Sculptor and painter Robert Morris pioneered many of the major artistic movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for his role in defining the Minimalist movement in the mid-'60s after publishing an influential series of articles in New York and exhibiting his large conceptual, geometric sculptures that embodied many concepts of Minimalism.
In addition, Morris contributed to the development of performance art, land art, Process art, and installation art. His work in the 1970s was characterized by the use of ephemeral and experimental materials to create impermanent sculptures that challenged the physicality of the art object. His style changed in the 1980s when he returned to drawing and painting, integrating them with sculpture to produce dark, apocalyptic visions.
Although much of Morris's greatest work no longer physically exists due to its transient quality, it lives on as a contribution to the history of art in photographs and written documentation.