Minimalism

Minimalism grew up in the United States in the 1960s. Its works are often plain geometric forms, many built on the square or the rectangle, and they make no attempt to stand for anything in the outside world. The painter Frank Stella's line “What you see is what you see” is often quoted to sum this up. Many minimalists turned away from the emotional gestures of the abstract expressionism that came before them. They wanted the artist's own hand to disappear, and chose impersonal, factory-made materials that anyone could buy. Donald Judd argued in his essay “Specific Objects” that the new work was neither painting nor sculpture. Writing about a piece by Judd, Korea's National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art points out that raw industrial materials such as aluminium and Plexiglas are one hallmark of the style, and that because the work is treated as an object, the viewer's involvement and the passing of time become part of understanding it. Minimalism's story is also linked to conceptual art.

See how the work meets the floor, the wall or the room, then step closer, step back, or walk around it: what changes as your position changes?

• Conceptual Art 개념미술→Both flourished in the 1960s and 70s, and Tate ties them together: each questioned how art is made, shown and viewed.
• Abstract Expressionism 抽象表現主義→Many minimalists turned away from the emotional, gesture-led painting of abstract expressionism.