The central principle is that not the artist’s expression, but the medium and materials of the work were its reality (source). In other words: a work of art should not refer to anything other than itself (source). As minimalist painter Frank Stella once said: “What you see is what you see” (source).

Minimal Art emerged as a trend in the late 1950s and flourished particularly in the 1960s and 1970s (source). It is also referred to as ABC art, literal art (source), literalism (source), reductivism, and rejective art (source).

The rise

Through much of the 1950s, the dominant art movement in the United States was Abstract Expressionism. The expressionist artists seeked to express their personal emotions through their art.

A highly popular branch of Abstract Expressionism was called Action Painting. This was a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas (source).

In the early 1960′s, a new movement emerged; Minimal Art. The Minimalists felt that Action Painting (and as such, Abstract Expressionism) was too personal, pretentious and insubstantial. They rejected the idea that art should reflect the personal expression of its creator (source). Instead, they adopted the point of view that a work of art should not refer to anything other than itself (source). Their goal was to make their works totally objective, unexpressive, and non-referential.

One of the first painters to be specifically linked with Minimalism was (the former Abstract Expressionist) Frank Stella. Stella’s instantly acclaimed minimalist Black Paintings (1958-1960), in which regular bands of black paint were separated by very thin pinstripes of unpainted canvas (source), contrasted the emotional canvases of Abstract Expressionism (source).

The most prominent theorists were Donald Judd, who wrote the manifesto-like essay “Specific Objects” in 1964 (download) and Robert Morris, who wrote the three part essay “Notes on Sculpture 1-3″ in 1966 (download).

A historic moment for the art movement was the group exhibit “Primary Structures”, held in 1966 at the Jewish Museum in New York. Amongst others, it featured work of Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, and Tony Smith (source) and really put Minimal Art as a name on the map.

Objectives

The minimalist artists wanted to allow the viewer an immediate, purely visual response (source) and let him experience all the more strongly the pure qualities of colour, form, space and materials (source). Minimalism sought to de-mystify art, to reveal its most fundamental character (source): the medium and materials of the work were its reality, and that is was what the artists wanted to portray (source). This concept of pure aestheticism was highly revolutionary at the time (source).

In order to achieve this, they attempted to remove all suggestions of self-expressionism from the art work (source), such as:

• Composition
• Complexity of form
• Themes
• Metaphorical associations, symbolism, suggestions of spiritual transcendence
• Representation, reference or association
• Meaning, sentiment, emotion
• Social comment
• Elements of traditional work
• Any other signs of personal expression of the artist, his guiding hand or thought processes

From then on, all choices stem from the intention of giving the work a literal presence:

• Use of unitary, geometric forms, as these could be mistaken neither for representations of the external world nor for the narrative of a story (source)
• Use of monochromatic palettes of the primary colors, as these are the most basic and thus neutral of colors. Color was not used to express feeling or mood, but it simply to delineate space (source)
• Use of plain, industrial, factory-made or store-bought, mass-produced materials, as these underscored the absence of the artist’s individual ‘mark’ (source). These modern materials also defy the traditional artistic materials (source). Materials were left raw or unaltered and were not intended to symbolize anything else (source).

The minimalist artists created objects that often blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture (source). In this article, these two disciplines are still considered separately.

Sculpture

The minimalist sculptors were chiefly interested in how the viewer perceives the relationship between the different parts of the work, and of the parts to the whole thing. To highlight the subtle differences in this relationship (source), minimal ‘objects’ (as the artists preferred to call their sculptures) were often serial arrangements of extremely simple, geometric bodies such as cubes.

Sculptor Sol LeWitt once wrote that “the most interesting characteristic of the cube is that it is relatively uninteresting.” This comment speaks to what Minimalism aims to achieve, which is to use objects in and for themselves, and not as symbols or as representations (source).

The non-hierarchical character of the grid-based compositions challenged the notion of artistic originality (source), while the visual rhythms were strongly reminiscent of a production line (source).

