Conceptual art, also referred to asconceptualism, isart in which theconcept(s) oridea(s) involved in the work are prioritized equally to or more than traditionalaesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions.[1] This method was fundamental to American artistSol LeWitt's definition of conceptual art, one of the first to appear in print:
In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.[2]
Tony Godfrey, author ofConceptual Art (Art & Ideas) (1998), asserts that conceptual art questions the nature of art,[3] a notion thatJoseph Kosuth elevated to a definition of art itself in his seminal, early manifesto of conceptual art,Art after Philosophy (1969). The notion that art should examine its own nature was already a potent aspect of the influential art criticClement Greenberg's vision of Modern art during the 1950s. With the emergence of an exclusively language-based art in the 1960s, however, conceptual artists such asArt & Language, Joseph Kosuth (who became the American editor ofArt-Language), andLawrence Weiner began a far more radical interrogation of art than was previously possible (seebelow). One of the first and most important things they questioned was the common assumption that the role of the artist was to create special kinds ofmaterial objects.[4][5][6]
Through its association with theYoung British Artists and theTurner Prize during the 1990s, in popular usage, particularly in the United Kingdom, "conceptual art" came to denote allcontemporary art that does not practice the traditional skills ofpainting andsculpture.[7] One of the reasons why the term "conceptual art" has come to be associated with various contemporary practices far removed from its original aims and forms lies in the problem of defining the term itself. As the artistMel Bochner suggested as early as 1970, in explaining why he does not like the epithet "conceptual", it is not always entirely clear what "concept" refers to, and it runs the risk of being confused with "intention". Thus, in describing or defining awork of art as conceptual it is important not to confuse what is referred to as "conceptual" with an artist's "intention".
The French artistMarcel Duchamp paved the way for the conceptualists, providing them with examples of prototypically conceptual works — thereadymades, for instance. The most famous of Duchamp's readymades wasFountain (1917), a standard urinal-basin signed by the artist with the pseudonym "R.Mutt", and submitted for inclusion in the annual, un-juried exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York (which rejected it).[8] The artistic tradition does not see a commonplace object (such as a urinal) as art because it is not made by an artist or with any intention of being art, nor is it unique or hand-crafted. Duchamp's relevance and theoretical importance for future "conceptualists" was later acknowledged by American artist Joseph Kosuth in his 1969 essay,Art after Philosophy, when he wrote: "All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually".
In 1956 the founder ofLettrism,Isidore Isou, developed the notion of a work of art which, by its very nature, could never be created in reality, but which could nevertheless provide aesthetic rewards by being contemplated intellectually. This concept, also calledArt esthapériste (or "infinite-aesthetics"), derived from theinfinitesimals ofGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – quantities which could not actually exist except conceptually. The current incarnation (As of 2013[update]) of the Isouian movement, Excoördism, self-defines as the art of the infinitely large and the infinitely small.
In 1961, philosopher and artistHenry Flynt coined the term "concept art" in an article bearing the same name which appeared in the proto-Fluxus publicationAn Anthology of Chance Operations.[9] Flynt's concept art, he maintained, devolved from his notion of "cognitive nihilism", in which paradoxes in logic are shown to evacuate concepts of substance. Drawing on thesyntax of logic and mathematics, concept art was meant jointly to supersede mathematics and the formalistic music then current in seriousart music circles.[10] Therefore, Flynt maintained, to merit the labelconcept art, a work had to be a critique of logic or mathematics in which a linguistic concept was the material, a quality which is absent from subsequent "conceptual art".[11]
The term assumed a different meaning when employed by Joseph Kosuth and by the EnglishArt and Language group, who discarded the conventional art object in favour of a documented critical inquiry, that began inArt-Language: The Journal of Conceptual Art in 1969, into the artist's social, philosophical, and psychological status. By the mid-1970s they had produced publications, indices, performances, texts and paintings to this end. In 1970Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects, the first dedicated conceptual-art exhibition, took place at theNew York Cultural Center.[12]
The critique of formalism and of the commodification of art
Conceptual art emerged as a movement during the 1960s – in part as a reaction againstformalism as then articulated by the influentialNew Yorkart criticClement Greenberg. According to GreenbergModern art followed a process of progressive reduction and refinement toward the goal of defining the essential,formal nature of each medium. Those elements that ran counter to this nature were to be reduced. The task of painting, for example, was to define precisely what kind of object a painting truly is: what makes it a painting and nothing else. As it is of the nature of paintings to be flat objects with canvas surfaces onto which colored pigment is applied, such things asfiguration, 3-Dperspective illusion and references to external subject matter were all found to be extraneous to the essence of painting, and ought to be removed.[13]
Some have argued that conceptual art continued this "dematerialization" of art by removing the need for objects altogether,[14]while others, including many of the artists themselves, saw conceptual art as a radical break with Greenberg's kind of formalist Modernism. Later artists continued to share a preference for art to be self-critical, as well as a distaste for illusion. However, by the end of the 1960s it was certainly clear that Greenberg's stipulations for art to continue within the confines of each medium and to exclude external subject matter no longer held traction.[15]Conceptual art also reacted against thecommodification of art; it attempted a subversion of the gallery or museum as the location and determiner of art, and the art market as the owner and distributor of art.Lawrence Weiner said: "Once you know about a work of mine you own it. There's no way I can climb inside somebody's head and remove it." Many conceptual artists' work can therefore only be known about through documentation which is manifested by it, e.g., photographs, written texts or displayed objects, which some might argue are not in and of themselves the art. It is sometimes (as in the work ofRobert Barry,Yoko Ono, and Weiner himself) reduced to a set of written instructions describing a work, but stopping short of actually making it—emphasising the idea as more important than the artifact. This reveals an explicit preference for the "art" side of the ostensible dichotomy between art andcraft, where art, unlike craft, takes place within and engages historical discourse: for example, Ono's "written instructions" make more sense alongside other conceptual art of the time.
Language was a central concern for the first wave of conceptual artists of the 1960s and early 1970s. Although the utilisation of text in art was in no way novel, only in the 1960s did the artistsLawrence Weiner,Edward Ruscha,[16]Joseph Kosuth,Robert Barry, andArt & Language begin to produce art by exclusively linguistic means. Where previously language was presented as one kind of visual element alongside others, and subordinate to an overarchingcomposition (e.g.Synthetic Cubism), the conceptual artists used language in place of brush and canvas, and allowed it to signify in its own right.[17] Of Lawrence Weiner's works Anne Rorimer writes, "The thematic content of individual works derives solely from the import of the language employed, while presentational means and contextual placement play crucial, yet separate, roles."[18]
The British philosopher and theorist of conceptual artPeter Osborne suggests that among the many factors that influenced the gravitation toward language-based art, a central role for conceptualism came from the turn to linguistic theories of meaning in both Anglo-Americananalytic philosophy, andstructuralist andpost structuralistContinental philosophy during the middle of the twentieth century. Thislinguistic turn "reinforced and legitimized" the direction the conceptual artists took.[19] Osborne also notes that the early conceptualists were the first generation of artists to complete degree-based university training in art.[20] Osborne later made the observation that contemporary art ispost-conceptual[21] in a public lecture delivered at the Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Villa Sucota inComo on July 9, 2010. It is a claim made at the level of theontology of the work of art (rather than say at the descriptive level of style or movement).
The American art historianEdward A. Shanken points to the example ofRoy Ascott who "powerfully demonstrates the significant intersections between conceptual art and art-and-technology, exploding the conventional autonomy of these art-historical categories." Ascott, the British artist most closely associated withcybernetic art in England, was not included in Cybernetic Serendipity because his use ofcybernetics was primarily conceptual and did not explicitly utilize technology. Conversely, although his essay on the application of cybernetics to art and art pedagogy, "The Construction of Change" (1964), was quoted on the dedication page (to Sol LeWitt) ofLucy R. Lippard's seminalSix Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, Ascott's anticipation of and contribution to the formation of conceptual art in Britain has received scant recognition, perhaps (and ironically) because his work was too closely allied with art-and-technology. Another vital intersection was explored in Ascott's use of the thesaurus in 1963telematic connections:: timeline, which drew an explicit parallel between the taxonomic qualities of verbal and visual languages – a concept that would be taken up in Joseph Kosuth'sSecond Investigation, Proposition 1 (1968) and Mel Ramsden'sElements of an Incomplete Map (1968).
Proto-conceptualism has roots in the rise ofModernism with, for example,Manet (1832–1883) and laterMarcel Duchamp (1887–1968). The first wave of the "conceptual art" movement extended from approximately 1967[22]to 1978. Early "concept" artists likeHenry Flynt (1940– ),Robert Morris (1931–2018), andRay Johnson (1927–1995) influenced the later, widely accepted movement of conceptual art. Conceptual artists likeDan Graham,Hans Haacke, andLawrence Weiner have proven very influential on subsequent artists, and well-known contemporary artists such asMike Kelley orTracey Emin are sometimes labeled[by whom?] "second- or third-generation" conceptualists, or "post-conceptual" artists (the prefix Post- in art can frequently be interpreted as "because of").
