The Third Reduction
Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin know symbolism. They know the metaphor, the narrative, the hidden message. And they choose to renounce all of it.
This renunciation is not poverty. It is a stance. The Minimalists of the 1960s ask an uncomfortable question: What if art didn't have to mean anything? What if a thing could simply be a thing – without symbolism, without expression, without message?
Judd's stacked steel boxes answer: Yes, that is possible. Andre's copper plates on the floor answer: Yes, that is art. Flavin's neon tubes answer: Yes, that is enough. The object is in the room. The viewer stands before it. Nothing is explained. Nothing is promised.
Suddenly the viewer becomes aware of their own bodily presence. Where am I standing? How large am I in relation to this thing? What do I feel – not what do I think – in this space? The renunciation of symbolism is not silence. It is an invitation to experience.
That is the third reduction. And it clears the way for the fourth.
"A thing is a thing and it is not the symbol of something else." – Donald Judd
— The Minimalists
Key Points
- •No canvas, no pedestal – the object enters real space
- •No symbolism, no expression, no hidden meaning
- •The viewer becomes aware of their own bodily presence
- •Final step before the reduction of identity