Minimalism was an art movement that first surfaced in the late 50's then became hugely popular in the 60's through to the 70's.
Minimalism is art that is stripped down to its most raw fundamental aspects. is simply paintings or sculpture that thrive in simplicity in both content and form. The aim of Minimalism is to allow the viewer to experience the work more intensely without the distractions of composition, theme and so on. Minimalism is still hugely recognised in the art world with more and more simplistic artists emerging, however with changing technology and the ever changing art world more and more art is becoming computer orientated with simple use of typography and graphics.
Frank Stella
Frank Stella has had an incredibly successful career as a painter sculptor, printmaker and architect and also as a pioneer of the minimalism movement and a huge part of its success. Stella is known for his minimalist works of black squares and white lines and also well known his own skill at manipulating and altering his style making all his work different and striking in its own respect. i like how Stella can alter his style and that makes him exceptionally skilled and ensures he can keep his audience captivated, however i don't particularly like his work as i find it simple but not particularly interesting, he is talented however his work is not to my taste.
Carl Andre
Carl Andre is a minimalist artist who specialises in sculptural work. he is most known for his grid and square format sculptures. Andre has worked from the likes of huge eye catching sculptures to intimate tile work within exhibition space. I feel that to Andre strong shapes are a fundamental aspect to his work as his work is majorly in cubes and cuboid with linear and grid formats. Andre uses wood for a lot of his sculptures and it is all imacculate and neat to keep his work simple and clean. I like Andre's work, I prefer physical sculptural minimalism work as opposed to art and paintings.
Tony Smith
Tony Smith was a sculptor, visual artist, architectural designer and also noted as one of the most fundamental pioneers in american minimalism architecture.
Smith sculpted large minimalist outdoor pieces most commonly made with dark, smooth metal. Smiths work was generally made with very strong geometric shapes and we're largely made in great volume. Like Andre and most minimalism sculptors, Smith's work is very linear.
As I previously stated i much prefer the sculptural side of minimalism so I find Smiths work particularly inspiring Moreover the scale in which Smith works really stands out to me, if I were to be a sculptor I would much prefer to work at a scale that would be eye catching and be noticed wherever it was situated.
