Gail Hastings’ collection of interviews seeks to counter narrow interpretations of Minimal art, especially those claiming that Minimal art, which emerged in the mid 1960s, is a reductive practice. That misunderstanding dates to its earliest critics, but it neither fits her own experiences nor what she thinks the artists proclaimed. Minimal art is spring loaded with creative energy, and what that force creates is space.
The central issues debated by Hastings and the six scholars, curators and collectors she interviewed in 2015 determine whether Minimal art is a subtractive formal practice or an expansive sensual one and, also, whether it was a short-lived American movement or a widespread tendency in Western art and culture that spanned the twentieth century. For readers new to Minimal art, this volume is a good introduction to historical practices and changing understandings. For artists and art historians, these conversations hold fresh insights into prominent figures, from Kazimir Malevich to Sol LeWitt, while also engage in many who are little known or largely forgotten, such as Charlotte Posenenske and George Ortman. For scholars, there are remarks that invite further research, such as the names of adventurous gallerists in Europe in the 1960s who first showed this art.
Excerpt from David Raskin, ‘Introduction’, The Missing Space Project: Six Interviews, Pigment Publisher, Sydney, 2015, p.8.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Book Release | |
Date: | 14/Oct/2015 |
Edited by: | Gail Hastings |
For: | Apple Books, available in 51 countries |
Interviews with: |
curator Marianne Stockebrand (in Berlin) |
Apple Books Best viewed on an iPad or a Mac computer
|
Gail Hastings Installation 1989 / Fergus Armstrong Photograph 1989, Store 5, Melbourne
Suzannah Barta, Sandra Bridie, Lyndell Brown, Gail Hastings, Store 5, Melbourne
This Performance — A Passing Thought, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
S.W.I.M. Fund Raiser, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
Melinda Harper, Gail Hastings, Gary Wilson, Constanze Zikos, FirstDraft Gallery, Sydney
Some examples of different ways, Store 5, Melbourne
No, just an empty square, Store 5, Melbourne
Production, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Australian Perspecta 1991, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Gail Hastings & Elizabeth Newman, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Lovers, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
To make a work of timeless art, Artspace, Sydney
Road to Love, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney
out of time: part two, David Pestorius Gallery, Brisbane
Art 1996 Chicago, David Pestorius Gallery, Chicago
Reservoir, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Lake Macquarie
The Pool, Centenary Pools, Brisbane
To make a work of timeless art, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
To make a work of timeless art, David Pestorius Gallery, Brisbane
Wall as Medium?, David Pestorius Gallery, Brisbane
four coincidences, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Duality: a series of weekly exhibitions during April 1997, David Pestorius Gallery, Brisbane
Art 1997 Chicago, David Pestorius Gallery, Chicago
two corners and a cube, Galerie Köstring/Maier, München
On Dialogue, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
two and three stares, Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich
Statements Art 28‘97 Basel, David Pestorius Gallery, Basel
forgotten encyclopaedias, 24 Church Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
Art Forum Berlin 1997, David Pestorius Gallery, Berlin
To complete a work of contemporary art, Ausstellungsraum Thomas Taubert, Düsseldorf
art idea no. 8,582,048, Bahnwärterhaus, Esslingen
Close Quarters: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
art idea no. 8,582,048, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
projections, David Pestorius Gallery, Berlin
apparently not, David Pestorius Gallery, Berlin
I views, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
Close Quarters: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand, ANU School of Art Gallery, Canberra
The Space Here Is Everywhere: Art with Architecture, Villa Merkel/Bahwärterhaus, Esslingen
Space Affects: the art and architecture of James Birrell and Gail Hastings, Metro Arts, Brisbane
Open House, Pestorius Sweeney House, Brisbane
OUI we, The Commercial, Sydney
20/20, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney
Exhibition: To Do, The Commercial, Sydney
Missing: four sculptuations by Gail Hastings, Apple Books, Available in 51 countries
Melbourne Art Fair, The Commercial, Melbourne
Taking it all away: MCA collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney