Lecture07 Post Gestural Abstraction & Minimalism

Lecture07 Post Gestural Abstraction & Minimalism
ARTH3120 Contemporary Art

Travis Lee Clark
Utah Valley University

This is a "Meanwhile, back at the ranch..." kinda lecture. So what happened to Modernist painting in the 60s and 70s after the revolution in Conceptual and Pop Art? Well, Modernism ran aground on the shores of Conceptual, Performance and Pop Art it had a long talk with itself about what kind of movement it wanted to be. It was down, but it wasn't out. In fact it "Moderned" HARDER. It moved away from the gestural and painterly styles of the Abstract Expressionists to a more hard edge style, a style that emphasized the object. TBH it was kinda heading this way ANYWAY, but this spurred on a whole new direction, and spawned Minimalism which brought it into the third dimension. More to point, by responding to Pop and Conceptul Art it too became MORE conceptual, spawning process art. Along the way our old friend Clement Greenburg got to save some face, and a critic of Warhol's Pop Art, Donald Judd, got to put his money where his mouth is.