based on
the idea of functionalism, symbiosis of technology and art, as well as
the use of modern industrial materials.
 The term constructivism itself was coined by sculptors Antoine
Pevsner and Naum Gabo in the Realistic Manifesto of 1920.
 In Constructivism, the role of the artist was re-imagined – the
artist became an engineer wielding tools, instead of a painter holding
a brush.
  For the Constructivists, artworks were part of a greater visual
program meant to awaken the masses and lead them towards
awareness of class divisions, social inequalities, and revolution.

Brief History of Constructivism

Constructivism was the most influential modern art movement in twentieth century
Russia. With its aesthetic roots fixed firmly in the Suprematism movement, Constructivism
came fully to the fore as the art of a young Soviet Union after the revolution of 1917. The
movement was conceived of out of a need for a new aesthetic language; one benefitting of
a progressive new era in Soviet socialist history. Constructivism also borrowed elements of
other European avant-gardes, notably Cubism and Futurism, and at its heart was the idea
that artmaking should be approached as a process of cerebral “construction”.
The formation of constructivist visuality was influenced by avant-garde trends –
Futurism and Cubism. Vladimir Tatlin’s Paris experience and collaboration with Pablo
Picasso played a crucial role here. In Paris, he met with cubist experiments – collage and
assemblage and began to build the concept of artistic construction. Such modulation and
treatment of non-artistic materials influenced the formation of Tatlin’s idea of constructed
artworks.
Released from the old romantic notion of being tied to the studio and the easel,
Constructivist artists were reborn as technicians and/or engineers who, much like scientists,
were seeking solutions to modern problems. By the early 1920s Constructivist art had
evolved to accommodate the idea of Productivism which took the aesthetic principles of
Constructivism and applied them to “everyday” art such as photography, fashion, graphic
and textile design, cinema, and theater. Nevertheless, by the early 1930s the Soviet avant-
garde had rudely fallen foul of the new regime that wished to promote the more transparent
style of Socialist Realism.
 Famous Constructivist Artists and Some of their Artworks

Vladimir Tatlin’s

Tatlin’s Tower (1919)

Tatlin’s Tower, also known as the Monument to the Third International, was
Tatlin’s design for a monumental building that was to be erected in St. Petersburg as the
headquarters and monument of the Comintern (Third International). It was envisioned as
a towering symbol of modernity, built from industrial materials like glass, steel, and iron.
Though the tower was never realised, it has become one of the symbols of
Constructivism.

El Lissitzky

Proun Room (1923)

 Proun Room is an installation of dynamic abstract forms that appear to be
floating, and which are meant to activate the viewer, propelling them around the space.

Alexander Rodchenko

Books (Please)! In All Branches of Knowledge (1924)

This iconic Constructivist artwork depicts a woman shouting the words in the title
of the piece in sharp, linear forms. This gives the artwork a sonic dimension.

László Moholy-Nagy

E IV (Konstruktion VIII), 1922

Born László Weisz in 1895 in Bácsborsód in southern Hungary, Moholy was raised
by his uncle Gusztáv Nagy who supported the family and mentored the Weisz kids after
their father ran off to America.
 B. OPTICAL ART
What is Optical Art?
 Optical Art is a form of geometric abstract art that explores
optical sensations through the use of visual effects such as
recurring simple forms and rhythmic patterns vibrating colour-
combinations, moiré patterns and foreground-background
confusion.
 Op Art (a term coined in 1964 by Time magazine) relies on optical
illusions in order to fool the eye of the viewer. It is also called optical
art or retinal art.
 Op Art, when viewed, pictures may cause the eye to detect a sense of
movement (eg. swelling, warping, flashing, vibration) on the
surface of the painting.
 Op art exploits the functional relationship between the eye's retina
(the organ that "sees" patterns) and the brain (the organ that
interprets patterns).

Characteristics of Op Art
1. Op Art exists to fool the eye.
2. Op Art is not meant to represent reality.
3. Op Art is not created by chance.
4. Op Art relies on two specific techniques.
5. Op Art typically does not include the blending of colors.
6. Op Art embraces negative space.

