Is an art form in which the artist's intent is to convey an idea rather than to create an art object. “a choice of mind rather than of hand”. The ideas.

is an art form in which the artist's intent is to convey an idea rather than to create an art object.

“a choice of mind rather than of hand”. The ideas themselves take precedence over traditional aesthetic and

material concerns.”Mid-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. (1)

"Creativity isn't the monopoly of artists.“

Joseph Beuys(2)

"Actual works of art are little more than historical curiosities.”Joseph Kosuth (3)

Conceptual Art

Few artistic movements are surrounded by so much debate and controversy as conceptual art. For conceptual art has a tendency to provoke intense and perhaps even extreme reactions in its audiences. After all, whilst some people find conceptual art very refreshing and the only kind of art that is relevant to today's world, many others consider it shocking, distasteful, skill-less, downright bad, or, and most importantly, not art at all. Conceptual art, it seems, is something that we either love or hate (4).

Yoko Ono, 'Painting to Hammer a Nail',

1966

What prompted the conceptual art movement?

The movement also was in reaction to what many artists considered the overcommercialization of art objects in the

moneyed world of art galleries and museums.(5)

L.H.O.O.Q., a cheap postcard-sized reproduction of the Mona Lisa,upon which Duchamp drew a

mustache and a goatee. The "readymade" done in 1919, is one of the most well known act of degrading a famous work of art. The title when pronounced in

French, puns the frase "Elle a chaud au cul", translating colloquially in "She has a hot ass". (6)

Where did it start?

As the father of Dadaism, Marcel Duchamp is considered the grandfather of Conceptual Art. Marcel Duchamp, revolutionized twentieth-century art by presenting everyday, unadulterated objects in museum settings as finished works of art, which were called “found art,” or ready-mades by later scholars.(6)

Fountain 1917

Bicyclewheel 1913

History:The term "concept art" first appeared (1961) in a publication by Fluxus, an avant-garde art group, and conceptual art was defined at length (1967) in an article by Sol LeWitt , one of the movement's best-known adherentsThe ideas that fuelled the conceptual art movement of the 1960s and 70s continued to influence and animate the work of many artists of the late 20th and early 21st cents. (3)Conceptual artists do not set out to make a painting or a sculpture and then fit their ideas to that existing form. Instead they think beyond the limits of those traditional media, and then work out their concept or idea in whatever materials and whatever form is appropriate. They were thus giving the concept priority over the traditional media. Hence Conceptual art. From this it follows that conceptual art can be almost anything, but from the late 1960s certain prominent trends appeared such as Performance (or Action) art Land art, and the Italian movement Arte Povera (poor art). Poor here meant using low-value materials such as twigs, cloth, fat, and all kinds of found objects and scrap. Some Conceptual art consisted simply of written statements or instructions. Many artists began to use photography, film and video. Conceptual art was initially a movement of the 1960s and 1970s but has been hugely influential since. (7)

4 Identical Boxes with Lids Reversed 1969Michael Craig-Martin

Plywood painted with non-slip deck paintobject: 610 x 2438 x 914 mm sculpture

According to Michael Craig-Martin, the very ordinariness of these simple grey boxes is intended to allow the viewer to focus on ''the idea embodied in the piece''. The work is an exploration of what happens to four identical structures when a logical mathematical progression is applied to them. The lids were created by cutting away the top surface of the boxes in a sequence of 6, 12, 18 and 24 inch intervals. The artist then reversed the order of the lids, placing the first lid on the fourth box, and so on. ''With the lids reversed, the boxes are always both visually and factually unique. However, taken as a whole, the piece is still essentially 4 identical boxes,'' he has commented.

from Studies for HologramsBruce Newman 1970

“I was very interested in that: if you perform a bunch of arbitrary operations, some people will make very strong connections with them and

others won't”

Performance (or Action) Art

Life by Gilbert and George part of Death Hope Life Fear series -1984

Gilbert & George. They've been around for decades, producing works in their unique style -- huge brightly-coloured photo-based collage-pictures on a black grid -- which has become their well-known visual signature. Over the years they have developed new ways of showing taboo-grating images of the social world and, most notably, bodily fluids and waste. At the heart of most Gilbert & George works we see the artists themselves: a model relationship of equals, as they say themselves, always harmonious, acting as one to produce their art.