Minimalist sculptures encouraged the viewer to be conscious of the space. The artwork was carefully arranged to emphasize and reveal the architecture of the gallery, often being presented on walls, in corners, or directly onto the floor (source). By eliminating the pedestal or base on which it sat, the minimalist sculptors sought to reject traditional sculpture. Minimalist sculpture shared common space as simply another object in the world. With no barrier between the audience and the artwork, viewers were forced to reconsider their relationship to the art object. Audiences could now interact with a piece on their own level, approaching, retreating, walking around it and sometimes even standing on it. (source)

Minimalist artist preferred industrial materials, prefabricated and/or mass-produced: fibreglass, Plexiglass, plastic, sheet metal, plywood, and aluminum. Steel, glass, concrete, wood and stone are also returning materials. The materials were either left raw (or hardly processed by the artist), or were solidly painted with bright industrial colours.

The result are objects of charged neutrality; objects that directly engage and interact with the particular space they occupy; objects that reveal everything about themselves, but little about the artist; objects whose subject is the viewer (source).

Well-know minimalist sculptors from the 1960′s and 1970′s:

• Carl Andre
• Dan Flavin
• Donald Judd
• Sol LeWitt
• Robert Morris
• Tony Smith

For a comprehensive overview of all minimalist artists, please refer to my list of all famous minimalist artists, architects and designers.

Untitled, by Donald Judd (1968). Materials: Brass and colored fluorescent plexiglass on steel brackets. Size: 10 boxes of 6 x 27 x 24 inches each. Collection: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Untitled, by Donald Judd (1971). Material: Anodized aluminum. Size: 6 boxes of 48 x 48 x 48 inches each. Collection: Walker Art Center.

"Equivalent VIII" by Carl Andre (1966). Material: firebricks. Size: 127 x 686 x 2292 mm. Collection: Tate Modern.

"Slope 2004" by Carl Andre (1968). Material: Steel. Size: overall 0.5 x 204 x 38 inches. Collection: Walker Art Center.

"Two Open Modular Cubes/Half-Off", by Sol LeWitt (1972). Material: Enameled aluminum. Size: 1600 x 3054 x 2330 mm. Collection: Tate Gallery, London

Untitled, by Dan Flavin (1963). Material: Ultraviolet, blue fluorescent tubes and fixtures. Size: 8 x 96 x 4 inches. Collection: Walker Art Center.

"Free Ride", by Tony Smith (1962). Material: Painted steel. Size: 6' 8" x 6' 8" x 6' 8". Collection: The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Painting

Like the minimalist sculptors, minimalist painters strived to create objects with presence, which can be seen at their basic physical appearance and appreciated at face value (source).

Minimalist paintings are usually precise and ‘hard-edged’, referring to the abrupt transitions between color areas. They incorporate geometric forms, often in repetitive patterns, resulting in flat, two-dimensional space.

Color areas are generally of one solid, unvarying color (source). Colors were normally unmixed, coming straight from the tube (source). The colour palette is often limited.

Through this use of only line, solid color, geometric forms and shaped canvas, the minimalist artists combined paint and canvas in such a way that the two became inseparable (source).

Well-know minimalist painters from the 1960′s and 1970′s:

• Ellsworth Kelly
• Kenneth Noland
• Robert Ryman
• Frank Stella

For a comprehensive overview of all minimalist artists, please refer to my list of all famous minimalist artists, architects and designers.

"The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II", by Frank Stella (1959). Material: Enamel on canvas. Size: 7' 6 3/4" x 11' 3/4" (230.5 x 337.2 cm). Collection: MoMA.

"Harran II", by Frank Stella (1967). Material: Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas. Size: 10 x 20 feet (304.8 x 609.6 cm). Collection: Guggenheim Museum, New York.