Brief History of Op Art

The roots of Op Art, in terms of graphic and colour effects can be traced back
to Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism and Dada, but the movement perhaps more closely
derives from the 1920s constructivist practices of the Bauhaus design school in Germany,
which stressed the importance of the overall formal design, in creating a specific visual
effect. The German school stressed the relationship of form and function within a
framework of analysis and rationality, which led to mirroring the counterculture of the
time in the embrace of graphic shapes and bright colours. At that time, artists like M.C.
Escher, Victor Vasarely and Josef Albers experimented with what is now considered
optical art. Albers’
 works are studies in colour perception, while Escher’s work employs paradoxical
placements, visual trickery as well as errors of perspective in forms and structures that
seem plausible at first glance. The artist known as the grandfather of optical art is
French-Hungarian artist Victor Vasarely, whose painting titled Zebras (1938) is by many
art historians considered one of the earliest examples of Op Art.

A decisive event in the history and development of the kinetic arts, the 1955
group exhibition Le Mouvement, shown at the Galerie Denise René in Paris, also proved
to be one of the first shows to promote works that used optical illusions and visual
trickery. The pinnacle of the Op Art movement’s success was 1965, when the Museum of
Modern Art embraced the style with the exhibition The Responsive Eye, which showcased
paintings and sculptures by artists such as Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella,
Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Josef Albers. Many museum attendees were
intrigued by the collision of art and science, but critics such as Clement Greenberg were
vehemently opposed to the movement. The breadth of exhibitions such as The Responsive
Eye also cast doubt on the movement, since by including artists such as Frank Stella,
whose interests were so different from those of Vasarely, the label seemed almost too
broad to be useful or plausible. Op Art profoundly influenced advertising, fashion, and
interior design as well, before fading in the early 1970s.
 Famous Op Artists and Some of their Artworks

Victor Vasarely

Optical Cube, 1975

Sign Sculpture, 1977

Victor Vasarely is considered to be one the most important representatives of

optical painting. He took inspiration and orientation from theories of the Bauhaus,
Suprematism, and geometric abstraction. He was born in Pécs, Hungary in 1906 and grew
up in Piestany and Budapest, where he became acquainted with the basics of traditional
academic painting as well as with the Bauhaus movement. Much of Vasarely’s life and
work was about the Op Art style. His paintings aimed at forcing people out of their visual
comfort zone with the pleasant tension created by apparently moving images that steer
their minds towards doubt and new ideas. He wanted to bring life into everyday life with
the play of colors and shapes, immersing himself in the world of optical art experiments.
 Bridget Riley

La Lune, 1965

Blaze, 1964

Bridget Riley is one of the best-known Op Art painters, famous for her striking
murals composed of multiple stripes which create optical illusions for the viewer. Her
black and white geometric patterns explore the dynamism of sight and produce a
disorienting effect on the eye, creating an illusion of movement and colour. Born in 1931
in London, Riley studied at Goldsmith’s College and the Royal Academy of Art. Riley is
known in the public consciousness for her iconic black and white geometric works, as well
as for her temporary public murals in major institutions such as the Tate gallery in London
and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. She currently lives and works in both the United
Kingdom and France.
 Richard Anuskiewicz

Plus Reversed, 1960

He was one of the founders and foremost exponents of Op Art during the late
1960s and early 1970s. In 1964, Life magazine ran a feature on him in which they called
him “one of the new wizards of Op Art”. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Anuskiewicz went to
the Cleveland Institution of Art where he found and became interested in Op Art. He
graduated and went to Yale and, interestingly enough, was taught by Josef Albers for some
time. Anuszkiewicz is still actively painting today.
 François Morellet

10 lignes au hazard hybrids n03, 2007

Four Self-Distorting Grids, 1965

Born in 1926 in Cholet, a small town in the Loire Valley, François Morellet was a
painter, graphic artist and sculptor. He was one of the founders of the Groupe de
Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) along with the Argentines, Julio Le Parc and Francisco
Sobrino. The experimental work done by François Morellet was parallel to artists like
Frank Stella, Sol LeWitt or Dan Flavin. Morellet continually explored a wide range of
practices and incorporated diverse materials into his work such as steel, iron, adhesive
tape, wire mesh and wood. He was convinced that painting was the discipline of the past,
so he advocated the use of new materials like neon, that eventuallz became the main
element of his aesthetic language. Many of his works, that bear inexplicable titles, rely on
the interaction of the observer due to electrical systems that turn them on and off.
 Josef Albers

