![]() ![]() Nowadays more and more artists, as well as designers, are merging definitions and rules to create works that are both functional and sculptural. They were merely aesthetic objects, existing in a three-dimensional space. They were to be defined not by what they were, but by what they were not. What made minimalist sculptures so fascinating but also controversial at the time was that they required a new definition. Isamu Noguchi, Pidgeon, 1989, Bronze Plate Artists like Nobuo Sekine and Lee Ufan, explored the encounter between natural and industrial materials, arranging them in mostly unaltered, ephemeral states¹ and placed, as Melussa Chiu (director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden) so beautifully put it, “great emphasis on the authenticity of materials, a response to space, minimalist but not minimalist.“² In Japan and Korea, Mono-ha (literally meaning “School of Things”) emerged. Many of his minimalist sculptures can still be seen today in public spaces.īut the movement emerged not only in America and Europe but also in Asia. Richard Serra for example wanted to continue developing the work of the “old fathers of minimalism” in his own way his goal was to expand minimalism so that the preferred material could develop a new formal language. Government agencies at the state and local levels created public sculpture parks that were particularly supportive of minimalist sculpture. In the 1970s, there was a surge in public art that garnered national attention for minimalist sculptors like Isamu Noguchi. For many viewers, the exhibition was a revelation, and it helped to shape the way that we think about art today. Their work was simple, often made of industrial materials, to create art that was both visually arresting and deeply conceptual. ![]() The exhibition featured a number of young, up-and-coming artists. In 1966, the Jewish Museum in New York City hosted an exhibition called “Primary Structures.” The exhibition was one of the first to really showcase the power and potential of minimalism in the art world. The aesthetic of their minimalist sculptures reached its height in the 1960s and 1970s. Robert Morris – Mirror and Glas 91,4 x 91,4 x 91,4 cm, Tate Collection, London © 2020 The Estate of Robert Morris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ Adagp, Paris, Photo: A. So the space where the art was located was also important. The meaning of their works comes from how the viewer interacts with them, not from the art itself. By putting their art on the floor instead of on a pedestal, they were trying to show that their art was different from other kinds of art. They used shapes and materials that would usually be found in factories. Artists like Donald Judd and Carl Andre wanted their art to look like everyday objects instead of traditional sculptures. In the 1950s, more and more artists started to experiment with minimalist and reduced forms. This trend continued with artists like Hans Arp, Jacques Lipchitz, Piet Mondrian, and Wassily Kandinsky, who were interested in exploring the relationship between form and color. Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York via Artsy under Fair UseĪll these artists were experimenting with new ways to represent the world around them, and they began to simplify their work. © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. He and his work was a great influence and inspiration for a lot of artists like Sérgio de Camargo, Hans Steinbrenner, Isamu Noguchi, and more.Ĭonstantin Brâncuși, Bird in Space, 1928. He is known above all for his ability to reduce the meaning of a work to its essence. He broke away from the traditional ways of sculpting and explored new methods of representation.Įven artists like Pablo Picasso, who was not necessarily known for his sculptures, created hundreds of sculptures between 19 – and became a great inspiration for Futurists, Dadaists, and Constructivists with his abstract and reduced works.Ĭonstantin Brâncuși strove for absolute simplicity in form. His sculptures with their many broken surfaces ushered in a new era of sculpture. It was a time of new ideas and styles, and Auguste Rodin was a key figure in this movement. However, this changed in the 20th century. In the beginning, they were mainly female figures and animal motifs, but over time they were used as representations and objects of worship for gods, people, and ideals of perfection. Sculptures played an important role in human life for thousands of years. Jorge Oteiza – Unidad mínima, 1959, Steel sheet, 44 x 50 x 36 cm via Museo Reina Sofía under Fair Use A brief historical exploration ![]()
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