Conceptual art

Conceptual Art

mid 1960’s and the early 1970’s

What is it?

• Art that is intended to convey an idea or concept to the perceiver and does not involve the creation or appreciation of a traditional art object such as painting or sculpture.

The idea behind the work is more important than the final work Uses images and objects to make the viewer think, and to think

particularly about what art is and what it means Rejected the idea of “art should be pretty” Rejects conventional painting and sculpture

What led up to this movement, what influenced this movement?

It was a reaction against formalism/Traditional art

• Formalism: the way object are made and their purely visual aspects. The context for the work, including the reason for its creation, the historical background, and the life of the artist, is considered to be of secondary importance.

Framework of conceptual art?

• Installation art • Performance art • Conceptual film• Conceptual photography

Key ideas

• Art is essentially conceptual • Minimal • Dematerialization• “institutional critique”: Gallery/museum/the audience completes the work• Self conscious: like Duchamp and other modernists they created art that is

about art and pushed its limits by using minimal materials and even text.

Tracy EminMy bed, 1998

The bed was presented in the state that Emin claimed it had been when she said she had not got up from it for several years due to to suicidal depression brought on by relationship difficulties.

-Anaesthetics, 1991Glass, silicone, acrylic, polystyrene, and formal dehyde solution

The glass boxes repeatedly employed by the artist act to define the artwork’s space, whilst simultaneously commenting on the “fragility of existence”. The glass, he describes as: “something dangerous and something to keep away” a material that you can see through despite its solidity. The solution, extremely toxic despite its innocuous appearance is associated with fear and memory, or the loss of it, for Hirst. He adds: “Sometimes I think you can create more of a kind of horror with empty water. A big empty tank of water is quite a frightening thing.

Damien Hirst

Joseph KosuthOne and three chairsJoseph Kosuth represents one chair three ways: as a manufactured chair, as a photograph, and as a copy of a dictionary entry for the word “chair”. The installation is thus composed of an object, an image, and words.

Kosuth didn’t make the chair, take the photograph, or write the definition; he selected and assembled them together. But is this art? And which representation of the chair is most “accurate”? These open-ended questions are exactly what Kosuth wanted us to think about when he said that “art is making meaning”. By assembling these three alternative representations, Kosuth turns a simple wooden chair into an object of debate and even consternation, a platform for exploring new meanings.

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