Topic Facilitator:

Julito B. Bande, MAEM

 What is it?
• Artwork in which the ideas behind the
art are more important than the
traditional aesthetic and material
concerns of the actual artwork.
• Art with a message
• The concept or idea drives the artwork
and is usually based on challenging the
notions of art, society, politics and
media.
 HELPFUL
VOCABUALRY
• SYMBOLISM: The practice of representing
things through use of symbols, or of investing
things with a symbolic meaning or character.
• METAPHOR: The concept of understanding
one thing in terms of another
• IRONY: When a meaning, opposite the literal
meaning is conveyed or an unexpected
outcome
When?
 Conceptual Artists
• They don’t set out to make a painting or sculpture
and then fit their ideas to that existing form.

• They think beyond the traditional media restrictions

and then work out their ideas using whatever
material is appropriate to that idea.

• Artists use available elements of expression to show

political, social, and technological subjects. The view
and sometimes the artist herself is an integral part of
the art and its basic concept.
 Marcel Duchamp
Was a Dada artist who set the stage for conceptual
art with his ‘readymade’ pieces.
His proposition was that art should not be judged
by the quality of the craftsmanship, but by the
quality of the idea – the concept. This piece is
called ‘Fountain’.
CLIP ON CONCEPTUAL ART http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzh0TTrnS2o&feature=channel&list=UL

50cc of Paris Air, 1919,

broken in America and
repaired 1949

Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel, 1951

(reconstructed – original
created 1913, lost.)
So…what was Conceptual Art??
Joseph Kosuth (U.S. b. 1945),
Titled. Art as idea as idea
(water), 1966. Photocopy, mounted
on board, 121.9 x 121.9 cm
Key features:
*The use of language within
works, or sometimes being
the entire work;
*Ideas were more important
than an aesthetic object.
It looked at the links between
words, ideas, and images.
Like Duchamp with his
readymades, Conceptual
Art tried to make us aware of
the context that we are
viewing art in (e.g. an art
Gallery; or the street.)
 Claude Monet
(Fr. 1840-1926),
Waterlilies,
1919

This is an artwork describing an Idea. It is not actually water. It is

talking about water, with paint. We understand it to represent
water. It doesn’t actually look anything like water. It’s square and
flat and in a frame. The word ‘water’ in Kosuth’s artwork means
‘water’ just as much as Monet’s painting does.
Like Pop artists, Conceptual artists wanted to challenge the
dominant art of the 1940s and 1950s in America: Abstract
Expressionism.

Review: 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 art.
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.

Helen Frankenthaler, (U.S. 1928-2011) Other

generations, 1957, oil on canvas, 175 x 178cm
Abstract Expressionist art was making big money; it became big business and an
opportunity for the U.S. Government to show how advanced and creative Americans
were. There was an emphasis on the importance of individual, talented artists who were
creating these precious objects. The Conceptual artists were challenging this. They said:
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 was getting caught up in how
much it costs.

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. He produced 90 tins,
each with 30 gms of faeces.
CONTEXT and the AUDIENCE was very important to Conceptual Artists
(just like Duchamp.) They wanted to make the audiences aware of how our
approach and interaction with the work makes the work possible.

Conceptual artists broke away from painting and sculpture to create new art
forms. Earth art; installations; performance art all were possible because of
Conceptual art questioning the art object.

Note the ephemeral nature of the

work. The audiences response, also,
is an important part of the actual
artwork. Also, the documentation of
a work is an important part – like this
photograph. The Photograph records
the artwork so becomes part of the
artwork documentation, which is part
of the artwork
Marjorie Strider, (US, b. 1934),
Street Works IV – cityscape, 1969, 30
large frames placed in various places,
here in front of a building.
 On Kawara, (Japan, b. 1933) Wed Dec 12, 1979,
1979, acrylic on canvas, 46 x 62cm

Yep, this is the artwork. Kawara is still in the process of doing a

series – a long series – of ‘Date Paintings’, started in 1965 and
still going. Each painting notes the date it was executed. That’s it.
Kawara’s art was itself a documentation of a life shared with the
viewer.
Much of this art was not interesting to look at.  Why on earth would you want to
create art that is boring to look at?
Conceptual Art wasn’t intended to necessarily give you any visual pleasure . It was
more of an idea. It was designed, not to please you visually, but rather to make a
statement, or ask questions about art. Other movements that were associated with
Conceptual art, or overlapped in terms of their ideas were Pop Art and Minimalism. All
of these movements questioned the art object in some way, and generally they
avoided evidence of the
artist’s hand, or challenged this in some way.

John Baldessari, What is

painting, 1966-68, acrylic on
canvas, 172 x 144cm. Baldessari
appropriated this text from
someone else, got someone else
to make the stretcher for the
canvas, and got someone else to
paint the text….!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOF3qhM6vIA
Trends in Conceptual
Art

• Performance Art
Marina Abramovic
Arte Povera (poor art- in Italian)
 Some conceptual art is
simply a written statement.
John Baldessari
This famous piece was created at NSCAD
Installation Art (our focus)
Cai Guoqian
)
 The Obliteration Room- Yayoi Kusama
The room was originally painted completely white and children were then
invited to ‘obliterate’ it with colourful dots
RGB Installation.
Gabriel Dawe
Christo and Jean-Claude

• The Gates: A site

specific project in
Central Park NY. 7
503 Gates were
installed in the park.
No permanent
changes were made
to the park.
 The Plans

• The actual sketches

and other plans were
sold along with pieces
of the fabric to finance
the installation.
• Adapted from: hrsbs.ednet.ns.ca
• http://www.arthistoryguide.com/images/
228.jpg

• http://arthag.typepad.com/.a/6a0115711
60e4a970c0133f529d363970b-800wi

• http://www.carnovsky.com/RGB.htm