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Chapter 30 - Pop Art, Op Art, Minimalism, & Conceptualism - Art History
Chapter 30 - Pop Art, Op Art, Minimalism, & Conceptualism - Art History
Sculpture
Generally included among the leading New York Pop artists are the sculptors Claes Oldenburg (born 1929)
and George Segal (1924–2000)
George Segal
The sculptures of George Segal are literally “figurative.”
Segal creates environments in which he sets figures, singly or in groups, that appear isolated and self-
absorbed
He also uses his technique of “wrapping” living people in plaster for portraiture
Claes Oldenburg
Clothespin has an anthropomorphic quality
legs and head
The clothespin thus assumes the quality of a visual pun, which is reminiscent of Picasso’s Bull’s Head
and of the unlikely, surprising juxtapositions of the Surrealist aesthetic that were calculated to raise the
consciousness of the viewer
Niki de Saint-Phalle
Niki de Saint-Phalle (1930–2002) was born in Paris, grew up in New York, and returned to Paris in 1951
polyester sculptures of large women The torso of this figure looks inflated, ironically even more so than
the beach ball, which seems to be losing its air
The figure seems engaged in an energetic dance movement, which, together with its “blackness,” allies it
with the exuberance and modernism of jazz
Marisol Escobar
In her monumental sculptural installation of The Last Supper, she re-creates Leonardo’s fresco in a
modern idiom
Op Art
Another artistic movement that flourished during the 1960s has been called Optical, or Op, Art
The Responsive Eye
The Op artists produced kinetic effects using arrangements of color, lines, and shapes, or some combination of
these elements
Minimalism
Sculptures of the 1960s “objectless” movement were called “minimal,” or “primary,” structures because they
were direct statements of solid geometric form
Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, like Color Field painting, tries to eliminate all sense of the artist’s role in
the work, leaving only the medium for viewers to contemplate
Donald Judd
green lacquer
The shadows also emphasize the vertical character of the boxes by linking them visually and creating
an impression of a nonstructural pilaster
Dan Flavin
Light is the primary medium of the Minimalist fluorescent sculptures of Dan Flavin (1933–96)
nonrepresentation, nevertheless has a spiritual quality that, ironically, allies his work with stained-glass
windows and the play of light and color inside Gothic cathedrals
Agnes Martin
The early work of Agnes Martin (1912–2004) was an inspiration to the Minimalists, but she developed
in a more painterly direction
In so doing, she revealed affinities with the vast—because they were conceptually vast—pictorial spaces
of Mark Rothko
possibly influenced by her interest in Far Eastern philosophy
Eva Hesse
she is sometimes referred to as a Post-Minimalist
The space between them participates in the image, creating a nonrepresentational triptych in which
medium and content converge
Conceptualism
The Conceptual artists of the 1960s wanted to extend Minimalism so that even the materials of art would be
eliminated, leaving only the idea, or concept, of the art
Joseph Kosuth
Some Conceptual works combine objects with text, and others, such as Joseph Kosuth’s (born 1945) Art
as Idea as Idea of 1966, consist only of text
Obs or obsolete
Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) worked as a Minimalist in the early 1960s, using industrial materials to create
geometric, often serial constructions placed on the floor
All are made of aluminum and painted in glossy white on a gray surface
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