Structural Constellation, 1958

Josef Albers was instrumental in bringing the tenets of European modernism,

particularly those associated with the Bauhaus, to America. His legacy as a teacher of
artists, as well as his extensive theoretical work proposing that color, rather than form, is
the primary medium of pictorial language, profoundly influenced the development of
modern art in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. In this optical illusion, Albers
experiments with the perception of space by depicting how an arrangement of simple lines
can create an ambiguous sense of spatial depth. The black rectangular shapes intersect
each other from various angles to disorient the viewer's perception of what is in front and
what is behind.
Even though the forms are not stylistically rendered, the viewer interprets the image as
having unstable dimensions. Albers rejected the label "Op art," and his background in the
Bauhaus inclined him to be interested in a very rational investigation of the effects of
color, yet he never ruled out the usefulness and interest of tricking the eye.
 Carlos Cruz-Diez

Physichromie No. 965, 1977

Carlos Cruz-Diez was one of a remarkable generation of South American artists,

often resident in Paris, who had an important impact on Op art. He began to focus on the
physical properties of color after viewing the work of Jesus Rafael Soto. He created a
technique called "additive color" that used evenly spaced colored card strips. Each strip
was placed parallel to the next to create the impression of softly modulated tones, which
changed according to the position of the viewer. Here Cruz-Diez examined Bauhaus
teacher Joannes Itten's theory of the simultaneous perception of different colors through
parallel line placement, linear shock, and the fusion of tonalities. The totality of effects
creates the illusion of a moving image, exemplifying qualities of Op art and Kinetic art.

Jesus Rafael Soto

Sphère Lutétia, 1996

Soto, a Venezuelan who came to France in 1950, was another of the many South
American artists who made such an important contribution to Op and Kinetic art. The
globe-like form in Sphere bleue de Paris appears to defy gravity, suggesting an energetic
power-source, a world or universe. It is created by thin
 strands of blue rubber tubing, evenly spaced, and moved with a gentle wind or slight
touch. The tubing creates a segmented sphere that appears to dissolve into thin air as the
viewer circles it. Soto began making such works in the mid-1960s, and although this
piece was created many years after the Op art movement went into decline, it
demonstrates the endurance of many of the movement's personalities and their ideas. An
optical illusion is conjured in order to depict a motif that speaks softly and mystically of
the possibilities of science.

C. POP ART

What is Pop Arts?

 Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the
mid- to late-1950s. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including
imagery from popular and mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane mass-
produced objects. One of its aims is to use images of popular culture in art, emphasizing the
banal or kitschy elements of any culture, most often through the use of irony. It is also associated
with the artists' use of mechanical means of reproduction or rendering techniques. In pop art,
material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, or combined with
unrelated material.
 A distinction must be made between British and American Pop Art.
 Pop art is an art movement that began in the mid-twentieth century and presented viewers with a
blend of fine art with popular culture. It incorporated everyday objects into painting, sculpture,
silkscreen, collage, and multimedia works.
 An abbreviation of Popular Art, Pop art is characterized by a deconstruction of images seen in
popular culture – television, comic books, magazines, movies and other various forms of
advertising.

Why is it called pop art ?

 They made art that mirrored, critiqued, and, at times, incorporated everyday items, consumer
goods, and mass media messaging and imagery. In reference to its intended popular appeal and
its engagement with popular culture, it was called Pop art.

Who invented Pop art?

The first definition of Pop Art was provided by British curator Lawrence Alloway, who
invented the term 'Pop Art' in 1955 to describe a new form of art characterized by the imagery of
consumerism, new media, and mass reproduction. Through bold, simple, everyday imagery, and vibrant
block colors, Pop Art was one of the first art movements to narrow the divide between commercial and
fine arts.
 Pop Art artists took inspiration from advertising, pulp magazines, billboards, movies,
television, comic strips, and shop windows for their humorous, witty and ironic works, which both
can be seen as a celebration and a critique of popular culture.

Who was the father of pop art?

Long before Americans Andy Warhol or James Rosenquist became known for their pop art,
Richard Hamilton was shaking up Britain's art scene, introducing mass production techniques into
painting.

