Monday, August 13, 2007

Useful Link - More about Minimalism

Some interesting responses have been sent in about the minimalism topic which began a few posts ago. To read them, go to the comments section of this post. (This discussion has now lead to the topic of Conceptualist Art, which I will be exploring in upcoming posts.)

If we can classify some of Mark Rothko's work, who is condsidered and Abstract Expressionst painter, as Minimalism, do you judge his work to be compelling? Focus especially on the works that consist mostly of a few blocks of color. What about Frank Stella, who is considered the originator of minimalism? Here are a link to Artcyclopedia where you will see a description of Minimalsim and examples of Minimalist paintings. And a link, to Mark Rothko paintings.

Once again, are they too minimal or do they succeed?


Artcyclopedia
Mark Rothko

2 comments:

sandra corey said...

From artist in Santa Fe:
Responding to your blog, to me minimalism is all about reduction but the painting has to be beyond just a few lines or colors. For example Rothko's paintings are very complicated because he painted layer after layer to achieve the space with depth he created. I find a good exercise is to take a realistic picture and reduce it to its bare essential...pushed to purism...minimal color, minimal image...remove unnecessary distractions from the central preoccupation. I do that in some of my abstract paintings...it helps me with composition. Some don't turn out. I read somewhere, where Frank Stella (whom I like a lot) says that his art work needs no justification...it simply exists, it is just there. The next step, I guess, is conceptualism which I don't fully get.

From reader in Ketchum:
Hi Sandra, I think your latest painting is gorgeous! I also think that Picasso's sketches are artfully done doodles, but not very compelling.

Anonymous said...

Some notes on minimalism in Russian:
http://recit.livejournal.com/12862.html