Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties - Softcover

Meyer, James

4.23

57 ratings by Goodreads

9780300105902: Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300105908 ISBN 13: 9780300105902

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2004

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What is minimalism? The answer to this simple question has defied simple answers. In this highly readable history of minimalist art James Meyer argues that "minimalism" was not a coherent movement but a field of overlapping and sometimes opposed practices. He traces in comprehensive detail the emergence of six figures associated with the development-Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, and Anne Truitt-and how the notion of minimalism came to be constructed around their art in the 1960s. Despite distinctive differences in method and points of view, Meyer shows, these artists became equated in a series of important exhibitions and texts that led to their designation as minimalists. Beginning with the first reviews of minimalist shows, the book tracks the development of an art that critics dubbed Cool Art, ABC Art, and Primary Structures before settling on the deprecating label "minimal art." Suggesting that such work was overly reduced in form and facture, this term implied that the new abstraction was barely legible as fine art to some viewers. Meyer describes the heated polemic that unfolded in response to these practices, the differing claims of the artists, and the sometimes intense rivalries that developed within a highly competitive, fashion-minded New York art scene. The book culminates with an analysis of minimalism's canonization in the late sixties, its reception in Europe, and its discrediting by leftist viewers who associated the new art with American capitalist-imperialism of the Vietnam War.

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Review:

"Meyer's writing is intelligent, informed, and subtle. The book is well produced and generously illustrated with good quality colour and black and white images."--John A. Walker, Art Book
"This new volume combines a sophisticated reading of the critical discourse surrounding Minimalism with a step-by-step history of the work's development and its appearance on the public stage from 1961 through 1968."--Pepe Karmel, Art in America

Synopsis:

The simple question "What is minimalism?" has defied simple answers. Artists known as minimalists have distinctively different methods and points of view. This highly readable history of minimalist art shows how artists as diverse as Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, and Anne Truitt came to be designated as minimalists during a series of exhibitions in the 1960s.

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