Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s)

1. Conceptual Art
Conceptual Art : Any of various art forms in which the idea for a
work of art is considered more important than the finished
product. Its claim is that the "true" work of art is not a physical
object produced by the artist for exhibition or sale, but rather
consists of "concepts" or "ideas."
Typical conceptual works include photographs, texts, maps,
graphs, and image-text combinations that are deliberately
rendered visually uninteresting or trivial in order to divert attention
to the "ideas" they express.

3. So what was Conceptual Art?
The use of language within works, or actually AS the entire work, and the
privileging of ideas over an aesthetic object, were key features of this kind
of art-making. The ‘merely aesthetic’ was insufficient.
At the beginning of the century, art was
becoming something more than simply
‘descriptive,’ as photography and film began
taking over. Cubism was interested in the
formal aspect of art-making, and led the way
to an abstract art. (That wasn’t all that was
going on though, as we know…Dada and
Surrealism was going on at the same time. We
may recall Dada was ‘anti-art’ and the
Surrealists were interested in meanings other
than aesthetics. There is always more than
one thing happening….) Fernand Leger, (French, 1881-1955 ),
The Bargeman, Oil on canvas, 1918,
48.5 x 54.2 cm. An example of
Cubism.

4. “I was interested in ideas – not merely in visual
products, I wanted to put painting once again at the
service of the mind.”
Marcel Duchamp

6. Marcel Duchamp
• DuChamp is considered the father of Dada art
and the grandfather of Conceptual Art.
• Many have called Sol Le Witt the father of
Conceptual Art although there are many claims
for fathers and mothers of the many types of
Conceptual Art.

8. WHAT IS
RETINAL
ART OR RETINAL
PAINTING ??

9. Retinal art or retinal painting is an expression and
concept attributed to the French-American
artist Marcel Duchamp, who used it to refer to art
which appeals mainly or exclusively to the eye rather
than to the mind.

10. Review of what Duchamp’s work achieved:
• Questioned what art is, by using ordinary readymade objects; in some cases re-titling
them, and putting them into the ‘art context’, where they were to be regarded as art.
(He even claimed himself to be ‘indifferent’ to the aesthetics of the objects. Ironically
though, it is hard NOT to consider the formal qualities of Fountain, for instance.)
• The use of other signatures (such as ‘R Mutt’ on his Fountain, and of his alter –ego
Rrose Selavy) brought into question the idea of originality and of authorship.
• Questioned the manual skills of the artist in creating an aesthetic object (echoes of
this too, in Cubist collage.)
• Gave the audience a new role: it is up to us to look at an object, or interact with the
idea behind the object. The audience, according to Duchamp, is an essential part of the
art. We are expected to work, not simply be passive consumers.
Duchamp, Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel
Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy), 1935, Leather valise with
miniature replicas, photographs, colour
reproductions, and one "original" drawing 40.7 x
38.1 x 10.2 cm.

15. Conceptual Art
QUESTIONING THE ART OBJECT
John Baldessari, (US b. 1931)
I will not make any more boring
art, lithograph, 1971, 57 x 76cm

16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO49s8WlUis

17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOF3qh
M6vIA

19.  French artist Marcel Duchamp paved the way for the conceptualists,
providing them with examples of early conceptual works — the readymades.
 Conceptual art emerged as a recognized art movement in the 1960s.
 The term 'Conceptual art' wasn't coined until the 1950s. The term was
first used by Edward Kienholz.
Where did Conceptual Art Originate?

20. The Conceptual Art Movement
 The conceptual art movement began in 1966 in the United States,
Latin America, and Europe and ended in 1972.
 This movement focuses on Marcel Duchamp's notion that ANYTHING
can be art be a work of art.
 For advocates of this movement, the idea of a work matters more than
its physical identity.

21. The Conceptual Art Movement
 Conceptual art was seen to act as a reaction against formalism and
commodification. This group believed that the art object was not an end
in itself and saw artistic knowledge as equal to artistic production.
 The first exhibition specifically devoted to Conceptual Art took
place in 1970 at the New York Cultural Centre.
 The term “Conceptual Art" came to encapsulate all forms of
contemporary art that did not utilize the traditional skills of painting and
sculpture.

