Drawn largely from the Nasher’s permanent collection, Open Form: Women Artists and Minimalism highlights sculptures and works on paper by women artists that offer new perspectives on the connections between Late Constructivism, Minimalism, and Post-Minimalism. The exhibition features more than a dozen artworks made between the mid-1960s and today, most of which are on view at the Nasher for the first time.
The style now known as Minimalism—a label not readily accepted by the artists involved—emerged in the mid-1960s. During this time, young artists like Judy Chicago and Beverly Pepper pushed sculpture towards pure abstraction. Rather than presenting a single, fixed composition, Chicago’s Rearrangeable Rainbow Blocks (1965), a room-size installation of 12 brightly colored aluminum blocks that can be arranged and rearranged in countless configurations, offers an elastic and collaborative approach to art-making traditionally associated with the work of women artists.
Blurring the boundaries between artwork, object, and architecture, Minimalist artists addressed the environment that the viewer shares with sculpture, occupying what Donald Judd called “real space.” Carol Bove’s Tears (2011) will be shown for the first time at the Nasher. Composed of 121 delicately beaded silver chains that hang from a translucent bar, the work creates a barely-visible division in the gallery that draws attention to the subtle impact of other architectures.
From works by Mary Anne Unger, Kazuko Miyamoto, Lygia Clark, Mira Schendel, and Gego, to contemporary artists like Lita Albuquerque, Kathryn Andrews, Munson Hunt, and Susan York, the exhibition reflects a vibrant lineage of artists pushing Minimalism beyond its boundaries to uncover something fluid and unexpected.