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Conceptual Portrait Photography

CONCEPTUAL STYLE

In 1967, artist Sol LeWitt wrote that in “Conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work.” He was giving a name to an art movement that had emerged in the 1960s in which artists were less focused on their medium being something traditionally “artistic” and instead engaged in using any object, movement, form, action or place to express an idea.

LeWitt’s work was featured alongside an assemblage of notes, drawings and outlines by other artists in “Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to Be Viewed as Art,” a groundbreaking show at New York City’s School of Visual Arts curated by Mel Bochner, another leading exponent of Conceptualism. Building on radical 20th-century statements, like Fountain (1917) by French artist Marcel Duchamp, Conceptual artists around Europe and North and South America were not interested in the commercial art scene and rather directly challenged its systems and values.

Stretching into the 1970s, this movement has also been called Post-Object art and Dematerialized art. Conceptual art reflected a larger era of social and political upheaval. Pieces associated with the style range from Roelof Louw’s Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges) (1967) — a work of installation art that sees fresh oranges stacked into a pyramid from which visitors are allowed to take one orange away — to On Kawara’s “Today” series, which saw the Japanese artist carefully painting a date in white acrylic on canvases consisting of a single color from 1966 to his death in 2014. Artists such as Ed Ruscha, who created the Twentysix Gasoline Stations book — a collection of photos of gas stations that is widely said to be the first modern artists’ book — made photography a major platform for Conceptual art, as did Bruce Nauman, who burned one of Ruscha's books and then photographed it for his own.

Conceptual art’s legacy of questioning artistic authorship, ownership and how to work with complex ideas of space and time had a significant influence on the decades of culture that followed, and it continues to inform art today.

The collection of Conceptual photography, paintings and sculptures on 1stDibs includes artworks by John Baldessari, Jenny Holzer, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth and others.

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Style: Conceptual
Untitled - Contemporary, 21st Century, Polaroid, Portrait Photography
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'Untitled' 2013, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Digital C-Print, based on a SX70 B&W Negative Scanning, not mounted, 8.5cm x 8.5cm, not mounted, Signed, embossed stamp and artis...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print, Photographic Paper, Color, Polaroid

Untitled, Contemporary, 21st Century, Polaroid, Portrait Photography
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'Untitled' 2013, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Digital C-Print, based on a SX70 B&W Negative Scanning, not mounted, 8.5cm x 8.5cm, not mounted, Signed, embossed stamp and artis...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print, Photographic Paper, Color, Polaroid

Untitled I. Self Portrait. Limited Edition Color Photograph
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Untitled, 2016 by Jose Sierra From the Sin Título Series Archival Pigment Print Sheet size: 40 in. H x 29.65 in. W Edition of 10 + 2AP Semi-Matte Unframed 2016...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment, Color

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls 2018, Digital Print, Plastic
Located in Darien, CT
This series of six transparencies are in an edition size of 3. They are designed to be installed directly onto interior window areas to allow light to pass thru them. These transparencies can also be purchased separately for $3200 each and are an edition size of 3. Dimensions are 72 x 48 inches each. The upper transoms are window transparencies in shades of green. They are also available and can be fit to meet specific window sizes. In this window setting, they are 45 x 45 inches and can be purchased as a set of 5 panels for $3500 for that group. Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation and can be used as a low-level light source for night illumination of instruments or signage or other applications where light must be produced for long periods without external energy sources. Radioluminescent paint used to be used for clock hands and instrument dials...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Plastic, Digital

Jackie Chavez
Located in Dallas, TX
Signed, titled, and dated. Gelatin silver print 20 x 16 in.
Category

Early 2000s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls_Transparencies, 2017, Inkjet Print, Photographic Film
Located in Darien, CT
Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation and can be used as a low-level light source for night illumination of instruments or signage or other applications where light must be produced for long periods without external energy sources. Radioluminescent paint used to be used for clock hands and instrument dials...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Inkjet, Plastic, Photographic Film

