Even though I have a somewhat lower opinion of Battcock as an art critic than I do of, say, Lucy Lippard, I reckon that this might still be one of the earlier & more substantial bks on the subject. Besides wch, this is an anthology so there're a fair amt of people represented including Lippard & Yvonne Rainer - w/ the latter writing about minimalism in dance - an area that's probably somewhat critically neglected in contrast to painting, music, & sculpture (or maybe, given that I'm not much of a dance buff, I just don't know about it).

There's plenty of crossover or ambiguity here as to whether people are minimalists or conceptual artists, etc, & that results in the inclusion of Mel Bochner writing about Sol LeWitt, eg. There're even 2 kinetic sculptures pictured from 1966 by Hans Haacke - an artist of special interest to me b/c of his detailed political researches. Haacke, if I remember correctly, was offered a Guggenheim show from wch he was then rejected b/c his show involved a detailed exposé of where Guggenheim money came from. Go get 'em Hans!

& there's plenty of other noteworthy work shown that I wdn't associate w/ minimalism at all but wch I'm glad is presented here: Edward Kienholz, Joseph Kosuth, Marc Morrel, Claes Oldenburg, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, etc, etc.. Yet another bk I'd reread if I had the time - even though I find much art theory to be spurious. ( )