As stated in my hypothesis, the device of reduction and the expression of essence in an artwork are the focus for establishing a relationship between minimalism and Cycladic sculpture. These are two elements that can be located within art of a minimal nature. Minimalism encompasses a broad range of diverse styles and has been used by artists throughout the modern period up to the present. This chapter will identify the areas within minimalism that I am relating to Cycladic figurative sculpture.
"Minimalism" refers to a particular style of art that may be considered to span the modern period. "Minimal art", however, is generally associated with a range of work that was produced in the US during the 1960s and 70s; that is, it constitutes a particular moment and geography in the larger field of minimalism. These distinctions are generally sustained by art historians and commentators. David Burlik, for example, used the term minimalism as early as 1929.
"...Minimalism derives its name from the minimum of operating means ...minimalist painting is purely realistic - the subject being the painting itself ... Minimalism, is an important discovery that opens to painting unlimited possibilities" (Twentieth-Century Art. 1981 p. 376)5a..
Colpitt, in defining minimal art, describes it as
"…abstract, geometric painting and sculpture executed in the United States in the 1960s. Its predominant organising principles include the right angle, the square, and the cube, rendered with a minimum of incident or compositional manoeuvring" (Colpitt, 1990 p.2).
Clearly, minimal art incorporated elements of minimalism into its own domain of complex ideas and practices. Although I refer to some examples of 1960s minimal art in this paper, it is the broader realm of modernist minimalism that is central to the ideas and relationships that are proposed.
As described in the previous chapter, the expression of essence that I have suggested applies to many of the Cycladic figures, is one of the human spirit. This phenomenon is something that is felt or known by the invocation of emotion. In an early essay, "ABC Art" Barbara Rose states "...minimal art eschewed emotional or expressive content and complexity" (Rose 1965). Such a position would appear to challenge my intention of relating aspects of Cycladic figurative sculpture to practices of minimal art. It is useful, however, to contextualise Rose's comments with those of later theorists. For example, some fifteen years later, a definitive source references her essay but provides for a more inclusive understanding:
"The term [minimal art] was also applied more widely to any reduction of artifice…" (Twentieth-Century Art. 1981 p.376).
Similarly, minimal art has been described as non-figurative, coming under the umbrella of an art style that rejected any reference to anything other than itself. However, many artists described as minimalist are notable for work that references or alludes to human form and spirit. One such artist who has been described as the most influential during the 1960s minimal art period is Barnett Newman (Rosenburg 1978). The vertical presence in many of Newman's minimal works are suggestive of both human presence and human spirit. In describing Newman's stripe paintings Baigell (1994) states
"…the single [vertical] stripe may be understood as representing the first ray of light and the first man".
Newman's use of geometric forms such as the rectangle were also a reference to human form. He was influenced by American Indian painting where the meanings of geometric form are quite different from Western paradigms. As Rosenberg (1978 p 41) states
"…a rectangle is a generalised representation of a head, a torso, a building…it is a magically active 'vehicle' that 'carries awesome feelings'".
"The isolated vertical stands for the self and for the first, for the conferring of meaning and the origin of substance…"
He also suggests that Newman was using the same theme in Here 1, as in his paintings such as The Beginning, which are about germination and cosmic creation.
"The symbolism of these paintings is unmistakable; biomorphic shapes predominate." (Rosenberg p 49).
It has been said of minimalism that the foremost aspect of a work of art is its meaning6 , the art object existing primarily to convey this meaning. In a minimalist context, the physical aspect of the work is pared back to an absolute minimum to give prominence to the meaning or essence of the work. This device can be used in varying degrees. At one end of the scale, the meaning of the work is the object itself with a minimal reference to anything else. At the other end of the scale, the object itself may have the least possible reference to the meaning of the work, or may be a vehicle for expressing the meaning. In using such devices, modern artists have insisted upon an inquiry from the viewer to distill meaning. When the meaning is the artwork, a viewer who does not seek to interpret the work, will only see the object or vehicle that is carrying the meaning and may consider it meaningless, or as Willhiem (1965) put it "…[having] a minimal art content".
Although these are complex constructs, simplicity also plays an important role in artwork of a minimal nature. Simplicity of form has often been a prerequisite and is indeed an appropriate device for allowing the focus to be placed on the sometimes more complex essence or core of the work. Duro and Greenhalgh (1965) discuss this in reference to Richard Wollhiem's essay Minimal Art (1965). They state
"The apparent simplicity of minimal art hides the complexity of its intellectual structure...it challenges the beholder to experience a layered and complex aesthetic response".
On the other hand, the meaning can sometimes be so simple it is overlooked. For example, John McCracken said in an interview with Frances Colpitt, on the reductive process in his work Untitled (Red Plank)
"...can I just do that? ...[indeed] that was exactly what I was trying to do...one could be tempted to think it's merely a simple nothing, but, it's really a simple something" (Art in America. April 1998 p.87).
Although a layered and complex aesthetic response is still required, the meaning can also be very simple.
To further demonstrate the uses and explanation of these concepts, the following section on artists of the twentieth century discusses some of the artists who have worked within and influenced the domain of minimalism.