After attending various art schools in London, Hamilton launched his career as a pop artist in
the early 1950s. He was one of the leading figures in the intellectual and artistic movement called the
"Independent Group." It was the first to deal with phenomena such as advertising, film, and tabloid
magazines.

The Independent Group (IG), founded in London in 1952, is regarded as the precursor to the
pop art movement. They were a gathering of young painters, sculptors, architects, writers and critics who
were challenging prevailing modernist approaches to culture as well as traditional views of fine art.

Pop Arts Artists

 Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987 was an American visual artist, film
director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art.
His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture
that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silk screening,
photography, film, and sculpture.

Some of his best-known

 the silkscreen paintings

 Campbell's Soup Cans (1962)
 Marilyn Diptych (1962)
 the experimental films Empire (1964)
 Chelsea Girls (1966)
 the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
  Richard William Hamilton CH was an English painter and collage artist. He was the father
of Pop arts. His 1955 exhibition Man, Machine and Motion and his 1956 collage, Just what is
it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?

 Lawrence Alloway, (born Sept. 17, 1926, Wimbledon, Eng.—died Jan. 2, 1990, New York,
N.Y., U.S.), English-born American curator and art critic who wrote widely on a variety of
popular art topics. He is credited with coining the now-common term Pop art, although its
meaning came to be understood as “art about popular culture” rather than “the art of popular
culture,” as he had suggested.

Notable Works:

 “The Arts and the Mass Media”

 David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman,
printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the
pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British
artists of the 20th century.
 On 15 November 2018, Hockney's 1972 work Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two
Figures) sold at Christie's auction house in New York City for $90 million (£70
million), becoming the most expensive artwork by a living artist sold at auction.This
broke the previous record, set by the 2013 sale of Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (Orange) for
$58.4 million. Hockney held this record until 15 May 2019 when Koons reclaimed the
honour selling his Rabbit for more than $91 million at Christie's in New York.

10 Unique Pop Art Characteristics

1. Everyday Imagery

Pop art artists used everyday imagery. With a focus on consumerism, items found on grocery
store shelves, and household appliances, were all part of pop art. Photos from newspapers, magazines and
illustrations were utilized in Pop art. Brands and logos were also incorporated. Youthful pop culture
found its way into imagery, through rock stars, movies stars and politicians.
 Orange Marilyn. 1962. Andy Warhol.

2. A Merging of Fine Art and Popular Culture

Pop art dislodged the public’s perception of what art was. While most Pop art artists trained in
fine art, they blurred the borders between fine art and popular culture. British Pop art artist Peter Blake
illustrated this concept expertly with his Pop art painting On the Balcony, made to look like a collage.
This Pop art shows people surrounded by fine art and symbols of popular culture such as magazines.

On the Balcony. (1955–1957) Peter Blake. Tate Gallery, London.

3. A Criticism Of Consumerism
British pop artists, especially Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) and Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-
2005) were highly critical of American consumerism, especially because Great Britain was still
trying to recover after the war.

Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing? by English Pop art artist
Richard Hamilton, uses glamorized images from American pop culture, for his collage, to illustrate the
imagined need to continually buy more.

Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?1956. Peter Hamilton.
Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen.

4. Bold Colors
Pop art artists employed bold colors from the primary color palette including vivid red, bright
yellow and royal blue. They also used unexpected tones not found in nature, along with neon and
fluorescents. Pop artists created art that was meant to immediately grab the viewer’s attention.

Famous Pop art artist Andy Warhol’s (1928-1987) Orange Marilyn, created in 1962, just after
her death, is a cropped composition of the movie star’s face. This Pop art artwork has a background of
flaming orange. Marilyn’s skin tone is an unnatural pink, with painted red lips, and heavy turquoise eye
shadow, to match her collar. Her trademark platinum blonde hair is depicted in sunshine yellow.
 Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) often painted women with bright yellow hair and bold red lips,
influenced by the comic book images they came from. In his Pop art painting M-Maybe, from 1965, the
viewer takes in a bit more background than Lichtenstein generally shows. He uses color as punctuation
against graphic black and white. The night sky is royal blue, the partially visible staircase is red, and the
window pain is the same yellow as the woman’s hair.

M-Maybe.1965. Roy Lichtenstein. Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany.

5. Pulp Culture

Pulp culture or artwork that takes on the style of another medium was well represented in the
Pop art movement. Roy Lichtenstein took illustrations from popular comic books and made them into
cropped paintings, without storylines. He used bright colors, dark outlines, and Ben-Day dots exactly as
comic books were presented.

