Minimalist Sculpture
A Minimalist work need not have every minimalist characteristic. In his work Endless Column, from 1938, the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi repeats a basic unit going up and up. Note the highest part is half the basic unit as if it has been cut off and suggesting that in imagination the column keeps rising.
His early sculpture called the kiss from 1907 features minimal space between the participants and a wrap-around look. Brancusi was making these sculptures long before the rise of minimalism in the 1960’s. So what was Brancusi reacting to? Possibly he was reacting to academic sculpture or even to Rodin?
Minimalist Land Art
Can a minimalist work be a large scale work? Yes. Please look at Spiral Jetty, an earthwork “sculpture” constructed in 1970 by Robert Smithson together with the construction contractor Robert Phillips.
The jetty is built of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks, on the shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It is 1500 feet long and 15 feet wide. The art is minimal in concept but required much hard and careful work. Its proportions appear just right. There are many photos of it from different positions and under various conditions of lighting and season.
The contractor, using heavy equipment, hauled and placed 6,650 tons of rock and earth into the lake as directed by Smithson. After the initial placement, Smithson, was not satisfied with the overall shape and had the contractor move the entire mass, a second time, into the final configuration. Other land art has been made since, but Spiral Jetty is iconic and the most famous.