Examines how the Minimalists removed illusion and habits of perception from their art, essential starting with nothing, and forced viewers to do the same. Illustrated with works ranging from small-scale sculpture to massive earthworks, the text traces the trends Minimalism succeeded and preceded.
In this volume, illustrated with works ranging from small-scale sculpture and hermetic paintings to vast ‘earthworks,’ Kenneth Baker, the award-winning art critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, explores the history and challenge of Minimalism in the context not only of the trends it succeeded, but of those that have succeeded it. Minimalism: Art of Circumstance is one of these rare essays of critical insight that combine a comprehensive point of view with a revisionist spirit; for, in unfolding the history of his subject, Baker finally challenges the very notion of a ‘minimalist movement.’ The result is provocative, and in today’s wildly pluralistic post-modern art world, this volume is living history – in fact, required reading.
– Kenneth Baker, Minimalism – Art of Circumstance (Cross River Press, 1988), excerpt from the book description on the front flap