Minimalist Art

From Donald Judd to Frank Stella, the Minimalists of the 1960s aspired to create the most simplified forms of abstract art possible. Their sparse, geometric paintings and sculptures signaled a radical rejection of the paint-flinging style of the Abstract Expressionists, who had risen to popularity a decade earlier. The Minimalists shared a radical focus on the essential building blocks of an artwork, stripping away signs of the artist’s personality and representational subject matter that might distract the viewer from experiencing these elements in their purest forms. “A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself,” Judd explained. “It shouldn’t be concealed as part of a fairly different whole.” Known for their serial approach …