"Shoot", by Kenneth Noland (1964). Material: Acrylic on canvas. Size: 103' 3/4" x 126' 3/4" (263.5 x 321.9 cm). Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum

"Twin", by Robert Ryman (1966). Material: Oil on cotton. Size: 6' 3 3/4" x 6' 3 7/8" (192.4 x 192.6 cm). Collection: MoMA.

"Red Green Blue", by Ellsworth Kelly (1964). Material: Oil on canvas. Size: unframed 90 x 66 inches. Collection: Walker Art Center.

Criticism

There seem to have been two main criticisms levelled at Minimal Art by the dominant art critics of the day.

Firstly, that it was somehow lacking in the aesthetic qualities that art was normally expected to reveal, thus lessening the experience of the viewer.

In his essay Recentness of Sculpture (1967), critic Clement Greenberg, champion of the Modernist art of the previous decades, dismissed Minimal Art as a ‘Novelty’ art. He suggested that the ‘aesthetic surprise’ a viewer experiences on looking at ‘true’ works of art is long lasting and important, while the novelty item provokes no more than a momentary surprise that is ‘superfluous’ (source).

The second main criticism was that Minimal Art blurred the boundaries between art and the every day, and so undervalued the art object.

In his article Art and Objecthood (1967), art cristic Michael Fried published a controversial and influential attack on minimalist sculpture. Unlike Greenberg who saw Minimal art as merely novelty, Fried saw Minimalism as Modernism gone wrong. He suggested that if the aim of Modernist work was to explore its medium, be it paintings, sculpture or poetry, Minimal Art had taken this investigation too far, and by referring only to itself undermined the distinction between art and non-art (source).

Minimal Art today

By the late 1960s, Minimalism was beginning to show signs of breaking apart as a movement, as various artists who had been important to its early development began to move in different directions (source).

However, critics agree that Minimalism formed a “crux” or turning point in the history of modernism, and the movement remains hugely influential today (source). For an overview of contemporary artists holding a minimalist philosophy or minimalist aesthetic, please refer to my list of all famous minimalist artists, architects and designers.

Collections of Minimal Art

Many of the better art museums devoted to late 20th century works will have Minimal Art works in their collections.

Key collections of Minimal Art can be found at the following places:

• Chinati Foundation (Marfa, Texas, USA)
• Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas, USA)
• Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, U.S.A.)
• Montclair Art Museum (New Jersey, USA)
• MoMA, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA)
• Guggenheim Museum New York (New York, USA)
• Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Bilbao, Spain)
• Museum Boijimans van Beuningen (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
• Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich, Germany)
• Tate Modern (London, U.K.)

Please comment

Did this article give you a proper introduction of Minimal Art? Or do you still have questions? Is information missing or incorrect? Please share!

Minimal Art

The famous minimalist artists from the 1960′s:

• Carl Andre, sculptor (USA, 1935): Profile | Works
• Jo Baer, painter (USA, 1929): Profile | Works
• Larry Bell, painter and sculptor (USA, 1939): Profile | Works
• Anthony Caro, sculptor (USA, 1924): Profile | Works
• Gene Davis, painter (USA, 1920 – 1985): Profile | Works
• Dan Flavin, sculptor and  installation artist (USA, 1933 – 1996): Profile | Works
• Al Held, painter (USA, 1928 – 2005): Profile | Works
• Robert Irwin, installation artist (USA, 1928): Profile | Works
• Donald Judd, sculptor, painter, furniture designer (USA, 1928 – 1994) : Profile | Works
• Craig Kaufman, sculptor (USA, 1932 – 2010): Profile | Works
• Ellsworth Kelly, painter (USA, 1923): Profile | Works
• Sol LeWitt, sculptor, painter, graphic artist and more (USA, 1928 – 2007): Profile | Article | Works
• Robert Mangold, painter and printmaker (USA, 1937) : Profile | Works
• Brice Marden, painter (USA, 1938) : Profile | Works
• Agnes Martin, painter (USA, 1912 – 2004): Profile | Works
• John McCracken, painter and sculptor (USA, 1934 – 2011): Profile | Works
• Robert Morris, sculptor (USA, 1931): Profile | Works
• Kenneth Noland, painter (USA, 1924 – 2010): Profile | Works
• Blinky Palermo, painter (Germany, 1943 – 1977): Profile | Works
• Ad Reinhardt, painter (USA, 1913 – 1967): Profile | Works
• Robert Ryman (USA, 1930) : Profile | Works
• Tony Smith, sculptor, visual artist and architectural designer (USA, 1912 – 1980): Profile | Works
• Fred Sandback, sculptor (USA, 1943 – 2003): Profile | Works
• Richard Serra, sculptor and video artist (USA, 1939): Profile | Works
• Frank Stella, painter and print maker (USA, 1936): Profile | Works
• Anne Truitt, sculptor (1921 – 2004): Profile | Works
• Jack Youngerman, painter (USA, 1926): Profile | Works