22. Conflicts with Conceptual Art
 Some have argued that conceptual art continued the "dematerialization"
of art by removing the need for objects altogether, while others saw conceptual
art as a radical break with formalist Modernism.
 When Marcel Duchamp submitted his piece, “Fountain”, in the exhibit
Society of Independent Artists in New York, it was rejected. A commonplace
object such as a urinal cannot be art because it is not made by an artist or
with any intention of being art, nor is it unique or hand-crafted.

23. Important Facts
 Most conceptual art actively sets out to be controversial.
 The job of conceptual artists is to encourage a revisionary understanding
of art, artist, and artistic experience
 Because Conceptual Art is so dependent upon the text surrounding it, it
is strongly related to numerous other movements of the last century.

24. Conceptual art, like Duchamp’s
readymades, acted to make us become
conscious of the context that we are
viewing art in; the institutions of art
(state-run galleries & commercial
outlets; art schools) and our own roles
as audience. It offered us art based on
an idea or like Joseph Kosuth,
investigating the links between the
word, the idea, and the image.
Who can be an artist? Who says so? If
the idea is the important thing, rather
than manual skill, then being an artist
is something different people can do.
Artists of this period questioned the
commodification of art objects, that is,
art as something that is bought and
sold, often at huge prices. The meaning
of the art is caught up in how much it
costs.
They were really shaking up the
conceptual framework of the time.
Joseph Kosuth (U.S. b. 1945), Titled. Art as idea as
idea (water), 1966. Photocopy, mounted on board,
121.9 x 121.9 cm

25. Joseph Kosuth, One and
Three Chairs, (1969)

26. JOSEPH KOSUTH, One and Three Chairs, 1965. Wooden folding chair, photographic copy of
a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of a chair;
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Each representation of the
chair conveys a slightly
different idea: all sign systems
(including language) are
inherently imprecise.

27. Marcel Duchamp, The Fountain, 1917
“Whether Mr. Mutt with his
own hands made the
fountain or not has no
importance…. he created a
new thought for the object.”
Duchamp
JOSEPH KOSUTH, One and Three
Chairs, 1965. Wooden folding chair,
photographic copy of a chair, and
photographic enlargement of a
dictionary definition of a chair;
Museum of Modern Art, New York.

28. What is Plato's theory of art?
According to Plato, all artistic creation is a
form of imitation: that which really exists
(in the “world of ideas”) is a type created
by God; the concrete things man perceives
in his existence are shadowy
representations of this ideal type.

29. Part of this questioning of the aesthetic or the visual with
Conceptual art was the perceived need to challenge the
dominant art of the 1940s and 1950s in America:
Abstract Expressionism (aka New York School, Painterly
abstraction, Action painting.)
With WW2, many European artists, in
particular several Surrealists, fled to USA to
escape Nazism. America and more specifically,
NYC, became the centre for the new avant-
garde, rather than Europe, for the first time.
This was politically good for the US and
they milked it. The name of ‘abstract
expressionist’ was applied to art that actually
varied widely, but was all created at that time
and mainly in New York.
Jackson Pollock, (US, 1912-1956) Number 18, 1950, Oil and enamel on Masonite,
56.0 x 56.7 cm. Pollock was the most famous Ab Ex painter.

30. Abstract Expressionism was the result of many influences coming together:
• Surrealist influence – automatism; link with unconscious;
• Expressionist influence – intensely personal expression; use of colour.
• Cubist influence – anti-figurative; anti-descriptive.
Jackson Pollock’s work was important for many reasons, including use of new materials
within his artworks – liquid paints; house paints, broken glass; sand. Also the techniques
he used to apply the paint: hardened brushes; sticks; turkey-baster syringes; and
famously, DRIPPING the paint from the can onto the canvas.
To manage this , he took his paintings down from the easel and laid the canvas on the
floor. This meant he could approach the canvas from any direction and use his body in new
ways. He felt he ‘entered into’ the painting. This was a huge break with Western
tradition.
Jackson Pollock, No 11 (Blue Poles),
212 x 488cm, paint and glass on
canvas, 1952
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=CrVE-WQBcYQ