6. Humor

Pop art was created for the fun and frivolity of youth. Subjects were injected with humor. Even
more serious topics were made fun of. WHAAM! by Pop art artist Roy Lichtenstein takes the subject of
war and simplifies it. The pilot on the left canvas is thinking “I pressed the fire control… and ahead of
me rockets blazed through the sky.” The other aircraft explodes with the word Whaam!
 Whaam! 1963 by Roy Lichtenstein 1923-1997

7. Appropriation
Many pop artists took images either from photography or print and incorporated them directly
into their works. Artists like Lichtenstein would take illustrations from comic books and books, while
only slightly re-imagining them. He would paint the images cropped and remove background context,
thereby omitting any storyline.

The famous Pop art artist created the oil on canvas Pop art painting entitled Look Mickey (1961)
appropriating an image from a Walt Disney book called ‘Donald Duck: Lost and Found’:

Look Mickey.1961. Roy Lichtenstein. National Gallery of Art, Washington.

8. Repetition

Pop artists like Andy Warhol used repetition as a recurring theme within their Pop art artwork.
Using silkscreen, he could quickly reproduce images and therefore the quantity of art. Think celebrity
Pop art images of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis, or everyday household objects such as Campbell’s soup
cans.
 American Pop artist Keith Haring (1958-1990) placed reoccurring signs and symbols in his
artworks, thereby creating repetition. Japanese Pop art artists Yayoi Kusama (1929-) continually paints
polka dots and psychedelic colors. A reoccurring motif for Kusuma is the pumpkin:

The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens. 2017. Yayoi Kusama .National Gallery
of Australia, Canberra, Australia.

9. Monumental Imagery

Pop art artistic creations could often be extremely large. James Rosenquist’s (1933- 2017)
training in billboard painting was the starting point for the colorful, large, fine art collages he painted.
Many of these works were over 20 feet wide. F-111, painted between 1964 and 1965, contains subject
matter about the Vietnam War. It measures 86 feet long. The main image of a fighter pilot plane is
broken into 23 panels, with other images of commercial products in between. These Pop art paintings
include spaghetti, Angel food cake, a Firestone tire, and a beach umbrella. In total there are 59
interlocking panels.

Rosenquist created F-111 for his first solo show, which was held at Leo Castelli Gallery, in New
York. There it was spread over a space of four walls, surrounding the viewer. Today, the monumental
Pop art artwork hangs at MoMA, in New York:
10. Regional Differences

Los Angeles produced a different style of Pop art than other regions like New York. Consumer
goods were less of a focus. Items referencing Southern California lifestyle were prevalent, with images
of surfboards and motorcycles. It provoked feelings and attitude about the geographical mood that was
less defined than the east coast.

Comparisons were evident during the first exhibit of Pop art in the region at the Pasadena Art
Museum, in 1962. It was entitled New Paintings of Common Objects, which unified artists including
visiting pop art artists Warhol and Lichtenstein, as well as locals Ed Ruscha, Phillip Hefferton, Wayne
Thiebaud, Joe Good, and Robert Dowd. Ruscha placed many signs in his work, noting the signs
everywhere in Los Angeles.

Examples of Pop arts

Andy Warhol's screenprints of Marilyn Munroe or the Cambel Soup Cans are some of the most
recognizable examples of Pop art. However, Pop art often uses mixed media and can also be observed in
the sculptures of artists like Claes Oldenberg or Jeff Koons.
 D. MINIMALISM

Minimalist Art

Minimalism art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 20th century. The Minimalism art
elements use a minimum of lines, shapes, and many times colors. The artwork had no trace of the
artist’s emotions in the art. Minimalism art is considered an extreme form of abstract art. The most
important geometric shapes in minimalism art are the square and rectangle.

Minimalism differs from other types of art because its focus is on real world aspects such as
landscape, people and everyday objects. With minimalist artwork, the artist wants the viewer to respond
to what is directly in front of them.