Or consider these contemporary artists with a minimalist aesthetic:

Sculptor Terence Koh (Canada), painter Carmen Herrera (Cuba), land artist Wolfgang Laib (Germany), installation artist Martina Klein (Germany), sculptor Rachel Whiteread (U.K.), installation artist Lesley Foxcroft (U.K.), and painter and installation artist Daniel Buren (France).

And these artists’ works embody a minimalist philosophy:

Performance artist, video artist, painter and more Francis Alÿs (Belgium/Mexico), environmental artists well-known for their wrapping of buildings Christo and Jeanne-Claude (France, USA), painter, sculptor and installation artist Martin Creed (U.K), sculptor and land artist Andy Goldsworthy (U.K.), and installation artist, performance artist and sculptor David Hammons (USA).

And if I may, some special attention to my personal friends Adrian Clement and James Gatt a.k.a. Pineapple Park (Australia).

Architecture

Critically acclaimed minimalist architects:

• Tadao Ando (Japan, 1941): Profile | Website
• Alberto Campo Baeza (Spain, 1946): Profile | Website
• Luis Barragán (Mexico, 1902 – 1988): Profile | Website
• John Pawson (UK, 1949): Profile | Website
• Antoine Predock (USA, 1936): Profile | Website
• Claudio Silvestrin (Italy, 1954): Profile | Website 
• Álvaro Siza Vieira (Portugal, 1933): Profile |  Website
• Peter Zumthor (Switzerland, 1943) : Profile

Who else to call for a minimalist casa? Think FORM /Kouichi Kimura Architects (Japan), Tokuyin Yoshioka (Japan), Junichi Sampei (Japan), Marcio Kogan (Brazil), Fran Silvestre Arquitectos (Spain), Vicens & Ramos (Spain), Jospeh Dirand (France), XTEN (USA), Philippe Stuebi (Switzerland), Wigglesworth-Weider (Switzerland), Wiel Arets (The Netherlands), i29 (The Netherlands), Jonas Lindvall (Sweden). David Chipperfield (U.K.), and NORM CPH (Denmark), Gluckman Mayner Architects (USA) and Gabellini Shephard (USA).

Furniture Design

Can’t go wrong with these fine gents:

• A.G. Fronzoni (Italy, 1923 – 2022): Profile | Works
• Tokujin Yoshioka (Japan, 1967): Profile | Works | Website

But you als might want to consider the work of Peter Wigglesworth (Switzerland), Ronald Knol (The Netherlands), ROLU, Rosenlof/Lucs, ro/lu (USA), Vincent van Duysen (Belgium), Luke Wong (USA) and Andreas Engevik (Norway).

