Process Paper

For this year’s History Day competition, we chose to do a project on the modern American art movement, Minimalism. Minimalism was a movement during the late 1950s through 1970s. The movement focused on reducing art to its most basic form—often consisting of repeated geometric shapes, colors and lights. We chose this topic because the movement was necessary in understanding contemporary art and architecture. It had a huge effect on art theory and influenced many modern artists throughout the world.

We chose to do a website because we are both familiar with web design. The idea of a website was appealing to us because we could integrate our topic with graphics and other forms of media. Our topic allowed us to build the website using a design that was reflective of minimalist art, such as the use of geometric shapes and simple color schemes.

Our research was conducted by visiting our local university library and doing research on the internet. The books were very helpful in providing in depth analysis and explanation of the history of the time and its relation to the art. We were able to find primary sources through manuscripts which contained interviews with Minimalist artists. Erik, one of the group members, also made a trip to the Guggenheim museum in New York which was exhibiting many minimalist artists. He was able to experience these sculptures and paintings first hand, which greatly benefited our group.

We began work on our website during early October 2004. Erik acquired the website through a domain provider over the internet and began designing a layout through the later part of October. For the majority of the web design we used Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop. These programs were helpful in speeding up the design process. We began working on our Annotated Bibliography in late October and began working on our Process Paper in late November.

Minimalism relates to the theme of communication on several levels. The purpose of art is to communicate human emotion and ideas. So, art serves as a means of communication. Minimalism resulted from the need to simplify art. This radical desire was reflective of the revolutionary mood of the 1960s and 1970s—this was a time for change. Thus, it is necessary to understand Minimalism in order to understand the change that resulted from it. Minimalism helped to change global outlook on art and art theory.