Minimalist Artists: Pioneers of the Movement

The minimalist art movement from the mid-20th century is a style of art that has endured for generations. The pioneering artists such as Frank Stella, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Tony Smith, Agnes Martin and others were driven by a desire to change the perception of art. They emphasized the essential elements of their work such as form, line, shape and color. In this article, we will explore the lives and works of these iconic minimalist artists and how their contributions shaped the movement.

If you want to deep dive into the history and background of the minimalist art movement, I recommend this article: Exploring Minimalist Art – All You Need To Know.

Frank Stella, considered as the first minimalist artist

The first minimalist artist was Frank Stella. In 1959, he began painting his signature black stripe paintings. While he certainly wasn’t the first artist to use a highly reduced and minimalist aesthetic in his work, he was the first artist in the movement to be labeled a minimalist artist.¹

Stella reacted against the expressive use of paint by most painters of the abstract expressionist movement. He was looking for a “calmer” and meditative-looking pictorial language, and he found it in the color surfaces of Barnett Newman. Particularly impressed by Mark Rothko, this led him to lean more and more toward a geometrization of form and a reduction of color. It was important to him that his paintings were just a flat surface with paint on it, nothing more.²

Donald Judd (1928 – 1994)

But it was not only Frank Stella who developed a taste for reduced art at this time. Donald Judd, who strictly rejected the term minimalism, was attracted to the idea of creating works that focused solely on their material components and felt that this approach allowed the viewer to connect more deeply with the artwork without being distracted by excessive or unnecessary detail.

Judd is certainly best known for his sculptures, but he actually began his journey with paintings in the early 1960s. In this works, Judd first experimented with color, line, and form in regard to the limitation of a flat plane. He once said: “I think the origin of my work does lie in painting. My work doesn’t arise from sculpture; it comes out of the paintings of Pollock, Newman, Rothko.”³

His sculptures, which he described as “specific objects,” are characterized by industrial materials such as steel, aluminum, and Plexiglas, which are strategically arranged and painted in simple forms and colors, such as the signature boxes and stacks.

Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface.

Donald Judd

Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967)

Ad Reinhardt was an American painter, sculptor and art theorist. He was a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement and is widely regarded as an important precursor of the movement.

Reinhardt had a very idiosyncratic style and focused, throughout his career, on pure abstractions of line, color and form as can be seen clearly in the painting below left. In this monochrome painting, Reinhardt explores the use of a vertical format. The contrast between the crisp white paint and the natural hue of the canvas creates a range of tonal variations. The jagged, horizontal brushstrokes of varying intensity and paint application give the composition an organized yet artful brick-like texture.

Agnes Martin (1912-2004)

Agnes Martin was a key figure in the development of Minimalism. Her consistent, simple style emphasized line, grid, and subtle color. Martin’s work was often connected to themes of nature and spirituality. She believed that art had the potential to awaken the viewer to a transcendent experience, and explored the spiritual core of the human experience through her work.

Martin’s use of minimalism was not just an aesthetic choice, but an expression of her personal journey. Her works reflect her search for inner peace, her pursuit of self-expression, and her exploration of the human experience. If you want to learn more about her and her works, I recommend the following article about her: Agnes Martin

My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They’re just horizontal lines.

Agnes Martin about her work

Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015)

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor and printmaker who’s work is characterized by its simplicity and clean lines, often emphasizing the natural forms and colors of his surroundings. After two years of service in World War II, Kelly pursued his passion for art by attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA, followed by the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.

Away from the American art scene, Kelly created his own signature style which included painting canvases in a single color, either alone or grouped together with canvases of different colors.⁴ Kelly’s most famous works include his minimalist abstract paintings and large-scale sculptures.

Tony Smith (1912-1980)

Tony Smith was a leading figure in the development of minimalist art. His work was diverse, spanning painting, sculptures, and architecture. Smith was most well-known for his geometric abstract sculptures, which combine simple geometric forms – such as cubes, pyramids, and cylinders – with a strong sense of proportion and balance.

His work was highly influenced by his study of architecture and the work of Kasimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian and other minimalists. His use of repetition and simple shapes helped him to create works of art that had a sense of timelessness and simplicity.

Robert Ryman (1930 – 2019)

Robert Ryman is an American artist best known for his monochromatic and abstract works in the minimalist movement. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and was an early adherent to the minimalist philosophy. Ryman’s work is characterized by its reductive and restrained approach, often in a white palette. Ryman has said about it: “The white is just a means of exposing other elements. White enables other things to become visible.” His works reference the phenomenology of the viewer, leaving space for individual experience and exploration.

Carl Andre (1935)

Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist best known for his sculptures and installations. His work is noted for its emphasis on form and its use of simple materials such as steel and concrete. He is also known for his collaborations with other artists, such as Sol LeWitt and Donald Judd. Andre’s sculptures often feature arrangements of basic geometric shapes, such as cubes and bars, and are often arranged in linear patterns.

Robert Morris (1931 – 2018)

Robert Morris was an American sculptor, performance artist, and theorist. His career spans several decades and he is considered a pioneering figure in the development of minimalist art. He was active in the American art scene from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, and his large-scale sculptures, installations, and site-specific works have been featured in major exhibitions around the world.

Morris was heavily influenced by the theories of Minimalism brought forth by artists such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Sol LeWitt. His minimalistic approach aimed to reduce the traditional elements of visual art to their simplest, most basic components. He explored the relationship between form, space, and materiality, and his works often highlighted the transformative power of everyday objects.

John McCracken (1934 – 2011)

John McCracken was famous for his shiny, highly polished geometric sculptures. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he began creating his signature sculptures, utilizing everyday materials such as wood, fiberglass, and resin. He created monochromatic, rectangular forms that appear to be highly polished and feature futuristic designs. His minimalist works have become an enduring reference point for post-minimalist art, and his influence on contemporary art is still felt today.

I think ‘minimalist’ work is not always so minimalist, especially when you really see it and think about it—or, say, try to accurately describe it.

John McCracken about his work⁵

Visions of Simplicity to Create a Unique Experience

For the minimalist artists, their work was about more than just reducing the elements of a piece. They sought to create a unique experience – one that encourages the viewer to take a step back and appreciate the beauty of simplicity. And most of them, couldn’t relate to the term minimalism at all. To them, their work was so much more than just “minimal.”

It must have been an exciting time when all these artists took a new direction. In this article I have focused on what I consider to be the most influential minimalist artists who were pioneers of this movement. However, I would like to mention the works of the following artists: Barnett Newman (who has not actually been called a minimalist artist, but whose work is characterized by a strong minimalist aesthetic), Robert Mangold, Larry Bell, Fred Sandback, Richard Serra, and Anne Truitt.

If you want to get to know contemporary minimalist artists, I recommend this article: Minimalist Artists to Watch in 2023

For those who want to see the works of Flavin, Judd, McCracken and Sandback in motion, I definitely recommend the following link by David Zwirner. This is an installation video by Pushpin Films of a past exhibition: Flavin, Judd, McCracken, Sandback at David Zwirner

Further Reading/ Resources

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism_(visual_arts)
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stella
³ https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2021/donald-judd-paintings-1959-1961/
⁴ http://www.artnet.de/k%C3%BCnstler/ellsworth-kelly/
⁵ https://www.artforum.com/print/201108/in-search-of-the-art-of-john-mccracken-29049

https://www.adreinhardtfoundation.org/
http://www.tonysmithestate.com/