ABSTRACT PAINTING AND THE MINIMALIST CRITIQUES : robert mangold, david novros, and jo baer in... the 1960s

This book undertakes a critical reappraisal of Minimalism through an examination of three key painters: Robert Mangold, David Novros, and Jo Baer. By establishing their substantive engagements with Minimalist discourse, as well as their often overlooked artistic exchanges with their sculptor peers, it demonstrates that painting crucially informed the movement’s development, serving not only as an object of critique but also as a crucible for its most central tenets. It also poses broader disciplinary implications as it historicizes and challenges Minimalism’s "death of painting" critiques that have been so influential to theories of modernism and postmodernism in the visual arts. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Acknowledgments 13 Introduction 16 1. Systemic Painting: A Medium at a Crossroads 28 "A Current American Tendency” 28 "Systemic” Defined 32 The Installation 36 The Critical Response 40 2. Robert Mangold: Minimalist Dialectics in the Walls and Areas 50 Minimalist Dialectics 50 Dialectics in Formation 54 "Flat Art”: Painting Between Object and Concept 66 "Just Nothing,” “Minimal,” “Third Stream” 78 Prefabricated Architecture and Decorator Colors 84 Lippard’s Impossible Synthesis 89 Mangold’s Sublation 93 3. David Novros: Painting in the House of Literalism 111 Novros and Judd in Dialogue 111 Judd on Painting 112 Discovering the “Painted Place” 118 Novros at Park Place 121 The Dwan Shows 132 The Fiberglass Paintings 139 A Specific Fresco 141 4. Jo Baer: Painting Reframed 156 Baer’s Minimalism 156 New York to Los Angeles and Back 158 The Koreans: “Paintings, Not Pictures” 162 Baer, Beckett, and the Framing of Subjectivity 164 The Fischbach Show, Diptychs, and Triptychs 172 Painting and “The System” 179 The Frames of Sixties Painting 185 Why Don’t You Use Pink?”: Baer Amongst the Modernists 188 The Artforum Letter 192 Coda: Framing the Self(ie) 197 5 Conclusion: Against Endgames 207 Index 218 This book undertakes a critical reappraisal of Minimalism through an examination of three key painters: Robert Mangold, David Novros, and Jo Baer. By establishing these artists' substantive engagements with Minimalist discourse, it demonstrates that painting crucially informed the movement's development.