A Line Made by Walking Richard Long 1967

This formative piece was made on one of Long’s journeys to St Martin’s from his home in Bristol. Between hitchhiking lifts, he stopped in a field in Wiltshire where he walked backwards and forwards until the flattened turf caught the sunlight and became visible as a line. He photographed this work, and recorded his physical interventions within the landscape.

Land Art

Robert Smithson is a legendary artist because he expanded the location of art to be possible far outside the traditional art museum and gallery, even outside the city and public urban arena

Spiral Jetty (1970) is located on the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Arte Povera (poor art)

Untitled 1968Jannis Kounellis

Wood and wool displayed: 2500 x 2810 x 450 mm

The carefully dyed but loosely wrapped hanks of uncarded wool epitomise Kounellis’s choice of simple materials at this time. Linked with Arte Povera’s exploration of basic media, they also suggest Kounellis’s attraction to earlier civilisations.

Arte PoveraItalian for "Poor Art", the term Arte Povera was formidable in the 1960's and 1970's, and is a label for a small group of artists who were experimenting with nontraditional and politically charged art.

"These artists created and explored modes of expression such as ephemeral art, performance art, installation art and assemblage. These techniques have since become extremely common tools in contemporary art; in fact this is one of the reasons that such a small and short-lived movement continues to have such relevance today." - Artcyclopedia

Mario Merz 1952

Earlier artists include:

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) Yves Klein (1928-1962)Robert Smithson Environmental Artist (1938-1973)

Yoko Ono(1933 - )Joseph Kosuth (1945 -)Michael Craig-Martin(1941-) Bruce Nauman Performance artist (1941-)

Richard Long land art (1945-)Gilbert and George –Performance artists Their partnership started in 1967 at Central St. Martin’s ColleYves Klein :

Globe terrestre bleu1962

German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) was a charismatic--if controversial--persona related to the movement.

Joseph Beuys, How to Explain Pictures to a

Dead Hare,Performance Art 1965,

Dusseldorf.

The whole body of Beuys's project is to suggest transformation, to show the way, to set an example. The "actions," or performances he staged, were rituals to induce new ways of perceiving and to heighten appreciation of the everyday objects involved.

'The Pack', Installation1969

Robert Rauschenberg: 1925-2008As the name suggests, the Combines are hybrid works that associate painting with collage and assemblage of a wide range of objects taken from everyday life. Neither paintings nor sculptures, but both at once, Rauschenberg’s Combines invade the viewers’ space, demanding their attention, like veritable visual puzzles. From stuffed birds to Coca-Cola bottles, from newspaper to press photos, fabric, wallpaper, doors and windows, it is as though the whole universe enters into his combinatorial process to join forces with paint.(9)

Monogram, 1955-59Freestanding combine

Oil, printed paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber heel and tennis ball on canvas, with

oil on angora goat and tyre on wooden base mounted on four casters, 106.6 x 160.6 x 163.8 cm

Yoko Ono is an artist whose work spans a whole range of media from music, film and writing to performance, painting, installation and sculpture. A key figure in the New York conceptual art movement of the sixties, she has continued to explore ideas-based work dealing with issues of participation, communication, philosophy, and sexual politics.

The exhibition title, YES YOKO ONO, refers to the interactive installation known as Ceiling Painting, an important work shown at Ono’s historic 1966 Indica Gallery show in London. The viewer is invited to climb a white ladder, at the top of which a magnifying glass, attached by a chain, hangs from a frame on the ceiling. The viewer uses the reading glass to discover a block-letter “instruction” beneath the framed sheet of glass — it says “Y E S.” It was through this work that Ono met her future husband and longtime collaborator, John Lennon.

Annie LeibovitzphotographJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono1980

An American artist figured heavily in Conceptual Art during the early 1970's in the US. But this movement is more important for the dialogue it introduced rather than for any individual practitioner.

Joseph Kosuth.One and Three Chairs. 1965Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of "chair",

Like many conceptual works, this is concerned with different modes of representation. It is thus an examination of a fundamental aspect of art. It brings together a real object with representations of different aspects of that object.

