Term used in the 20th century, in particular from the 1960s, to
describe a style characterized by an impersonal austerity, plain
geometric configurations and industrially processed materials.
It was first used by David Burlyuk in the catalogue introduction
for an exhibition of John Graham’s paintings at the Dudensing
Gallery in New York in 1929. Burlyuk wrote: ‘Minimalism derives
its name from the minimum of operating means. Minimalist
painting is purely realistic—the subject being the painting
itself.’ The term gained currency in the 1960s. Accounts and
explanations of Minimalism varied considerably, as did the range
of work to which it was related. This included the monochrome
paintings of Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt,
Frank Stella and Brice Marden, and even aspects of Pop art and
Post-painterly Abstraction. Typically the precedents cited were
Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades, the Suprematist compositions of
Kazimir Malevich and Barnett Newman’s Abstract Expressionist
paintings. The rational gr