Description
As a new movement that arose in the 1950s and 1960s, Minimalism challengedtraditional ideas about art-making and the art object. A Minimal Future? Art As Object 1958-1968,which accompanies a major exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, offers aredefinition of Minimalism by situating it in the context of the concurrent aesthetics of modernistabstraction, pop art, and nascent ideas of conceptual art. Minimalism is presented as a range ofstrategies that propelled new definitions of the structure, form, material, image, and production ofthe art object and renegotiated its relationship to space and to the spectator.Focusing on the years1958-1968, A Minimal Future? presents key works within the framework of a scholarly re-examinationof minimal art's emergence and historical context. It reflects the early transitional period thatbegins in the late 1950s, through the so-called "canonization" of Minimalism by 1968, with anemphasis on work produced in the mid-to-late 1960s.The book includes works from the late 1950sthrough the late 1960s by 40 artists, including Carl Andre, Richard Artschwager, Jo Baer, LarryBell, Mel Bochner, Judy Chicago, Dan Flavin, Robert Grosvenor, Eva Hesse, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt,Agnes Martin, John McCracken, Robert Ryman, Frank Stella, Anne Truitt, and Lawrence Weiner thatreflect the shifting object status of painting and sculpture.The text features original essays byprominent art historians and scholars. Diedrich Diedrichsen addresses the relationship betweenminimal art and music; Jonathan Flatley focuses on Donald Judd and Andy Warhol; Timothy Martinconsiders perfomance in relation to minimal art; James Meyer examines East and West Coast practicesof Minimalism; and Anne Rorimer discusses the relationship of minimal to conceptual art. Exhibitioncurator Ann Goldstein contributes an introduction. Also included are individual entries on each ofthe artists, an extensive bibliography, and an exhibition chronology. The 400-page book includes 300images, most in color.
