Term
| Who were the major artist-theoreticians of Minimalism? |
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Definition
| Donald Judd and Robert Morris |
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Term
| Robert Morris wanted rid of ... what? |
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Definition
| Transcendence, metaphors, especially those to do with 'up' |
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Term
| What did Robert Morris say "No" to? |
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Definition
| Transcendence and spiritual values, heroic scale, anguished decisions, historicizing narrative, valuable artifact, intelligent structure, interesting visual experience |
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Term
| What were Robert Morris's sculptures usually made from? |
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Definition
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Term
| Who in particular of Judd and Morris was a painter before sculptor? |
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Definition
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Term
| Name the seminal 1966 show which kick started Minimalism in sculpture at the Jewish Museum NY |
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Definition
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Term
| In particular what did minimalist sculpture abandon and why? |
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Definition
| The pedestal, in order to occupy the same space as the viewer |
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Term
| What does minimalist art 'bridge'? |
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Definition
| Painting and sculpture. According to Judd's essay "Specific Objects" it necessarily erases this distinction |
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Term
| Which painter inspired Judd to work in "real space"? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is "one of the salient and most objectionable relics of European art"? According to Judd |
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Definition
| Illusionism and literal space, space in and around marks and colours - rationalistic philosophy based on 'systems built beforehand, A PRIORI systems" |
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Term
| What was Judd's opinion of 'sculpture' |
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Definition
| That it was additive and composed, in a negative sense. Judd strived for a quality of 'unitariness' of simply being THAT object, THAT shape |
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Term
| What did Judd compare a good example of 'unitariness' too? |
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Definition
| Duchamp's readymades. He said "they are seen at once and not part by part" |
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Term
| Name the two disliked aspects of the 'a priori' as Judd put it |
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Definition
A hierarchy among the work's constituent elements to achieve balance: in opposition Judd wanted to cancel 'composition'
Raison d'etre - Judd thought of this as illusionism and rejected it |
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Term
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Definition
| An organised whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts |
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Term
| What did Morris say of 'gestalt' |
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Definition
| "One does not seek the gestalt of the gestalt" |
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Term
| Why, as Morris argues, does shape not remain constant in sculpture? |
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Definition
| The viewer changes the shape constantly by changing his or her position relative to the work |
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Term
| What did Jasper Johns announce in the late fifties/early sixties in relation to the meaning of ANY word? |
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Definition
| The meaning of any word is its use. Meanings can therefore change within their contexts because there is not one 'platonic form' of them. Secondly, that our own intentions cannot secure the meanings of the words we have uttered |
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Term
| Describe a work by Morris that interprets the idea of unfixed meanings in sculpture |
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Definition
| Untitled (Three L-Beams) 1965-6. Three of the same shape, oriented differently to produce the effect of three different objects |
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Term
| Where does 'meaning' come from? According to Judd and Morris |
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Definition
| The interchange between the viewer and the work in its public space. This divorce the artist from the work entirely, placing the effects of the artworm firmly in the viewer's court |
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Term
| What text by Barthes would be appropriate to use in a conversation on the artist distancing himself from the work |
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Definition
| "Death of the Author". Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" would also be relevant in a discussion of Morris and Judd's elimination of the "aura" of their work through contracted construction, standardized materials and ease of reproducability |
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Term
| Name the artist that took using standardized materials to controversial extremes during the 60s, described as "one thing after another" by Judd |
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Definition
| Carl Andre in his series of fire bricks called "Lever" from the Primary Structures show |
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Term
| Art and Objecthood was written by whom? How did they criticise Minimalism? |
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Definition
| Michael Fried. He rebaptized Judd's 'specific' objects as 'literalist' and drew the link to 'THEATRICALITY' through the effects minimalism had on the viewer. Moreover he concluded that as minimalism is so concerned with engaging its surrounds that in effect, like theatre it wants to become the 'total art work' and destroy the distinctions between the arts. This is, according to Fried, destroys the distinction between art and the everyday, which an artwork can never do. His key phrase "presentness is grace" suggested that instead of simply 'existing' and nothing more as Judd and Morris wanted, their work, as art, cannot escape transcendence |
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