Op Art grew out of colorfield and Abstract Expressionism and created optical effects through interaction of colors, lines and shapes.

Orion, Vasarely

Noted Op artists: Albers, Vasarely, Riley

Minimalism is described as austere and geometric.  The term also refers to minimum evidence of the artist, as opposed to the personal nature of gesture painting.  Minimalist sculptors caricatured the idea of “object”

Free Ride, Smith

Noted minimalists: Smith, Reinhardt, Stella, Riley

Conceptualism suggests that art resides in the creative concept, not the final physical object itself.  Conceptualism draws on the “ready-mades” of Dada.

One and Three Chairs, Kosuth

Splashing, Serra

Process Art refers to sculptures in which the artwork suggests motion (a process).  In Process Art, something has happened, is happening or is about to happen.

Noted Process artists:  Hesse, Serra, Morris

Calling, Kaprow

Noted Happening artists:  Ono, Cage, Kaprow

An “anti-art” movement, Neo-dada asked the question “What is art?”  It was influenced by the Dada movement in NYC, especially the ready-mades of Duchamp, who returned to the US and inspired younger artists in the 1960’s.

Soft Toilet, Oldenburg

Drowning Girl, Lichtenstein

Pop Art expressed popular culture as fine art, often using repetition, and sometimes parodying existing art works and forms.

Noted Pop artists:  Lichtenstein, Warhol, Wesselman

Land Art (or Earth Art) consists mostly of massive works using land not as subject matter, but raw material for the work, or as the “canvas” for it.  As such, it is very site-specific.  In its anti-formalism it is similar to conceptual art, but some works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude bear all the earmarks of a Happening.

Spiral Jetty, Smithson