Process art
Process art is an artistic movement that arose in the late 1960s, prioritizing the physical and conceptual processes of creation—such as material manipulation, chance operations, and environmental interactions—over predetermined forms or permanent outcomes, often yielding works that visibly retain traces of their making or undergo transformation.[1][2]Key characteristics include the use of mutable, non-archival materials like latex, fiberglass, or felt, which emphasize entropy, gravity, and impermanence, thereby subverting the modernist ideal of the static art object.[2][1]
Prominent artists include Robert Morris, whose "anti-form" approach involved draped or piled soft sculptures to highlight process and contingency; Eva Hesse, who employed industrial materials in contingent, deteriorating forms; and Richard Serra, known for site-specific actions like splashing molten lead to capture performative immediacy.[2][1]
Emerging as a response to minimalism's rigid geometries and industrial finishes, process art extended abstract expressionist precedents like Jackson Pollock's action-oriented drips while aligning with post-minimalist tendencies toward ephemerality and anti-commodification, rendering many works resistant to traditional gallery sales or preservation.[1][2]
Its defining impact rests in redefining artistic value through labor and material agency, influencing subsequent practices in installation, land art, and performance by underscoring art's inherent instability over marketable finality.[2]