Although Mangold is known as a Minimalist painter, a movement primarily associated with sculpture, his paintings really exist on the cusp between painted and sculptural form. Using effects of layering, segmentation, notching, and combination with other strips and squares of canvas, Mangold is able to emphasize the presence and form of the painted surface in a way which generates subtle architectonic and sculptural effects. His work therefore contributes to a key ethos within Minimalism, the collapse of the medium-specific processes and creative approaches that had defined Abstract Expressionism, North America's last major art movement.