Minimalism and Donald Judd

Donald Judd Untitled - 1967 - Lacquer on galvanized iron - Twelve units, each 9 x 40 x 31" (22.8 x 101.6 x 78.7 cm), installed vertically with 9" (22.8 cm) intervals - Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (click photo for larger image)Minimalism emerged in New York in the early 1960s among artists who believed that art had become stale and academic. A wave of new influences and rediscovered styles led younger artists to challenge boundaries with respect to media, subject matter and styles. They favored the cool over the dramatic and employed a host of industrial materials to their artistic production. In contrast to Abstract Expressionism, the Minimalists avoided overt symbolism and highly charged emotional content, they called attention to the materiality of the works.

Donald Judd (1928-1994) was an American artist, whose rejection of both traditional painting and sculpture led him to a conception of art as the object as it exists in the environment. He created works built from single or repeated geometric forms, using industrialized, machine-made materials. 

Judd is regarded as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century, and his influence on art, design, and architecture continues to be felt today.