Skip to main content Skip to Search Box

Definition: conceptual art from Philip's Encyclopedia

Art giving primacy to idea over craftsmanship. Duchamp first asserted the notion, but a movement only began to take shape in the 1960s. Conceptual art questions the nature of art and emphasizes the elimination of art as an object or commodity for reproduction. The 'viewer' is often implicated in the production of art as performance or 'happening'. Artists include Claes Oldenburg and Joseph Beuys.


conceptual art

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Type of modern art in which the idea or ideas that a work expresses are considered its essential point, with its visual appearance being of secondary (often negligible) importance. Conceptual art challenges the validity of traditional art, and claims that the materials used and the product of the process are unnecessary. As the idea or ideas are of prime significance, conceptual art is made up of information, including perhaps a written proposal, photographs, documents, and maps. The term has come to encompass all art forms outside traditional painting or sculpture, such as video art and performance art . Conceptual art is a highly controversial art form. Its supporters think it marks a significant expansion of the boundaries of art, which were previously growing increasingly commercialized. However, its detractors believe that it is trite, banal, and pretentious. The roots of conceptual art can be traced back to Marcel Duchamp , who from the second decade of the 20th century produced…
2,280 results

Full text Article conceptual art

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Type of modern art in which the idea or ideas that a work expresses are considered its essential point, with its visual appearance being of secondary (often negligible) importance. Conceptual art challenges the validity of traditional art, and claims that the materials used and the product of the…
| 415 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article conceptual art

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
art movement that began in the 1960s and stresses the artist's concept rather than the art object itself. Growing out of minimalism , conceptual art turned the artist's thoughts and ideas themselves into the primary artistic medium, appealing to the spectator's intellect instead of emotions. The…
| 252 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article conceptual art

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Any of various art forms in which the idea for a work of art is considered more important than the finished product. The theory was explored by Marcel Duchamp from c. 1910, but the term was coined in the late 1950s by Edward Kienholz . In the 1960s and ’70s it became a major international movement; …
| 203 words
Key concepts:
The term can be loosely applied to any work of art, which engages primarily with ideas rather than exemplifying a perceptual encounter with a unique object. The term is also used to refer to a contemporary artistic movement – made famous by the works and theoretical writings of artists like Sol…
| 224 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article CONCEPTUAL ART

From 100 Ideas that Changed Art
The idea that artists are primarily concerned with realizing concepts rather than fabricating objects has been current since the Renaissance. It was taken to its logical conclusion in twentieth-century conceptual art. By making objects subordinate to ideas, conceptualism countered art's seemingly…
| 519 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Conceptual Art

From A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes
(c. 1960) The radical idea is that the FRAMING of absence can generate esthetic experience, if properly interpreted. The classic forerunner, conceived nearly a decade before the epithet was coined, is JOHN CAGE's oft-called “silent” piece, 4 ′ 33 ″ (1952), in which, in a concert situation, pianist…
| 410 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Conceptual Art, Concept Art

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms
Art of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s which is created according to one or more of the following principles: 1. That art consists in the basic idea, which does not have to be embodied in a physical form. 2. That language becomes the basic material of art, and the barrier between art and art theory is…
| 121 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article conceptual art

From Philip's Encyclopedia
| 66 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article conceptual art

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary
| 35 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article conceptual art

From The Macquarie Dictionary
| 37 words
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources