| Minimalist |  |  The foremost concern of the Minimal artists Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, and Dan Flavin , was how to use space as a primary element of their art. They began making sculptures of a radical simplicity, abandoning traditional composition, and rejecting surface detail and hierarchical relationships, so that the physical properties of the materials would be perceived with greater clarity. Their critical discussions about the nature of painting itself became the basis for their inquiries into the definition of the art object. What classified something as art? What properties belong uniquely to sculpture? Such questions would lead to a consideration of volume, mass, weight, and the role of space. Questioning the nature of experience and knowledge, these young idealistic artists became critics themselves, writing about their own art and that of their peers. Their theoretical positions, informed in varying degrees by inquiries into phenomenology, behavioural psychology, metaphysics, and Eastern philosophies, were sometimes publicly articulated. As Robert Morris pointed out, simple shapes should not be equated with simplicity of experience. The simplicity of forms is a disguise for the complexity of thought that gave them definition.
© Robert Fones
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