Concept Art

Concept art is an art style of the 1960’s which, even moreso than concrete art, concentrated on the spiritualization of the work. The origins of concept art lie in minimal art, and both of them further develop the theories and trends of abstract painting. Concept art includes such divergent art styles as object art or happenings. In concept art, every trace of the artist is negated; in like manner, in concept art, every artistic-representative message is also negated. The work of art is simply the concept of the artist, that is, a visualization of the intellectual process. The consequence of this is that in concept art, only preparatory sketches, photographs, instructions, texts or models are shown, and the artwork to be realized in itself does not necessarily need to be completed or even begun.
In order to understand concept-artwork, it is necessary to grapple with the artist and the artist’s thinking. Forerunners of concept art are Marcel Duchamp and René Magritte; important theoreticians of concept art are Marcel Broodthaers and Sol Le Witt.

Related artists:  Alfano, Carlo  |  Antes, Horst  |  Arman, Fernandez  |  Beuys, Joseph  |  Boetti, Alighiero E.  |  Bonalumi, Agostino  |  Brodwolf, Jürgen  |  Calderara, Antonio  |  César, (d.i. César Baldaccini)  |  Christo  |  Droese, Felix  |  Fontana, Lucio  |  Förg, Günther  |  Geiger, Rupprecht  |  Girke, Raimund  |  Graubner, Gotthard  |  Götz, Karl Otto  |  Hansen, Al (Alfred Earl)  |  Hauser, Erich  |  Hirst, Damien  |  Hoehme, Gerhard  |  Horn, Rebecca  |  Kiefer, Anselm  |  Kippenberger, Martin  |  Knoebel, Imi  |  Kolár, Jirí  |  Kricke, Norbert  |  Lakner, László  |  Luther, Adolf  |  Manzoni, Piero  |  Merz, Gerhard  |  Merz, Mario  |  Nauman, Bruce  |  Nitsch, Hermann  |  Paik, Nam June  |  Paladino, Mimmo  |  Palermo, Blinky  |  Paolozzi, Eduardo  |  Pfahler, Georg Karl  |  Polke, Sigmar  |  Rainer, Arnulf  |  Richter, Gerhard  |  Roth, Dieter  |  Rückriem, Ulrich  |  Schumacher, Emil  |  Scully, Sean  |  Sonderborg, K.R.H. (d.i. Kurt R. Hoffmann)  |  Spoerri, Daniel  |  Stella, Frank  |  Tinguely, Jean  |  Tobey, Mark  |  Twombly, Cy  |  Uecker, Günther  |  Vautier, Ben  |  Vostell, Wolf  |  West, Franz