Minimalism was an art movement that was contemporaneous with Pop art and was one of two (the other being Pop art) major influences on Post-Modern visual art. Through its consistent stripping away of subject, pictorial illusion and artistic expression, Minimalism signaled the end of Modernism.
Coming after Abstract Expressionism, what the Minimalists inherited from the Abstract Expressionists was the idea of the reduction of subject and pictorial space to events on a surface. But this is all they took away. Instead of expression, the Minimalist practiced an art of no-expression. Instead of gestural marks, the Minimalist went for hard edge surfaces. Instead of the symbolic, the Minimalist favored the literal. In short, to the Minimalist a black square of paint on a canvas was simply that a black square of paint on a canvas.
If anything the Minimalists thought that the AbEx painters weren’t consistent in their approach. To them the AbEx artists were caught up in expression, injecting the subject of self-expression where there ought to be none. Jackson Pollock famously remarked, “that I am nature” when he was criticized for no longer painting nature. Ad Reinhardt, an Abstract Expressionist that led the way to Minimalism, said, “The laying bare of oneself is obscene. Art begins with the getting rid of nature."
What we have with Minimalism is the logical conclusion of what was started by the Abstract Expressionism, a complete break from the past. Minimalism with its desire for reduction turned away from both illusionistic and expressive painting with nature as its source and guide. All that was left was the physical presence of the artist’s material.
The main problem with Minimalism was to determine what shape would the work take. This would be answered literally. Artistic freedom was in the selection of the shape of the work and many artists played with geometry. Some painted only regular geometric shapes on canvases where as others worked on non-traditional shaped canvases (both regular and irregular geometric shapes) and while others began to paint three dimensionally by extending their shapes into space. This last tendency blurred the line between categorical distinctions of drawing, painting and sculpture favored by Modern artist.
If I imagine a home decorating store with all of its cans of paint, I can see the problem of Minimalism. If all one has are materials then what is to guide one in the creative act? Without a plan, how does one know what can of paint to purchase and for what purpose? If the Minimalist were interested in stripping away aspects of art than why is it that they left artistic selection? Several musical composers followed this train of thought and composed mathematically. This way there was a plan, the music was determined without the influence of the composer. Just as Minimalism concluded Modern art, it gave rise to Post-Modernism. It seems that Post-Modernism was a fait accompli as Minimalism simply left too much unresolved. We shall see how one of the foundational problems of Post Modernism, (namely, out of many equally valued choices, how does an artist select what to work with and what to do) plays itself out.