Systemic art

Systemic art. Term coined by the critic Lawrence Alloway in 1966 to refer to a type of abstract art characterized by the use of very simple standardized forms, usually geometrical in character, used either in a single image or repeated in a pattern arranged according to a clear principle of organization. Alloway originated the term when he organized an exhibition called ‘Systemic Painting’ at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1966; the artists represented—all American—included Al Held, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, and Frank Stella. Systemic art has been described as a branch of Minimal art, but Alloway extended the term to cover Colour Field Painting.