Key decade: 1950s into '60s

1. Frank Stella and the birth of Minimalism
   1. Stella, "what you see is what you see..."
   2. Carl Andre, "the metals of commerce..."
   3. Tony Smith and the New Jersey Turnpike
   4. "Minimal Art," Richard Wollheim, 1965
2. Minimal Art and Industrial Aesthetics
   1. Donald Judd, "one thing after another..."
   2. Robert Morris
   3. Dan Flavin
3. Minimalism's Instabilities
   1. Robert Morris (again), Sol LeWitt: towards the concept
   2. Walter De Maria, Robert Smithson, Richard Serra: towards the site
   3. Site-specificity:
      1. Richard Serra's Tilted Arc (1981) vs.
      2. Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial (1982)

Slide List

Stella Die Fahne Hoch 1958-59
Stella Getty Tomb 1958
Stella Jill 1959 (Black paintings)
Stella Luis Miguel Dominguin 1960 (Aluminum series - shaped)
Stella Sidney Guberman 1963 (Purple series - shaped)
Andre Cedar Piece 1959
Andre 144 pieces of Lead and 144 pieces of Magnesium 1969
Andre 37 pieces of work 1969
Geismar Chase Logo 1963
Smith Die 1962
Judd untitled (everything is untitled), galvanized iron 1965
Judd Untitled 1969
Morris Untitled, fiberglass and light 1965
Flavin Pink Out of a Corner (to Jasper Johns) 1963-64
Flavin Monument to Tatlin 1964
Flavin Monument to V.Tatlin 1970
Morris Litanies 1963 and subsequent certificate
LeWitt Straight Lines in Four Directions, site and dimensions variable 1969
De Maria Mile Long Drawing 1968
Smithson Wandering Earth Mounds & Gravel Paths (for airport site) 1967
Serra Stacked Steel Slabs (Skullcracker Series), at Kaiser Steel Corporation 1969
Serra Splashing 1968
Serra Untitled 1969
Serra Tilted Arc 1981
Serra Prop 1968
Lin Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1982

Frank Stella, Getty Tomb, 1958
Frank Stella, Jill, 1959
Carl Andre, Cedar Piece, 1959
Carl Andre, 37 pieces of work, 1969

Stella shared a studio space with Andre in the late fifties, and the two developed a mode of working that emphasized lowly workman's labor rather than "authorial gestures." Their resistance to AbEx individualism would later become identified with a new strain of art, Minimalism.

Frank Stella, Sidney Guberman, 1963
Thomas Geismar, Chase Logo, 1963

Minimal Art, so named by a philosopher (Richard Wollheim) in his 1965 essay by the same title, had strong resonances with an industrial aesthetic of corporate logotypes and factory production.

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1969
Dan Flavin, Monument to V.Tatlin, 1970
Tony Smith, Die, 1962
Richard Serra, Prop, 1968

The industrial look of Minimal Art extended to its materials. It was often fabricated by outside "jobbers" accustomed to making industrial construction elements. In Flavin's case, it was assembled from pre-fabricated materials purchased at the hardware store.

Richard Serra, Untitled, 1969
Richard Serra, Titled Arc, 1981
Maya Lin, Vietnam Memorial, 1982

Serra's identification with Pollock is an example of how the Abstract Expressionist ideas get carried forward and altered at the same time. How does Maya Lin's Vietnam War Memorial achieve the same kind of extension and critique of Minimal Art?