Contemporary artists have taken up many of the concerns of the conceptual art movement, while they may or may not term themselves "conceptual artists". Ideas such as anti-commodification, social and/or political critique, and ideas/information asmedium continue to be aspects of contemporary art, especially among artists working withinstallation art,performance art,art intervention,net.art, andelectronic/digital art.[23][need quotation to verify]
Jacek Tylicki, Stone sculpture,Give If You Can – Take If You Have To. Palolem Island,India, 2008Barbara Kruger installation detail at Melbourne
1913 :Bicycle Wheel(Roue de bicyclette) byMarcel Duchamp. Assisted readymade. Bicycle wheel mounted by its fork on a painted wooden stool. The first readymade, even though he did not have the idea for readymades until two years later. The original was lost. Also, recognized as the first kinetic sculpture.[25]
1914 :Bottle Rack (also calledBottle Dryer orHedgehog) (Egouttoir orPorte-bouteilles orHérisson) byMarcel Duchamp. Readymade. A galvanized iron bottle drying rack that Duchamp bought as an "already made" sculpture, but it gathered dust in the corner of his Paris studio. Two years later in 1916, in correspondence from New York with his sister,Suzanne Duchamp in France, he expresses a desire to make it a readymade. Suzanne, looking after his Paris studio, has already disposed of it.
1921 :Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? byMarcel Duchamp. Assisted readymade. Marble cubes in the shape of sugar lumps with a thermometer and cuttle bones in a small bird cage.
1953 :Robert Rauschenberg producesErased De Kooning Drawing, a drawing byWillem de Kooning which Rauschenberg erased. It raised many questions about the fundamental nature of art, challenging the viewer to consider whether erasing another artist's work could be a creative act, as well as whether the work was only "art" because the famous Rauschenberg had done it.
1955 : Rhea Sue Sanders creates her first text pieces of the seriespièces de complices, combining visual art with poetry and philosophy, and introducing the concept of complicity: the viewer must accomplish the art in her/his imagination.[31]
1958:Wolf VostellDas Theater ist auf der Straße/The theater is on the street. The firstHappening in Europe.[33]
1961:Piero Manzoni exhibitedArtist's Shit, tins purportedly containing his ownfeces (although since the work would be destroyed if opened, no one has been able to say for sure). He put the tins on sale for their own weight in gold. He also sold his own breath (enclosed in balloons) asBodies of Air, and signed people's bodies, thus declaring them to be living works of art either for all time or for specified periods. (This depended on how much they are prepared to pay).Marcel Broodthaers andPrimo Levi are amongst the designated "artworks".
1962: Artist Barrie Bates rebrands himself asBilly Apple, erasing his original identity to continue his exploration of everyday life and commerce as art. By this stage, many of his works are fabricated by third parties.[34]
1962:Yves Klein presentsImmaterial Pictorial Sensitivity in various ceremonies on the banks of the Seine. He offers to sell his own "pictorial sensitivity" (whatever that was – he did not define it) in exchange for gold leaf. In these ceremonies the purchaser gave Klein the gold leaf in return for a certificate. Since Klein's sensitivity was immaterial, the purchaser was then required to burn the certificate whilst Klein threw half the gold leaf into the Seine. (There were seven purchasers.)
1965:Art & Language founder Michael Baldwin'sMirror Piece. Instead of paintings, the work shows a variable number of mirrors that challenge both the visitor andClement Greenberg's theory.[36]
Joseph Kosuth dates the concept ofOne and Three Chairs to the year 1965. The presentation of the work consists of a chair, its photo, and an enlargement of a definition of the word "chair". Kosuth chose the definition from a dictionary. Four versions with different definitions are known.
1966: Conceived in 1966The Air Conditioning Show ofArt & Language is published as an article in 1967 in the November issue ofArts Magazine.[37]
1967:Mel Ramsden's first100% Abstract Paintings. The painting shows a list of chemical components that constitutes the substance of the painting.[38]
1968:Lawrence Weiner relinquishes the physical making of his work and formulates his "Declaration of Intent", one of the most important conceptual art statements[citation needed] following LeWitt's "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art". The declaration, which underscores his subsequent practice, reads: "1. The artist may construct the piece. 2. The piece may be fabricated. 3. The piece need not be built. Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership."
