Conceptual Art

In most forms of fine art, the emphasis is placed on the final product and the aesthetic appearance that it contains. On the other hand, conceptual art is more concerned with the underlying idea or concept that serves as the motivation for the creation of the art piece. This can be difficult for many casual art fans to understand as the final image means much less than the idea behind the appearance. One way to understand conceptual art is to imagine that the execution of the project could be done by anyone. The artistic side of any conceptual art project is in the planning and design, meaning that execution is one of the least important stages. This idea is very different from traditional fine arts where the execution is largely considered to be of primary importance.

The beginnings of conceptual art are usually traced by art historians to Marcel Duchamp, an artist based in France. One of his most famous pieces was called Fountain and was simply a urinal with the signature of Duchamp on the base. While this and other Duchamp works were known to be a new direction for the art world, the use of the “conceptual art” term was not used until the 1960s, when Henry Flynt wrote an article exploring the meaning of this form. The first true conceptual art exhibition occurred in the year 1970 and the New York Cultural Center.

In large part, the artists that were involved in the conceptual art movement of the 1960s were taking a stand against the way in which art had become a commodity. Because it was easy to recreate the actual piece of conceptual art, it subverted the role of galleries and art distributors. Many of these pieces had attached text documents that explained the underlying concept behind the execution.