Industrial design

These guys have surely deserved their fame and fortune:

• Naoto Fukasawa (Japan, 1956): Profile | Works
• Jonathan Ive (U.K., 1967): Profile | Article | Works
• John Pawson (U.K., 1949): Profile | Website
• Oki Sato a.k.a. Nendo (Japan, 1977): Works | Website
• Tokujin Yoshioka (Japan, 1967): Profile | Works | Website

And leading us into the future are Daniel Rybakken (Norway), Minimalux (U.K.), and Thomas Wagner (Denmark).

Photography

You definitely want to check out these established minimalist photographers:

• Andreas Gursky, enormous architecture and landscape color photography (Germany, 1955): Profile | Works
• Michael Kenna, black and white landscape photography (U.K., 1953) Profile | Website
• Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japan/USA, 1948): Profile | Website

However, don’t dismiss the colour loving Grant Hamilton (USA), or the portraits of Hans Hiltermann (The Netherlands).

Web Design

Quality assured with:

• … (Hmm, no big names in this field – yet)

Okay, but if you’re looking to hire minimalist web designer, these are the guys and girls who will know what you’re talking about: Emil Olsson (Sweden), Shelby White (USA), Ian Coyle (USA), or Stuart Hobday (U.K.). Or you can always contact me.

Who else should be on this list?

Or who should be taken off? Please comment.

I could give you a thousand words on the topic (and I probably will at one point) but I’ve composed a quick visual comparison that pretty much says it all:

Helpful?

Please comment.

Luckily, there are quite a few nice little bookmarklets available that remove all the noise from the page, so you can sit back and read in peace.

A minimalist YouTube/Vimeo/Viddler

On YouTube/Vimeo/Viddler watching a video? Remove all the clutter from the page by a simple click on the Quietube bookmarklet. It opens a white page with just the video.

To install, simply drag this button to your toolbar: Quietube

Update: Well, Quietube decided to but a huge ad banner on the bottom of the page… #sell-out

Not a bookmarklet, but definitely interesting, is Tubalr. Tubalr allows you to effortlessly listen to a band’s or artist’s top YouTube videos without all the clutter YouTube brings – and does that in a sweet minimalist design.

A minimalist Flickr

Tired of clicking through all those tiny pictures in people’s photostreams? Introducing: Bettr .

Whenever you’re viewing someone’s photostream, click this bookmarklet and you’ll be givenall photos – and just the photos.

To install, simply drag this button to your toolbar: Make Bettr

Minimalist article pages

The Readability bookmarklet scrubs web pages of distractions and provides a clean, comfortable view. This is particularly handy for reading longer articles, like those on the The New York Times website.

To install, simply drag this button to your toolbar: Readability

Interestingly, Readability always seems to improve the reading experience – except for this website (try it out ;-)

Your thoughts please

To be honest, I do not use any of the above. Does any of you?

For more proper minimalist web design, check out my private selection made public over at Gimme Bar.

Any sites I should know of?

Please comment!

Dogma is truly minimalist, following all the ground rules of the minimalist web design ‘dogma’. It keeps every aspect of the design to a minimum:

• 1 single page design for every page, with the archive and links to other pages ever present
• 1 column
• 1 typeface in 1 color, 1 size and 2 weights
• No ‘homepage’ in the classic sense
• No header
• No footer
• No logo
• No search functionality
• No separate archive page
• No date mention
• No author name

Just the articles.

Also: You’re looking at it now!

You can download the Dogma theme here. The theme is entirely uncopyrighted – use as you like, spread it, sell it, do whatever you want. Enjoy!

I’d love to hear your reaction

Did I go too far? Or do you see oppportunity to minimise it even further? Please comment.

• 1 single page design for every page, with the archive and links to other pages ever present
• 1 column
• 1 typeface in 1 color, 1 size and 2 weights
• No ‘homepage’ in the classic sense
• No header
• No footer
• No logo
• No search functionality
• No separate archive page
• No date mention
• No author name

Just the articles.

You can download the Dogma theme here.

To install, upload it via the WordPress admin. Go to Appearance > Themes > Install themes > Upload and select the zip file on your computer. After upload, activate the theme.

