Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called installations, may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions. This method was fundamental to American artist Sol 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 conceptual 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.
Information art, which is also known as informatism or data art, is an emerging art form that is inspired by and principally incorporates data, computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, and related data-driven fields. The information revolution has resulted in over-abundant data that are critical in a wide range of areas, from the Internet to healthcare systems. Related to conceptual art, electronic art and new media art, informatism considers this new technological, economical, and cultural paradigm shift, such that artworks may provide social commentaries, synthesize multiple disciplines, and develop new aesthetics. Realization of information art often take, although not necessarily, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches incorporating visual, audio, data analysis, performance, and others. Furthermore, physical and virtual installations involving informatism often provide human-computer interaction that generate artistic contents based on the processing of large amounts of data.
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism.
Lucy Rowland Lippard is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the "dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. She is the author of 21 books on contemporary art and has received numerous awards and accolades from literary critics and art associations.
Gerald Ferguson was a conceptual artist and painter who lived and taught in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born in Cincinnati he was both a Canadian and US citizen.
Robert Barry is an American artist. Since 1967, Barry has produced non-material works of art, installations, and performance art using a variety of otherwise invisible media. In 1968, Robert Barry is quoted as saying "Nothing seems to me the most potent thing in the world."
Mierle Laderman Ukeles is a New York City-based artist known for her feminist and service-oriented artworks, which relate the idea of process in conceptual art to domestic and civic "maintenance". She has been the Artist-in-Residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation. Her art brings to life the very essence of any urban center: waste flows, recycling, sustainability, environment, people, and ecology.
NSCAD conceptual art refers to a period beginning in 1969 when Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), a post-secondary art school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada became an important art centre with an international reputation.
Art & Project was a leading contemporary art gallery by Geert van Beijeren & Adriaan van Ravesteijn from 1968 to 2001 in Amsterdam and Slootdorp, the Netherlands, as well as an influential art magazine published by the gallery between 1968 and 1989.
Keith Arnatt (1930–2008) was a British conceptual artist. As well as conceptual art his work is sometimes discussed in relation to land art, minimalism, and photography. He lived and worked in London, Liverpool, Yorkshire and Monmouthshire.
Marjorie Virginia Strider was an American painter, sculptor and performance artist best known for her three-dimensional paintings and site-specific soft sculpture installations.
Post-conceptual, postconceptual, post-conceptualism or postconceptualism is an art theory that builds upon the legacy of conceptual art in contemporary art, where the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work takes some precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. The term first came into art school parlance through the influence of John Baldessari at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1970s. The writer Eldritch Priest, specifically ties John Baldessari's piece Throwing four balls in the air to get a square from 1973 (in which the artist attempted to do just that, photographing the results, and eventually selecting the best out of 36 tries as an early example of post-conceptual art. It is now often connected to generative art and digital art production.
Christine Kozlov was an American conceptual artist.
Donald Burgy is an American conceptual artist, author, and teacher. He is Professor Emeritus in the Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in 1959 and a Master of Fine Arts from Rutgers University in 1963. Burgy began his teaching career in 1960 teaching art in public schools in Quincy and Chicopee in MA, and in Brentwood, NY. From 1966 - 1973, Burgy taught Art History and Art Studio at the Bradford Junior College in Bradford, MA. He was the chair of the Art Department at Milton Academy in Milton, MA from 1973 - 1975. Burgy taught Studio Art at Harvard University before his tenure at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the Studio for Interrelated Media in Boston from 1971 until 2001. Donald Burgy has studied neurology, cosmology, and Paleolithic art as the basis for his conceptual artwork since 1969.
The No Show Museum is an art museum, established in Zurich, Switzerland in 2015, devoted to nothing and its various manifestations throughout the history of art. It claims to be the first of its kind. Founded by Swiss conceptual artist and curator Andreas Heusser, the museum's collection today includes around 500 works and documents from over 150 international artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Shoot was a 1971 performance by Chris Burden in which he arranged to have himself non-lethally shot. It is the artist's most infamous performance.
Elliott Linwood is an American conceptual artist known for his large-scale photo grids and cross-referencing sculptural installations. He is based in San Diego, California.
Ad Hoc Committee of Women Artists or Ad Hoc Women Artists' Committee was founded in 1970 and included members from Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), the Art Workers' Coalition (AWC) and Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL). Founding members included Lucy Lippard, Poppy Johnson, Brenda Miller, Faith Ringgold and later, Nancy Spero.
Art-Language: The Journal of Conceptual Art (1969-1985) was a magazine published by the conceptual artists of Art & Language. Involving more than 20 artists in the United States, Europe, and Australia, and covering almost 20 years production, it is one of the most extensive artworks of conceptual art and is regarded as an important influence on both conceptual art and contemporary art.
I don't understand quite a good deal of what is said by Art-Language, but I admire the investigatory energies, the tireless spade-work, the full commitment to the reestablishment of a valid language by which to discuss art and the occasional humour in their writings. The chaos in their reasons fascinates me, but it is also irritating to be unequipped to evaluate their work. - Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object, Lucy R. Lippard, 1973.
Walking art is the act of walking as an artistic practice. While walking artists have diverse interests and backgrounds, many scholars have foregrounded the way it explores the connections between the mind and body, as well as space and time. Some artists consider walking an artistic end in itself, while others use walking as a means of mark-making, storytelling, social practice, or to create work in other artistic media. Despite emerging from a variety of artistic and literary traditions, a 'common feature [of walking art] is the engagement of the body in a process of walking through a landscape based on a specific artistic design.':161
