THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART
San Diego, California
"AMERICAN MINIMAL"
March 6 - June 1, 2025
THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
"AMERICAN MINIMAL"
March 6 - June 1, 2025
This installation pays tribute to a passing generation of Minimalist artists, most notably Frank Stella (1936–2024). Highlighting the Museum’s major Stella, Flin Flon VIII (1970), the selection includes a broad range of work from diverse media, many of which have not been on view before.
Minimalism was both an extension and a rejection of Abstract Expressionism, furthering its commitment to nonrepresentation, while also moving away from broad gestures and brushstrokes to remove any trace of the hand of the artist. With Minimalism, no attempt is made to imitate reality; rather the work presents a new reality—that of the object as it is. The movement began in 1959 when Stella exhibited his Black Paintings at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The crisp geometric white lines on black backgrounds of these works are repeated in the 1967 lithograph Tuxedo Park displayed here. Stella once quipped to a journalist, “What you see is what you see,” a statement that became the movement’s unofficial motto.
By focusing on the objectives to free art from representation and to remove the historical predominance of the artist as creator, Minimalism aimed to make contemporary art more egalitarian. Its aesthetics of simplicity, repetition, order, harmony, and truth—not trying to be other than what it is—continued to impact succeeding generations of artists working with industrial fabrication, sound, light, weight, and balance, as well as new materials and technologies.
In this installation James Hyde and Louise Nevelson experiment with resin and Perspex, while John Cage, Nancy Haynes, and Jay Kelly employ simple repetitive markings evocative of mathematics, music, and early computer-generated art. Artists working in Southern California as part of the related Light and Space movement, including John McCracken and DeWain Valentine, focus on perceptual phenomena and incorporate the latest technologies of local engineering and aerospace industries to develop light-filled objects. Photographs by Arnold Newman vividly document the broader Minimalist culture concurrent in the visual arts, music, and dance.
American Minimal reaffirms the radical essence of minimalism, offering a return to objective truth in form and substance amidst today’s visual and digital excess. Rejecting expressive gestures, minimalist artists embraced purity of form, geometry, and materiality. This exhibition highlights pioneers like Frank Stella, Josef Albers, Donald Judd, and Carl Andre, while celebrating the West Coast’s Abstract Classicists and Light and Space movement. It also spotlights women artists, including Helen Lundeberg, Helen Pashgian, Mary Corse, Lita Albuquerque, and Gisela Colón whose innovations expanded and continue to expand minimalism’s legacy. Inviting contemplation and direct engagement, american minimal offers a rare space for stillness, thought, and presence.
Curated by Jennifer Findley and John Digesare.
Artists in the exhibition:
Josef Albers
Lita Albuquerque
Carl Andre
Florence Arnold
Larry Bell
Karl Stanley Benjamin
Fletcher Benton
Harry Bertoia
John Cage
Susan Chorpenning
Gisela Colón
Mary Corse
Gene Davis
Walter De Maria
Tony DeLap
Lorser Feitelson
Ed Garman
Helen Odell Gilbert
Teo González
Joe Goode
Fredrick Hammersley
June Harwood
Nancy Haynes
James Hyde
Donald Judd
Craig Kauffman
Elsworth Kelly
Jay Kelly
Gary Lang
David Lasry
Donald Lewallen
Sol Lewitt
Peter Lodato
Helen Lundeberg
John McCracken
John McLaughlin
Robert Motherwell
Louise Nevelson
Arnold Newman
Aaron Parazette
Helen Pashgian
Tony Rosenthal
Richard Serra
Frank Stella
DeWain Valentine
Norman Zammitt