To add/change pages in the “Other pages” component , go to Appearance > Editor. This is where you can make some changes to the theme.  Select ‘Footer’ (footer.php) on the right. Replace the URLs and page titles in the code with the ones of the pages you created in the Pages section.

The Dogma theme is entirely uncopyrighted – use as you like, spread it, sell it, do whatever you want.

Enjoy!

Three possible answers:

1. Yes, the one that use the least ‘ink’ is the most minimalist
2. Yes, the one that is built up from the least and most simple forms is the most minimalist
3. No, each typeface is a symbol with its own elegance; changing it would be changing the typeface

Each of these are true. The last one is the least interesting in this context of course, and I’ll leave that one for what it is. I’ll elaborate on the first two with some examples.

1. Typefaces using minimal ‘ink’

Bradford Ulrich, a webdesigner from Oklahoma, U.S.A., tried to cut out the unnec­es­sary parts of the let­ters while still keeping them leg­ible:

Somewhat similarly, the typeface below is a study of how much (or how little) of each letter is needed for legibility. It’s called FF You Can (Read Me) and was designed by Phil Baines.

It is for download at FontFont.

Both of these are truly minimalist exercises – but you will probably agree: the results looks gimmicky.

2. Typefaces using a minimal number of shapes

NR2154, a multidisciplinary design studio based in Copenhagen and New York, designed their personal visual identity around a typeface built up from two circles, two squares and two diagonals.

But you could go even further and ditch the circles and diagonals. Doing that will get you somewhere close to Flat10 Segments. Segments is an 8-bit pixel font designed by Ryoichi Tsunekawa out of respect for 80s game designers and the pixel font pioneers in middle 90s.

In some letters, such as the Y and the Z, you have to sacifice legibility.

3. There is no ‘most minimalist typeface’

This is (of course) the conclusion: each typeface is a symbol with its own elegance. Minimalist web design is not so much about the character of the typefaces you use, but rather about how few different typefaces you use, and in the minimal variation of sizes and weights.

Having that said…

How do you like the typography on this site? Please comment.

I’ve been debating with a fellow-minimalist whether or not minimalism is reductivist. Eventually we agreed there are two answers.

Yes, minimalism is reductivist

We all know Mies’ famous phrase Less is more. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s a 3-word translation of the central principle of minimalism: that (other than popular belief) taking the direction of ‘less’ instead of ‘more’ can also result in things of beauty and quality.

This direction towards the minimum is one of reduction.

So as a reference to the principles of minimalism, minimalism is indeed reductivist.

No, minimalism is not reductivist

In many articles, including the lemma on minimalism on Wikipedia, minimalist design is defined as ‘a trend in design and architecture where the subject is reduced to its necessary elements’.

Stating that minimalists reduce an object suggests that the designer’s starting point is an other design, which he reduces to a minimalist version. The opposite should be true: the designers starting point is an original idea, the essence, and as little design as possible is added.

So as a description for what minimalists do, minimalism is not reductivist. It is non-additionist.

Please comment!

Well now, do you agree the statement that ‘reducing an object’ is a mis-use of the verb?

However, as the blog targeted a wide audience (or: the mainstream of minimalists), we deliberately did not go all the way. Here’s where we ended up:

• Minimal decoration and visual support elements: text-only
• Minimal variation in color
• Limited variation in typeface, size and weight
• No content competition, always just one item/message asking your attention at a time

Luckily, people seemed to appreciate that. Here are a few of the original designs.

Overview page, with tags shown onhover:

Blog detail page, with comments and related posts:

Search page, with search box, and objects listed per category for quick browsing:

And of course, a very minimalist contact page:

Some afterthoughts

In hindsight, I’ve often wondered if we should have taken the minimalist design even further. But I’m pretty sure that Minimalissimo wouldn’t have become so popular if we had done so. What do you think?