Newman was not only influential for Flavin, but his paintings were more broadly a precursor to minimalism, the movement to which Flavin’s art is often ascribed (although the artist himself never approved of the term). The minimalists drew on post-war tendencies in abstraction, and developed a cool, rational aesthetic, expressed through the use of industrial materials, the erasure of the artist’s hand from the object, and the implementation of neutral, geometric forms. Along with Flavin, leading minimalists included Flavin’s close friend Donald Judd, as well as other contemporaries such as Sol LeWitt and Carl Andre. The minimalists created objects that defied conventions (continue)
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