MINIMALISM

Donald Judd. 15 untitled works in concrete, 1980 1984, Marfa, Texas

ARTH 35006
TTH 4 5.15p
G 112

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Email: jfranco@ithaca.edu
Office: G 107
Office Hours: TTH 2 3p

Course Description
Minimal today can refer to art, architecture, film, food preparation, sound, fashion,
furniture design, literature, theatre and more. But where did it come from? We will look
to the origins of Minimalism in art produced in the 1960s, mostly in New York City. We
will explore tensions between the critics and cultural producers who introduced and
proliferated Minimalism as a name for a radical aesthetic and the artists to whom it
first referred. In the following decades, Minimalism was revised frequently in art and
criticism through consequent lenses including feminism, multiculturalism,
postmodernism, and decolonial studies. It also expanded geographically and is now a
significant discourse for artists making around the globe. Outside of academia, it
became increasingly part of popular vernaculars as a way to either disparage or
appreciate demonstrations of its codified characteristics: lack of color, lack of
embellishments, rectilinear and/or geometric forms, aversion to color. As a class, we
will investigate its art historical persistence and trouble its popular availability.
Required Text
Meyer, James. Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2004.
Assignments, Midterm, and Final
1 - 2 page (double-spaced 12pt Times New Roman), informal written responses will be
due each Tuesday.
Midterm will comprise slide identifications and short comparative essays.
For the final, students will complete minimum 12 page research papers on topics to be
determined at the beginning of the semester. Alternative modes of research may be
proposed.
Evaluation
25% Attendance (One unexcused absence allowed w/o penalty)
25% Weekly Writing Assignments
25% Midterm
25% Final
Extra Credit Opportunities
Extra credit opportunities are provided for visiting any of the following sites during the
semester:
Dia: Beacon (Beacon, NY)
Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA)
Storm King Art Center (New Windsor, NY)
Walter de Maria, Earth Room and Broken Kilometer (NYC Counts as one site)
Judd Foundation (NYC)
(Others sites and temporary exhibitions will be considered)

Academic Honesty
Academic honesty is a cornerstone of the mission of the College. Unless it is
otherwise stipulated, students may submit for evaluation only that work that is their own
and that is submitted originally for a specific course. According to traditions of higher
education, forms of conduct that will be considered evidence of academic misconduct
include but are not limited to the following: conversations between students during an
examination; reviewing, without authorization, material during an examination (e.g.,
personal notes, another student's exam); unauthorized collaboration; submission of a
paper also submitted for credit in another course; reference to written material related
to the course brought into an examination room during a closed-book, written
examination; and submission without proper acknowledgment of work that is based
partially or entirely on the ideas or writings of others. Only when a faculty member
gives prior approval for such actions can they be acceptable.
(Article 7.1.4 Ithaca College Policy Manual)
Electronic Devices
Laptops and tablets are welcome for taking notes and to facilitate any discussion in
conversation with topic at hand
Please turn off or silence cell phones during class and keep out of sight to avoid
disruptions
Mental Health and Disabilities Policies
Diminished mental health, including significant stress, mood changes, excessive
worry, or problems with eating and/or sleeping can interfere with optimal academic
performance. The source of symptoms might be related to your course work; if so,
please speak with me. However, problems with relationships, family worries, loss, or a
personal struggle or crisis can also contribute to decreased academic performance.
Ithaca College provides cost-free mental health services through the Center for
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) to help you manage personal
challenges that threaten your personal or academic wellbeing.
In the event I suspect you need additional support, expect that I will express to
you my concerns and the reasons for them. It is not my intent to know the details of
what might be troubling you, but simply to let you know I am concerned and that help
(e.g., CAPS, Health Center, Chaplains, etc.), if needed, is available.
In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans
with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation will be provided to students with
documented disabilities on a case-by-case basis. Students must register with Student
Disability Services and provide appropriate documentation to Ithaca College before
any academic adjustment will be provided.

Week I
January 21

Introduction to the 1960s: Goodbye to AbEx and Setting the

Minimalist Stage
- Introduction in Meyer, 1 10. (in class)

January 23

- Richard Wollheim, Minimal Art in Minimal Art: A Critical

Anthology, Gregory Battcock ed., 387 99.
- Barbara Rose, ABC Art, in Battcock, 274 - 97.

Week II
January 28

- Clement Greenberg, Recentness of Sculpture, in

Battcock, 180 186.
- Chapter 1, Spring 1966, in Meyer, 11 30.

January 30

- Donald Judd, Specific Objects, Donald Judd: Complete

Writings 1959-1975 (Halifax: Nova Scotia College of Art,
1975). [PDF will be provided]

Week III
February 4

- Judd, Specific Objects: contd.

February 6

- Robert Morris, Notes On Sculpture parts I, II [PDF will be

provided]

Week IV
February 11

- Chapter 2, 1959 1962 & Chapter 3, 1963, in Meyer, 31 74.

February 13

- Michael Fried, Art and Objecthood, in Battcock, 116 147.

Week V
February 18

- Chapter 4, 1964, in Meyer, 75 116.

February 20

Fried, contd.; Instructor Presentation

Week VI
February 25
provided]

- Rosalind Krauss, Sculpture in the Expanded Field,

October, vol. 8 (Spring 1979), 30 44. [PDF will be

February 27

- Anna Chave, Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power, Arts

Magazine (January 1990), 44 63. [PDF will be
provided]
-

[OPTIONAL] Brian Wallis, Power, Gender, and Abstraction,

Power: Its Myths and Mores in American Art, 1961 1991, ed.
Holliday T. Day (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art,
1991), 100 115. [PDF will be provided}

Week VII
March 4

- Julia Bryan-Wilson, Introduction and From Artists to Art

Workers, in Art Workers: Radical Practice in the
Vietnam War Era, 1 40. [PDF will be provided]

March 5

MIDTERM

Week VIII
March 11

Spring Break

March 13

Spring Break

Week IX
March 18

- Chapter 5, 1965, in Meyer, 117 150.

- Chapter 6, 1966, in Meyer, 151 200.
- Chapter 8, 1968: Canonization/Critique, in Meyer, 245 270.

March 20

- Alex Potts, The Minimalist Object and the Photographic Image,

in G. Johnson, ed., Sculpture and Photography: Envisioning
the Third Dimension (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1998)

Week X
March 25

- Discuss presentation methods; practice with ArtStor and OIV

March 27

- Thierry de Duve, The Monochrome and the Blank Canvas, in

Reconstructing Modernism: Art in New York, Paris, and
Montreal 1954 1964, ed. S. Guilbaut (Cambridge: The MIT
Press, 1990).

Week XI
April 1

- Instructor Presentation: Paradoxes of the Grid: Minimalism and

Chicano/a Art
April 3

- Ana Chave, Revaluing Minimalism [PDF will be provided]

Week XII
April 8

- Film: The Artists Studio: Donald Judd

April 10

- Film: Yayoi Kusama: I Love Me

Week XIII
April 15

- Film Discussion: Judd & Kusama

April 17

- Briony Fer, Judds Specific Objects, in On Abstract Art

(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 131-52.
[PDF will be provided]

Week XIV
April 22

Student Presentations

April 24

Student Presentations

Week XV
April 29

No Class

May 1

Student Presentations

May 9

Research Paper Due, 1p