In 1937, proto-Minimalist sculptor Constantin Brancusi tested this notion by traveling to Romania and erecting his 98-foot-high Endless Column, a rhombic tower paying tribute to fallen local soldiers. He believed all revolutionary art should force viewers to further interrogate systems of power, thereby uncovering a deeper meaning. This could largely be attributed to the 1920s acclaim of Marcel Duchamp, who crusaded against the idea that art should be only emotionally motivated. These forerunners catalyzed an objective reassessment of what it meant to be an artist. Homage To The Square by Josef Albers, 1959, via The Guggenheim Museum, New York VI (1920) reveal this generational desire to eliminate figurative techniques, reducing reality to a series of geometric forms. Other trailblazers like Dutch abstractionist Piet Mondrian, whose simple yet powerful paintings illuminated canvassed flatness, continued this practice throughout the 1920s. Paintings no longer served as objective mirrors of a three-dimensional society, but rather self-referential objects, exploring the ways in which a surface could overcome its own physical limitations. Together with Vladimir Tatlin, the Russian leaders took a specific interest in fusing emerging technology with everyday life, compiling common objects to shave art down to its truest form. Though New York City ultimately incubated the genre’s popularity in the mid-20th-century, its origins date as early as 1915, when avant-garde artist Kasimir Malevich painted his wayward Black Square. Modernism’s reductionist tendencies laid a Minimalist foundation long before the term materialized. II by Piet Mondrian, 1920, via Tate, London
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