Conceptual art
Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs (1965)
Conceptual art
is
art
in which
the
concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work
take precedence over traditional aesthetic
and material concerns. Many of the works,
sometimes called installations, of the artist
Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone
simply by following a set of written instruc-
tions.[1] This method was fundamental to
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 concep-
tual 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[2]
This quotation highlights a key difference
between a traditional work of art and a con-
ceptualist installation -- in one instance the
hands-on skills of the artist are paramount; in
the other they are not. Tony Godfrey, author
of "Conceptual Art," asserts that conceptual
art questions the nature of what is under-
stood as art.[3]
The inception of the term in the 1960s re-
ferred to a strict and focused practice of
idea-based art that often defied traditional
visual criteria associated with the visual arts
in its presentation as text. However, through
its association with the Young British Artists
and the Turner Prize during the 1990s, its
popular usage, particularly in the UK, de-
veloped as a synonym for all contemporary
art that does not practise the traditional
skills of painting and sculpture.[4] To clarify
this popular confusion, it might be said that
one of the reasons why the term conceptual
art has come to be associated with various
contemporary practices far removed from the
aims and formal properties it was originally
intended to define might be understood as a
problem in defining the term itself. As the
artist Mel Bochner suggested as early as
1970, in explaining why he does not like the
epithet "conceptual", it is not always entirely
clear