Conceptual Art movement.

Conceptual art is art in which the concepts or ideas are considered more important than aesthetic or material concerns. The term was first used in 1961, in a publication by Fluxus. Many of the works are called ‘installations’. Sol LeWitt, who first defined conceptual art at length, says that his installations can be constructed by anyone willing to follow simple instructions.

LeWitt’s definition of conceptual art: “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.”

Conceptual art came about in reaction to what many artists considered over-commercialisation of art. Conceptual art stresses the concepts of the artist rather than the art object itself.

Tony Godfrey, who wrote a book on the subject, states that conceptual art, questions the nature of art. This is a notion that Joseph Kosuth extended to be a definition of art itself in his manifesto of conceptual art “Art after Philosophy”.

“By adopting language as their exclusive medium, Weiner, Barry, Wilson, Kosuth and Art & Language were able to sweet aside the vestiges of authorial presence manifested by formal invention and the handling of materials.”

A key difference between conceptual art and more traditional forms of art-making lies in artistic skill. It is difficult to argue that no skill is required to create conceptual art, or that skill is always lacking in them. For instance, John Baldessari has presented realist pictures that he commissioned professional sign-writers to paint. Many conceptual performance artists (e.g. Stelarc, Marina Abramovic) are actually accomplished performers and skilled with the use and manipulation of their own bodies.

The first “wave” of the conceptual art movement happened between 1967 and 1978. Early “concept” artists such as Henry Flynt, Robert Morris and Ray Johnson influenced the later movement. Contemporary artists such are Mike Kelley or Tracey Emin are sometimes called “post-conceptual” artists.

In 1999, a group of artists called the Stuckist’s were founded. This group proclaimed themselves “pro-contemporary figurative painting with ideas and anti-conceptual art, mainly because of its lack of concepts”. They called the movement unremarkable and boring. In July 2002 the Stuckist artists left a coffin outside of the White Cube Gallery, with a label saying “The Death of Conceptual Art”. The group also staged yearly protests outside the Turner Prize.

Conceptual art has seen come across more criticism. In 2002, Ivan Massow, the Chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Arts branded  conceptual art “pretentious, self-indulgent craftless tat” that was “in danger of disappearing up its own arse” – Massow was forced to resign soon after. At the end of 2002, Kim Howells (an art school graduate) denounced the Turner Prize as “cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit”.