Brief History

Minimalism emerged in New York in the early 1960s among artists who were self- consciously
renouncing recent art they thought had become stale and academic. A wave of new influences and
rediscovered styles led younger artists to question conventional boundaries between various media. The
new art favored the cool over the "dramatic": their sculptures were frequently fabricated from industrial
materials and emphasized anonymity over the expressive excess of Abstract Expressionism. Painters and
sculptors avoided overt symbolism and emotional content, but instead called attention to the materiality
of the works. By the end of the 1970s, Minimalism had triumphed in America and Europe. And members
of a new movement, Post-Minimalism, were already challenging its authority and were thus a testament
to how important Minimalism itself became.

Characteristics of Minimalism Art:

 Geometric forms – Minimalist paintings and sculptures use geometric forms.

 Square and Rectangle – The square and rectangle are the most important forms used in
minimalism art.

 Precise and hard-edged – The minimalist forms for painting and sculpture are generally
composed of precise and hard-edged forms; this is why the square and rectangle are so popular as
they give this precise and hard-edged form.

 Limited color choices – Minimalism art usually uses a limited amount of colors.
Minimalist artists may limit their color hues or use just one color.
  Expressionless Colors – Color, if used, is non-referential or expressionless colors. This
means that if the artist uses a dark color, he cannot portray a somber mood. The color is not there
to try to express an emotion or refer to anything.

 Non-object Art – The idea of minimalism art is not to show any external references or
gestures.

 Truth in Art – One of minimalism art characteristics is about truth in art; this means that
minimalism art offers a highly purified form of beauty. It does not pretend to be something other
than exactly what it is.

 Order, Simplicity, and Harmony – Some elements of Minimalism art are about the
order, simplicity, and harmony.

 Repetition – There is often some form of repetition in minimalist art. The repeating of the
forms may highlight the subtle differences between each of the repetitions being used.

 Lack of Expression – A lot of minimalist art lacks expression; this means there is no trace of
emotion or intuitive decision-making. The artist does not reveal their personality or emotions in
the artwork. Minimalist artists do not see art as a unique creation that reflects the artist’s
personal expression, but they see art as impersonal or neutral.

 Interest in Viewer Reaction- The Minimalism artist is interested in the relationship between
the different parts of the artwork and how the artwork’s viewers see this relationship. In other
words, two people could look at a piece of minimalist art, and both may see something
different.

 Industrial, store-bought, or factory manufactured materials. – Some of the

minimalist artists, particularly those dealing with sculptures, may use everyday material such as
brick tiles and light bulbs for their sculpture.

Minimalist Art Forms

 Minimalist Sculpture

Most Minimalists were focused on creating three-dimensional objects, as this was the most
radical and experimental facet of the movement. The Minimalists' emphasis on eradicating signs of
authorship from their art by using simple, geometric forms and industrial materials led to works that
resembled simple objects rather than traditional sculpture. The innovative placement of these works
on the floor of gallery spaces rather than on pedestals further underscored their difference from
conventional works of art.
 The focus on surface and the artist's absence meant that the meaning of the object was not seen
as inherent to the object itself, but came from the viewer's interaction with the object. This led to a
new emphasis on the physical space in which the artwork resided.

Some Artists:

Ronald Bladen demonstrated exemplary skill at drawing and painting from an early age. But his
sculptural works are what brought him fame and respect. In the early 1960’s Bladen shifted his
practice away from the abstract expressionist paintings he was making and started crafting large-scale
wooden objects. Some forms were recognizable, like a giant X, and others were abstract. He didn’t
specify precisely what the objects were, he simply pointed out that he was trying to make something
that had “presence.”

White Z, 1964 Three Elements, 1965

Donald Judd was an American artist, whose rejection of both traditional painting and sculpture
led him to a conception of art built upon the idea of the object as it exists in the environment. Judd's
works belong to the Minimalist movement, whose goal was to rid art of the Abstract Expressionists'
reliance on the self-referential trace of the painter in order to form pieces that were free from
emotion.

Untitled Untitled
John McCracken was a pioneering Californian Minimalist, who’s otherworldly, signature 'plank'
sculptures blurred the boundary between sculpture and painting.

Untitled Untitled

 Minimalist Paintings

Minimalism is also associated with a few key abstract painters, such as Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly,
Agnes Martin, and Robert Ryman. These artists painted simple canvases that were considered minimal
due to their barebones, often geometric compositions. Using only line, solid color, and sometimes
geometric forms and shaped canvases, these artists combined painting materials in such a way that
questioned the traditional dichotomy between artistic media by making paintings that could also be
considered objects in their own right because of the bulkiness of the canvas support and the
nontraditional shapes of the paintings.