31. Clement Greenberg (U.S.1909-1994): Modernist critic.
Greenberg is famous for his
promotion of Modernist art in
the US, in particular Abstract
Expressionism, and then ‘Post
painterly abstraction’. He
wrote about each medium
(painting, sculpture etc.) as
having specific character
exclusive to itself. The role of
Modernist art was to discover
these inherent qualities.
Willem de Kooning was one of the best known
Abstract Expressionists. Here is Woman V,
1952-3, oil & charcoal on canvas, 154 x 114cm

32. And now, back to Conceptual art….
The Conceptual artists were reacting against
Greenberg’s influence. They had differing ideas about
what art may be, and were following in the tradition
of Dada and Surrealism in their questioning of
Western society, economies and art traditions.
Piero Manzoni (Italian, 1933-1963) pre-dated the
American Conceptual artists but had the same ideas
and questions. You had to see this: Artist’s Shit no.
14, 1961, faeces in sealed container.

33. Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawing #219. 1999. White crayon and black pencil grid on gray
walls. First drawn by Sachiko Cho and Emily Ripley, 1999.

34. •Assistant executing Sol
LeWitt’s Wall Drawing
#65. Lines not short, not
straight, crossing and
touching, drawn at random
using four colors, uniformly
dispersed with maximum
density, covering the entire
surface of the wall.
• 2004 National Gallery of
Art, Washington.
“In Conceptual Art the idea or concept is the most
important aspect of the work.” Sol LeWitt

35. BRUCE NAUMAN,
The True Artist Helps
the World by Revealing
Mystic Truths
(Window or Wall Sign),
1967.
Neon with glass tubing
suspension frame, 4’11” x
4’7” x 2”. Private
collection.

36. Sol LeWitt

45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIYVHH3LykQ

46. Sol le Witt’s instructions
• Sol le Witt would send instructions instead of actual
art works. In theory, being able to fax (email) an art
show proves that the ideas are the art, the objects,
merely stand ins created by skilled technicians.
• 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. – Sol LeWitt,
"Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", Artforum, June
1967.
• The following are also installation art made with the
above process.

57. This is a site
specific work of
art. Site specific
works depend on
the location to
keep their
meaning. This
would be very
different without
the pond, for
example…

59. Inside or outside?
• These next images of the Wexner Center, Ohio
State’s art library and Le Centre Pompidou, an
art school in Paris show how ideas like Sol le
Witt’s were applied to architecture. Foucault,
a philosopher, had theories about traces that
played heavily in these two designs as well.

60. Inside or
outside?
The towers
above are
traces of the
original
armory that
used to be at
this location

63. • Ian Burn Xerox Book
• Featured snippet from the web
• "Xerox Book", 1968 - 100 iterative copies of a
blank sheet of white paper on a Xerox 720,
arranged in a book in the order they were
created. The final pages in the series of copies
were filled with black forms that had arisen
slowly from the 'error' of the machine.

64. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLs76H
Lon4&t=2s
• At 2.49

65. • Happenings, Performance Art and
Video
Some artists felt that the abstraction and focus on formal issues
that characterized much avant-garde modernist art had resulted
in public alienation. They created instead a more communicative
art with the intent of reaching a wider audience.

66. KAZUO
SHIRAGA,
Chllenging
Mud, 1955.
Mud.
Performance Art uses movements, gestures, and sounds to
communicate with the viewer. Generally, Performance Art
survives only in documentary photographs or videos.

67. Marina Abramović and Ulay : Imponderabilia .1977
Performance and the galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy

68. “as collage technique
replaced oil paint, the
cathode ray tube will replace
the canvas” – Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik. TV Buddha. 1974. Closed-circuit video installation with bronze
sculpture, monitor, and video camera.
In the 1960s portable video cameras were marketed to the general
public, and artists began to experiment with this medium.

69. Still of Bruce Nauman's Shit in Your Hat -
Head on a Chair, 1990
Bruce Nauman, Self-
Portrait as a Fountain,
1966, C-type print

70. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=conceptual+art