Minimalism By Larissa Grace, Ellie Chimonas, Danielle Noble, and Bijash Chauhan

Dan FlavinThe style of this particular artist is to takeflorescent lights and observe the different waysof viewing them; he was influenced to use thisstyle by the lack of materials at his disposal, alsothe availability of cheap lighting, in standardshapes and sizes. This is shown in his work bythe simplicity of his work. His style of workcontinued for 3 decades.

Carl AndreThe influences of this artist were his influenceswere poetry, drawings and some abstractsculptures in geometric forms using Perspex andwood. Carl Andre was influenced by other piecesof art such as Brancusi and by Stella, Carl Andremoved away from carving sculptures to

buildingsblock forms out of simple materials.

Ellsworth Kelly This artist had his own poetic style of usingcolour, form, space and line. He explored histalent through paintings and sculptures, usinggeometric principles. Kelly created visualstatements and influenced a lot of other artist inthis field of art. Kelly treated colour as a majorimportance in his work, and is one of the definingfeatures in his pieces of work. He used colour tocreate ideas of space.

Donald JuddJudd changed the style of modern sculpture beinglinked as one of the main ring leaders forminimalism; however this was not the style he wasafter. His views of his work were to ‘create simpleexpressions of complex thoughts’. Although hiswork did agree with a lot of the style componentsthat minimalism had, he strongly rejected this as hisstyle. His use of 3D sculptures and using industrialmaterials highlighted the colour and space in hiswork.

Frank Stella

This abstract painter used a series of blackpictures covered with bands. After this hecontinued his style of work through minimalsculptures, he then continued this by creating amore sculptures however Stella decided to use avariety of different colours. His later work followed ideas of shapes and colours through paintings. Hewas influenced in his work by his friendships withAndre and Judd, this is clearly shown through hiswork.

David Hiscock• David Hiscock has done more than any

contemporary photographer to explore the medium’s potential for abstract, colour-field compositions.

• Hiscock says, the ambitious claim that photography has an ‘intrinsic’ privileged relationship to reality and that it faithfully duplicates our vision is, at best, a simplification, and at worst, a fundamental distortion of the relationship between ourselves, our sight, and the world out there.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

• Begun in 1978, Sugimoto's "Theatres" series involved photographing old American movie palaces and drive-ins, exposing the film for the duration of the entire film, the film projector providing the sole lighting. The luminescent screen in the centre of the composition, the architectural details and the seats of the theatre are the only subjects in the photographs, and the unique lighting gives the works a surreal look, as a part of Sugimoto's attempt to reveal time in photography.

• Sugimoto is also an accomplished architect, approaching his work from many different perspectives and architecturally is one that he uses to design the settings for his exhibitions. He also gets involved with the performance art occurring beside them. This allows him to frame his works precisely the way he wants to.

• Minimalism was a huge influence on art today, it unstructured stubborn art rules and allowed minimal sculptures and pieces of art to become recognized as a solid art form. This allowed many artists to produce their work without artistic boundaries. The use of minimalism allowed new ways of thinking, and conveying ideas, contemporary practice involves all of these ideas. Therefore minimalism had a huge impact on contemporary practice.

• Relating this to an art form such as photography, seeing as minimalism can be seen as ‘nothing more than a stripe across a painted canvas’, this simplistic idea can be related to photography. Such as close ups of simple objects or making a complex object look simple. This can be greatly explored with the use of a camera. This provides and interesting idea for any photographer, therefore minimalism is impacting on contemporary practice giving artists new way to cognitively produce ideas.

• Minimalism gives an artist a different way if approaching their work and many seem to get interested in it after learning about it. It is seen in many artists work through colours, simple shapes and lines. An artist can find ways to simplify busy pieces of work through these ideas.

How Has Minimalism impacted upon contemporary practice?

What Are The Defining Principles That Segregated This Period In Art?

• The defining principles of minimalism in the post-war period, were the strong use of colours as a way of exploring art. The use of almost architectural principles, such as the use of defining space and lines defined this era. Artists at the time such as Andre, Judd and Kelly used sculptures in a different way by using such things as blocks and industrial materials. They moved away from carving and used different principles. The artists who lacked materials such as Dan Flavin used florescent lights to provide a way of creating pieces of work. The period was defined by the new style of creativity and the unrestricted media that they used.