Modern Artists Full List Modern Artists in Minimalism

Modern Artists in Minimalism

Below are biographies and analysis of the work of the artists central to the Minimalism movement. Read more about the movement on the Minimalism Overview page.

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Minimalism: 17 of 446 Total Artists

Andre, Carl

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American Sculptor

Movements and Styles: Minimalism, Conceptual Art

Born: September 16, 1935 - Quincy, Massachusetts

Carl Andre is an American Minimalist whose prominence rose in the late 1960s with a series of large public artworks and sculpture. His linear sculpture was included in the famed 1966 Primary Structures group exhibition at the Jewish Museum.

Brâncu?i, Constantin

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French-Romanian Photographer and Sculptor

Movements and Styles: Dada, Cubism

Born: February 19, 1876 - Hobitza, Romania

Died: March 16, 1957 - Paris, France

Constantin Brâncu?i, a Romanian artist working in Paris, was one of the founders of modern sculpture. His abstracted animals, portrait busts, and totem-like figures revolutionized the traditional relationship between the sculpture and its base.

Chicago, Judy

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American Painter, Sculptor, and Installation Artist

Movements and Styles: Feminist Art, Installation Art

Born: July 20, 1939 - Chicago, Illinois

Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist and author. Originally associated with the Minimalist movement of the 1960s, Chicago soon abandoned this in favor of creating content-based art. Her most famous work to date is the installation piece The Dinner Party (1974-79), an homage to women's history.

Flavin, Dan

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American Sculptor

Movements and Styles: Minimalism, Op Art

Born: April 1, 1933 - Jamaica, New York

Died: November 29, 1996 - Riverhead, New York

Dan Flavin was an American artist best known for his Minimalist constructions of color and light. Often using nothing more than a few dozen fluorescent bulbs for his work, Flavin was a crucial figure in the Minimalism of the 1960s and 70s. His light installations altered the physical exhibition space, and were designed as experiential art rather than visual art.

Judd, Donald

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American Art Critic and Sculptor

Movement: Minimalism

Born: June 3, 1928 - Excelsior Springs, Missouri

Died: February 12, 1994 - New York, New York

Donald Judd was an early and influential Minimalist artist who made large-scale geometric objects, often of industrial materials and serially arranged on the floor or wall. He helped found the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, where many key works of Minimalism are installed.

Kelly, Ellsworth

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American Painter and Sculptor

Movements and Styles: Minimalism, Hard-edge Painting

Born: May 31, 1923 - Newburgh, New York

Died: December 27, 2015 - Spencertown, New York

Ellsworth Kelly is an American color-field and Hard edge painter. Kelly got his start in the late 1950s with showings at the Betty Parsons Gallery and the Whitney Museum. His work often consists of shaped canvases, simple geometric shapes, and large panels of uniform color.

Kusama, Yayoi

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Japanese-American Painter, Sculptor, Photographer, Installation, Performance, and Conceptual Artist

Movements and Styles: Conceptual Art, Pop Art, Minimalism, Feminist Art, Performance Art

Born: 1929

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese multimedia artist, best-known for her awe-inspiring and captivating installations of polka dots and psychedelic colors. Through her installations, poetry, paintings, performances, and film she importantly contributed to many of the post-war art movements.

LeWitt, Sol

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American Conceptual Artist and Painter

Movements and Styles: Conceptual Art, Postmodernism

Born: September 9, 1928 - Hartford, Connecticut

Died: April 8, 2007 - New York, New York

Sol LeWitt was an American artist commonly associated with the Minimalist and Conceptual movements. He rose to prominence in the 1960s with the likes of Rauschenberg, Johns and Stella, and his work was included in the famous 1966 exhibit Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum. LeWitt's art often employed simple geometric forms and archetypal symbols, and he worked in a variety of media but was most interested in the idea behind the artwork.

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Marden, Brice

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American Painter

Movements and Styles: Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism

Born: October 15, 1938 - Bronxville, NY

Brice Marden started out as Robert Rauschenberg's assistant, but then made a successful career himself. His work is characterized by a preoccupation with instilling personal experiences in large, abstract, and sometimes monochromatic canvases.

Martin, Agnes

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American Painter

Movements and Styles: Color Field Painting, Minimalism

Born: March 22, 1912 - Macklin, Saskatchewan, Canada

Died: December 16, 2004 - Taos, New Mexico

Martin was a Canadian-born American painter who something of a recluse and whose art was informed by Eastern Taoist philosophy and contained elements of spirituality. Her prized painting style employed simple lines, grid patterns and soft colors.

Morris, Robert

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American Sculptor and Performance Artist

Movement: Minimalism

Born: February 9, 1931 - Kansas City, Missouri

Robert Morris is an American artist whose early L-beam and column sculptures were key works in Minimalism. His work also includes felt and fabric pieces, performance, body art, and earthworks, often with an emphasis on process and theatricality.

Newman, Barnett

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American Painter

Movement: Abstract Expressionism

Born: January 29, 1905 - New York, New York

Died: July 4, 1970 - New York, New York

Barnett Newman was an Abstract Expressonist painter in New York who painted large-scale fields of solid color, interrupted by vertical lines or "zips." His sometimes narrow or boxy canvases, part painting and part sculpture, were influential for Minimalism.

Reinhardt, Ad

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American Painter

Movements and Styles: Abstract Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction

Born: December 24, 1913 - Buffalo, New York

Died: August 30, 1967 - New York, New York

Ad Reinhardt was an American abstract artist whose monochromatic canvases show side-by-side rectangles painted in subtle variations of the same color. Very much part of the New York scene in the 1940s, he nonetheless scorned the label and gestural ethos of Abstract Expressionism.

Ryman, Robert

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American Painter and Conceptual Artist

Movements and Styles: Conceptual Art, Minimalism

Born: May 30, 1930 - Nashville, Tennessee

Robert Ryman is a pioneer for the movements of Minimalism and Conceptual art who was initially influenced by the Abstract Expressionist painters, Ryman explored predominately white-colored paintings in miryad ways.

Serra, Richard

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American Sculptor and Video Artist

Movements and Styles: Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, Video Art

Born: November 2, 1938 - San Francisco, California

Richard Serra is an American Process and Minimalist artist. His sculptures have ranged from hurled drips of molten lead to gigantic steel pieces installed in public places.

Smith, Tony

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American Painter, Sculptor, and Architect

Movements and Styles: Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Modernism and Modern Art, Land Art

Born: September 23, 1912 - South Orange, New Jersey, United States

Died: December 26, 1980 - New York City, New York, United States

Tony Smith's body of work is closely aligned with the Minimalist movement, while his sculptures were comprised of modular block formations, designed to physically alter the space in which they existed.

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Stella, Frank

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American Painter and Printmaker

Movements and Styles: Minimalism, Hard-edge Painting, Post-Painterly Abstraction

Born: May 12, 1936 - Malden, Massachusetts

Frank Stella is an American artist whose geometric paintings and shaped canvases underscore the idea of the painting as object. A major influence on Minimalism, his iconic works include nested black and white stripes and concentric, angular half-circles in bright colors.

Minimalism: 17 of 446 Total Artists

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