Joseph Kosuth

Kosuth's work has consistently explored the production and role of language and meaning within art. His nearly forty year inquiry into the relation of language to art has taken the form of installations, museum exhibitions, public commissions and publications throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia

Modern conceptual artists:

Damien Hirst – (1965-)Chuck Close – (1940 -)Brett Whiteley (1939 -1992) Patricia Piccinini,

Nalini Malani (India),Mariko Mori (Japan) Shirin Neshat (Iran), Ann Zahalka, Destiny Deacon Cindy Sherman Tracey Moffatt Julie Rrap Rose and George Parkin Guan Wei Lin Onus, Mali Wu Tracey Emin

Artist Done for You

Artists for you to present

Name/ Person/Dates Concepts Works

Damien Hirst (1965-) Hirst's work is an examination of the processes of life and death: the ironies, falsehoods and desires that we mobilise to negotiate our own alienation and mortality. His production can be roughly grouped into three areas: paintings, cabinet sculptures and the glass tank pieces.

"Beautiful, galactic, exploding“ 2001

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991)

Chuck Close(1940 -)

More than just a painter, photographer, and printmaker, Close is a builder who, in his words, builds "painting experiences for the viewer." It is important to note that none of Close's images are created digitally or photo-mechanically. While it is tempting to read his gridded details as digital integers, all his work is made the old-fashioned way—by hand.

Lucas/Woodcut (1993)

Name/ Person/Dates Concepts Works

Brett Whiteley (1939 -1992)

Greg Weight, Portrait of Brett Whiteley, 1976, gelatin silver on fibre-based paper.

Brett Whitely was a famous

Australian artist. He has left an impression on

society with both his art and his

lifestyle. What was he trying to tell us in his paintings?

How did his lifestyle reflect in

his work? All artists are

reflected through their work, some

more than others.

CHRISTIE & LONDON ZOO SERIES 3 Chimpanzee 1965 oil, charcoal, perspex, material, plaster and varnish on hardboard

The 15 great dog pisses of Paris 1989charcoal, oil, collage, resin, plaster on canvas

Name/ Person/Dates Concepts Works

Patricia Piccinini (1965-)

Piccinini's work explores the relationship between

gender and technology in a humorous and confronting

way. She is also interested in the way technology impacts on life. Her work confronts

topical issues such as genetic engineering, the

consequences of which are revealed in cute humanoids

that seem uncannily synthetic.

The Long Awaited, 2008silicon, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing

152 × 80 × 92cm

Nest (2006), edition 2/3.Fibreglass, automotive paint, cycle parts.

90x150x170cm

What is the legacy of Conceptual Art?

Conceptual Art opened the way for installation, digital and performance art--for art as experience as well as object. But it also influenced a younger

generation of more conventionally-based artists. A work such as Jeff Koons' floral Puppy which is constructed, flourishes then

vanishes owes much to the ideas aired in Conceptual Art.

Jeff Koons's Puppy was exhibited in the U.S. for the first time at New York City's Rockefeller Center. Rising 43 feet from its paws to its ears, the sculpture was formed from a series of stainless steel armatures constructed to hold over 25 tons of soil watered by an internal irrigation system. Over 70,000 multi-hued flowering plants grew from this steel and soil structure, including Marigolds, Begonias, Impatiens, Petunias, and Lobelias. First created in 1992 for a temporary exhibition in the German city of Arolson, Puppy--a symbol, according to Koons, of "love, warmth and happiness"--was a contemporary artwork that captured Koons's sculptural imagination, horticultural dexterity, and engineering skill. (3)

1. The Shock of the New2. http://the-artists.org/artistbymovement/Installation%20art3. http://www.biddingtons.com/content/pedigreeconceptual.html 4. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conceptual-art/#ConArtWhaIt 5. http://qanda.encyclopedia.com/question/prompted-conceptual-art-movement-1348

18.html

6. http://www.marcelduchamp.net/L.H.O.O.Q.php 7. http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=738. http://www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/00/koons_j_00.html 9. www.pompidoucenter.fr/education/ressources