1973:Jacek Tylicki begins to lay out blank canvases or paper sheets in the natural environment for nature to create art.[41]
1973–1979:Mary Kelly makes herPost-Partum Document, composed of six separate parts charting the first six years of caring for her son. Through a psychoanalytical and feminist lens, the work explores the mother-child relationship and examines her son's evolving sense of self as well as her own.[42]
1981:Joey Skaggs in his hoaxMetamorphosis: Cockroach Miracle Cure, posed as Dr. Josef Gregor and claimed to have developed a universal cure derived fromcockroach hormones. Blending absurdist science with social critique, the performance exposed media gullibility and exemplified Skaggs’ use of conceptual art to challenge public trust in authority and expertise.[43]
1982: The operaVictorine by Art & Language was to be performed in the city ofKassel for documenta 7 and shown alongside Art & LanguageStudio at 3 Wesley Place Painted by Actors, but the performance was cancelled.[44]
1990:Ashley Bickerton andRonald Jones included in "Mind Over Matter: Concept and Object" exhibition of "third generation Conceptual artists" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.[45]
1992:Maurizio Bolognini starts to "seal" his Programmed Machines: hundreds of computers are programmed and left to run ad infinitum to generate inexhaustible flows of random images which nobody would see.[47]
1999:Tracey Emin is nominated for theTurner Prize. Part of her exhibit isMy Bed, her dishevelled bed, surrounded by detritus such as condoms, blood-stained knickers, bottles and her bedroom slippers.
2003:damali ayo exhibits at the Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle, WAFlesh Tone #1: Skinned, a collaborative self-portrait where she asked paint mixers from local hardware stores to create house paint to match various parts of her body, while recording the interactions.[49]
2005:Simon Starling wins the Turner Prize forShedboatshed, a wooden shed which he had turned into a boat, floated down the Rhine and turned back into a shed again.[50]
David Lynch in his onlineWeather Report series, sometimes interpreted as a conceptual performance gesture.
2005:David Lynch (Weather Report, video series). Some critics have described Lynch’sWeather Report series as a form of conceptual or performance-based art, noting that its ritualized format—daily, repetitious, minimalist, and self‑published—echoes conceptualism’s emphasis on process and the elevation of mundane actions.[51][52] While not universally classified as such, the series has circulated widely online and is sometimes cited in discourse onpost-minimal and process-oriented conceptual art.
2019:Maurizio Cattelan sells two editions ofComedian, which appears as a banana duct taped to a wall, for US$120,000 each, garnering significant media attention.[53]
^Ian Burn, Mel Ramsden: "Notes On Analysis" (1970). Reprinted in Osborne (2003), p. 237. E.g. "The outcome of much of the 'conceptual' work of the past two years has been to carefully clear the air of objects."
^Kostelanetz, Richard (2003). Conversing with John Cage. New York: Routledge.ISBN0-415-93792-2. pp. 69–71, 86, 105, 198, 218, 231.
^Bénédicte Demelas: Des mythes et des réalitées de l'avant-garde française. Presses universitaires de Rennes, 1988
^Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz,Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings (Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by Kristine Stiles) University of California Press 2012, p. 333
Charles Harrison,Essays on Art & Language, MIT Press, 1991
Charles Harrison,Conceptual Art and Painting: Further essays on Art & Language, MIT press, 2001
Ermanno Migliorini,Conceptual Art, Florence: 1971
Klaus Honnef,Concept Art, Cologne: Phaidon, 1972
Ursula Meyer, ed.,Conceptual Art, New York: Dutton, 1972
Lucy R. Lippard,Six Years: the Dematerialization of the Art Object From 1966 to 1972. 1973. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Gregory Battcock, ed.,Idea Art: A Critical Anthology, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1973
Jürgen Schilling,Aktionskunst. Identität von Kunst und Leben? Verlag C.J. Bucher, 1978,ISBN3-7658-0266-2.
Juan Vicente Aliaga & José Miguel G. Cortés, ed.,Arte Conceptual Revisado/Conceptual Art Revisited, Valencia: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 1990
L'art conceptuel, exh.cat., Paris: ARC–Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1989
Christian Schlatter, ed.,Art Conceptuel Formes Conceptuelles/Conceptual Art Conceptual Forms, exh.cat., Paris: Galerie 1900–2000 and Galerie de Poche, 1990
Reconsidering the Object of Art: 1965–1975, exh.cat., Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1995
Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s–1980s, exh.cat., New York: Queens Museum of Art, 1999
Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970, exh.cat., London: Tate Modern, 2005
Art & Language Uncompleted: The Philippe Méaille Collection, MACBA Press, 2014
Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph 1964–1977, exh.cat., Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2011
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