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Window Transparencies, 2018, Plastic, Digital Print
Located in Darien, CT
This series of five transparencies are in an edition size of 3. They are designed to be installed directly onto interior window areas to allow light to pass thru them. These transpar...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Plastic, Digital

Jo Yarrington, Lick, Dip, Paint, 2018, LED Light, Putty, Plastic
Located in Darien, CT
This installation imagines a dipping pot that the Radium Girls might have had at a work station. Lit by black light to highlight the neon glow, this object conveys a modern view on t...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Putty, LED Light, Plastic

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Window Transparencies, 2018, Digital Print, Plastic
Located in Darien, CT
This series of five transparencies are in an edition size of 3. They are designed to be installed directly onto interior window areas to allow light to pass thru them. These transpar...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Plastic, Digital

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Window Transparencies, 2018, Plastic, Digital Print
Located in Darien, CT
This series of five transparencies are in an edition size of 3. They are designed to be installed directly onto interior window areas to allow light to pass thru them. These transpar...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Plastic, Digital

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Window Transparencies, 2018, Plastic, Digital Print
Located in Darien, CT
This series of five transparencies are in an edition size of 3. They are designed to be installed directly onto interior window areas to allow light to pass thru them. These transpar...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Plastic, Digital

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Window Transparencies, 2018, Plastic, Digital Print
Located in Darien, CT
This series of five transparencies are in an edition size of 3. They are designed to be installed directly onto interior window areas to allow light to pass thru them. These transpar...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Plastic, Digital

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Film and Vintage Projector, 2018, Film, Found Objects
Located in Darien, CT
This installation imagines the Radium Girls as abstractd subjects. Repeating a motif of a circle, signifying the mouth, this art object conveys a modern view of the these workers, tied in with repetitive actions in abstracted patterns. Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation and can be used as a low-level light source for night illumination of instrument...
Category

2010s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Found Objects, Film

Untitled Self-Portrait (Cherie Hiser), from the New Mexico Portfolio
By Cherie Hiser
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 125 Signed in ink on print margin. Photograph is from The New Mexico Portfolio published in 1976 by the Center of the Eye Photograp...
Category

20th Century Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

DETAIL FROM: Self Portrait with Velvet Cap and Gown with Fur Collar, 2008 RE
Located in Los Angeles, CA
DETAIL FROM: SELFPORTRAIT WITH VELVET CAP AND GOWN WITH FUR COLLAR, 2008 REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, 1634, PAINTING GALLERY BERLIN 53.4 x 40 inches ed. of 7 $4,400 66.7 x 50 ed. of 5 $6,800
Category

Early 2000s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

DETAIL FROM: YOUNG WOMAN WITH BARE BREAST, 2008 GIACOMO DI ANTONIO NIGRETI
Located in Los Angeles, CA
DETAIL FROM: YOUNG WOMAN WITH BARE BREAST, 2008 GIACOMO DI ANTONIO NIGRETI, NAMED PALMA IL VECCHIO, 1524-26, PAINTING GALLERY BERLIN 40 x 53.4 inches ed....
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Terry O'Neill - Roger Moore as James Bond, Photography 1970, Printed After
Located in Greenwich, CT
British actor Roger Moore poses with a gun as James Bond. Publicity shot from 1973, for his first Bond movie: Live and Let Die. It's the only time Bond used ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Faces, Vintage Color Photograph Digital Photo Collage Print Asian American
Located in Surfside, FL
This was from Muse X publishers. It came in a plastic bag signed Emily Cheng. (the plastic bag is not included) It is on Fuji crystal photo paper. It depicts two Asian faces in a cub...
Category

