Conceptual Art (1992)
Excerpt fr. John A. Walker’s Glossary of Art, Architecture & Design since 1945, 3rd. ed.
artdesigncafé | café library | Published 26 June 2011
This text is an excerpt from Walker’s 1992 glossary previously published by Library Association Publishing, London.
Conceptual Art
Conceptual Art was an international avant garde tendency fashionable in the West during the late 1960s and early ’70s. It emerged as a result of a younger generation of artists sensing a crisis in the traditional artforms of painting and sculpture and being influenced by the emphasis placed on decision making— the conceptual phase— in minimal and process art (i.e. rules for the generation of works of art). It also reflected the influence of Marcel Duchamp (his writings and readymades), Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni and Jasper Johns, all of whom raised questions about the ontological status of the art object. Conceptual Art was in part a critique of earlier forms of art and the art market, in part an enquiry into the nature of art, and in part the forwarding of concepts or propositions as art.
Conceptual Art was preceded by "concept art", a phenomenon of the early 1960s associated with the Fluxus artists Henry Flynt and Yoko Ono. Flynt defined concept art as "an art of which the material is concepts, as the material of, e.g., music is sound. Since concepts are closely bound up with language, concept art is a kind of art of which the material is language." Ono’s concept art consisted of short sets of instructions for the performance of various actions, some mental, some physical, e.g. "Painting to be constructed in your head: Observe three paintings carefully. Mix them well in your head" (1962).
The term "Conceptual Art" derived from Sol Lewitt’s 1967 "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art". As in concept art, language was all-important as a medium of expression but above all it was concepts or ideas that counted. As Lewitt observed, "an idea is a machine that makes art". Conceptual artists talked and wrote rather than painted or carved; they displayed texts in galleries and published articles and magazines. Imagery took a back seat though some diagrams, maps, videos and photographs were employed. Since Conceptual artists used language to speak about art and as art, their discourse tended to blur with that of critics, historians, theorists and aestheticians. Charles Harrison, an art historian, was in fact closely associated with certain British Conceptualists.
Conceptual artists tended to despise the art object and the craft skills associated with it. This gave rise to such expressions as "anti-object art", "post-object art" and "the dematerialization of the art object". Initially, in pursuit of the latter, works were devised that employed inert gases or electromagnetic waves whose existence was only detectable via readings on instruments. The lack of conventional art objects mounted a challenge to the commercial art system but it was not long before collectors began to purchase the texts and visual displays Conceptual artists used to communicate. Even so, the emphasis on texts increased the power of the art magazine at the expense of the gallery.
Amongst leading Conceptual artists were those constituting the Anglo-American grouping Art & Language (chiefly Michael Baldwin, Joseph Kosuth and Mel Ramsden), plus Mel Bochner, Victor Burgin, Douglas Huebler, On Kawara, John Stezaker, Bernar Venet, Lawrence Weiner and lan Wilson. Conceptual artists, critical of the individualism of earlier art, often collaborated or worked collectively. They were also keen on forming groups and organizations. Besides Art & Language there was, in San Francisco, the "Museum of Conceptual Art" (MOCA) founded by Tom Marioni in [1970.]
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