Some Artists:
Robert Ryman was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome
painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white
paintings. He lived and worked in New York City.
 Untitled 1965 Twin, 1996

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard- edge
painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques
emphasizing line, color and form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland.
Kelly often employed bright colors.

Black Over Yellow, 2015 White Diagonal Curve, 2015

Frank Stella is an Italian American painter and printmaker, significant in the art movement
called ”post-painterly abstraction”. His early works anticipates many elements of minimalism,
which is why he is also considered by some a minimalist, although most of his later artworks are
not strictly minimalist.
 Firuzabad, 1970 Chocorua

 Minimalist Architecture

These refers to building designs that are reduced to the absolute bare minimum of elements.
Minimalist architectural design typically uses basic geometric shapes, harmonious colours, natural
textures, open-plan spatial arrangements, neat and straight components, clean finishes, flat or nearly flat
roofs, large windows and satisfying negative spaces. Noted minimalist designers include American
architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), Philip Johnson (1906-2005), Raymond Hood
(1881-1934) and Louis Skidmore (1897-1962), to name but a few.

Some Artists:

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is one of the most influential architects of the 20th century,
known for his role in the development of the most enduring architectural style of the era:
modernism.

Neue National Gallery (1968)

 Barcelona Pavilion (1929)
Philip Johnson was a notable American architect and theorist, best known for the design of his
house, the Glass House, in New Canaan, CT. Johnson was a prominent advocate of the International
style, and played a vital role in defining postmodernist architecture.

The Glass House, 1949

 The Seagram Building, New York City

 ACTIVITY/EXERCISE/ASSIGNMENT
Activity 4:
In this activity, using coffee and Oslo Paper, you will be painting minimalist art.
You may look for inspiration online, just make sure that it aligns with the concept. Once
finished, take a picture of your artwork and post it to MS Teams.

Tips:
To make the colors:
Lightest: 1/2 teaspoon coffee with 1 teaspoon water
Midtone: 1:1, 1 teaspoon coffee with 1 teaspoon water
Darkest: 2 teaspoons coffee with 1 teaspoon water
  SUPPLEMENTARY LEARNING MATERIALS
YouTube Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qr7cdpGDRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUf38YJLp3I

 REFERENCES

Arch Daily Team. (2021). Less is more: Mies van der rohe, a pioneer of the modern movement.
Arch Daily. https://www.archdaily.com/350573/happy-127th-birthday-mies-van-der-rohe
Barcio, P. (2016). Minimalist Sculpture as the Pristine Contemplation of Space. Ideel Art.
https://www.ideelart.com/magazine/minimalist-sculpture
Bourke, P. (2018). What is pop art? A guide to the pop art movement. Rise Art.
https://www.riseart.com/guide/2352/guide-to-pop-art
Encyclopedia of Arts. (n.d.). Op art. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/op-art.htm Esaak, S.
(2019). Overview of the op art movement. Thought Co.
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-op-art-182388
Gould, R. (2016). Agnes Martin's Not So Minimal Artistic Legacy. The Culture Trip.
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/new-york-city/articles/agnes-martin-
minimalism/
Hencz, A. (n.d.). Art movement: Op art – History and famous works. Artland.
https://magazine.artland.com/laszlo-moholy-nagy-paintings-photography/
Hencz, A. (n.d.). László moholy-nagy: The light of modernity. Artland.
https://magazine.artland.com/laszlo-moholy-nagy-paintings-photography/
Hummel, A. L. (n.d.). What Are the Main Characteristics Of Minimalism Art. Anita Louise Art.
https://anitalouiseart.com/what-are-the-main-characteristics-of-minimalism-art/
The Art Story. (n.d.). Op art. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/op-art/
Trouillot, T. (2017). These Are the Last Great Paintings Ellsworth Kelly Made Before He Died.
Art Net. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/see-ellsworth-kelly-last-paintings-matthew-
marks-941609
Wolfe, S. (n.d.). Art movement: Constructivism. Artland. https://magazine.artland.com/art-
movement-constructivism/
(n.d.). Op art. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Ottonian-art