Minimal Myth at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Challenges US-Centric View

Curated by Francesco Stocchi, 'Minimal Myth' at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (June 2 – September 16, 2012) reexamines Minimalism by including European artists alongside canonical American figures. The exhibition features works by Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, and Robert Morris, but also European counterparts such as Ad Dekkers, Jan Schoonhoven, Peter Struycken, Ger van Elk, and François Morellet. This re-geolocalization challenges the North American-centric narrative of Minimalism, continuing revisionist efforts seen in exhibitions by Serge Lemoine, Christian Bernard, and Lynn Zelevansky's 'Beyond Geometry' at LACMA in 2004. Stocchi draws from the museum's own collection, highlighting the role of Dutch institutions in acquiring and exhibiting Minimalist art in the 1960s and 1970s. The show also pairs historical works with those of younger artists born between the late 1960s and early 1980s, including Oscar Tuazon, Monika Sosnowska, and Raphael Hefti, who inject impurity and instability into the aesthetic. Juxtapositions like Judd with Tuazon, Andre with Sosnowska, and Larry Bell with Hefti emphasize discontinuities within these artistic lineages.