Born in 1955, Melvin Bernstine was largely influenced by the 1970s. The 1970s were a period of consolidation and growth in the arts, most often characterised as a response to the dominant stresses of the preceding decade. Conceptual art developed as a key movement, a partial evolution of and response to minimalism. Land Art took the works of art into the expansive outdoors, taking creative production away from commodities and looking to engage with the earliest ideas of environmentalism. Process art combined elements of conceptualism with other formal considerations, creating esoteric and experimental bodies of work. Expressive figurative painting began to regain importance for the first time since the decline of Abstract Expressionism twenty years prior, especially in Germany where Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz became highly influential figures worldwide. New York maintained an influential position in the international art scene, ensuring that international artists continued to gravitate to the galleries, bars and downtown scene in the city. The largely Italian Arte Povera Movement gained world-wide recognition during the 1970s, with artists like Jannis Kounnelis, Mario Merz, and Michelangelo Pistoletto achieving worldwide acclaim.