1990s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print

Faces, Vintage Color Photograph Digital Photo Collage Print Asian American
Located in Surfside, FL
This was from Muse X publishers. It came in a plastic bag signed Emily Cheng. (the plastic bag is not included) It is on Fuji crystal photo paper. It depicts two Asian faces in a cubist, fractured way, with a woman (or man) holding a photograph over his/her face. It is a proof print and is not signed or numbered. Emily Cheng (born in New York City, in 1953) is an American artist of Chinese ancestry. She is best known for large scale painting with a center focus often employing expansive circular images radiantly colored, radially composed. Cheng received her BFA in 1975 from the Rhode Island School of Design and attended the New York Studio School. Cheng has exhibited widely in the US and in Asia. In 2011, Cheng created Charting Sacred Territories, an exhibition exploring world religions which opened in the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MOCA) , Taiwan (2011) and traveled to Hanart TZ Gallery in (2015), Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, (2015) and in Europe at the Palais Liechtenstein Feldkirch, Austria (2019). Cheng has had numerous solo shows in the US and in Asia and is represented by Hanart TZ Gallery in Hong Kong. In 2007, Timezone 8 published a monograph of Emily Cheng titled, Chasing Clouds, a decade of studies, with essays by Kevin Powers and Johnson Chang. Emily Cheng has lived and worked in New York City since 1977 and teaches Asian Art History at the School of Visual Arts. Influenced by a wide array of eastern and western artists including Van Gogh, Gauguin, Manet and Giacometti as well as de Kooning, early Philip Guston and Jackson Pollock. Nicolas Carone and Leland Bell were both among her teachers as well as Elaine de Kooning. Selected solo exhibitions Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, (2015) Hanart T.Z. Gallery, Hong Kong, Zane Bennett Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico, (2013) Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Taipei , Taiwan (2011) Louis Vuitton Maison, Kowloon, Hong Kong, (2010) Ayala Museum Makati, Philippines, (2006) Plum Blossom Gallery, New York, NY, (2004) Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO (2001) Metropolitan Museum of Manila , Philippines (1997) John Post Lee Gallery, New York, NY, Projects Room (1997) Contemporary Arts Center , Cincinnati, Ohio, 1994 David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, (1992) Lang & O'Hara Gallery, New York, NY, The Bronx Museum of the Arts , Bronx, NY, (1989) White Columns , New York, NY, (1985) Selected group exhibitions Art Basel Hong Kong , (Hanart Gallery) , Hong Kong, 2017 China Institute, New York, NY, 2014 Beijing Art Fair, Beijing, China, 2013 Museum of Chinese in America New York, NY, 2010 Kidspace, MASS MoCA , Williamstown, MA, 2010, 2005 Museum of Contemporary Art , Shanghai, China, 2009 Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong, China, 2009 Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2008 Contrast Gallery, Shanghai and Beijing, China, 2008 University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum , Tampa, Florida, 2006 Hong Kong Arts Centre , Hong Kong, 2004 American Academy of Art , New York, New York, 2004 Longmarch Project, Beijing, China, 2002 Sotheby’s , New York, NY, 2001 Newhouse Center, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY, 2000 Katonah Museum of Art , Katonah, NY, 2000 National Academy and Museum, NY, 2000 Municipal Museum of Gyor, Hungary, 1999 New Museum of Contemporary Art , New York, NY, 1998 De Cordova Museum and the Computer Museum , Boston, MA, 1994 International Graphic Biennial, Muveszeti Museum, Hungary, 1995 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts , San Francisco, CA, 1994 Drawing Center, NY; traveled to Corcoran, Washington D.C., Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica CA; The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis MO; American Center, Paris, France, Cone Editions Gallery, New York 1990 Anina Nosei Gallery, New York, 1988 Greenville County Museum of Art , South Carolina, 1988 North Carolina Museum of Art , Hallwalls , Buffalo, NY, 1988 Grace Borgenicht Gallery , New York, 1986 Tibor de Nagy, New York, 1985 Asian American...
Category

1990s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print

Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik, Sogetsu Hall Tokyo, Japan
Located in New York, NY
Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik, Sogetsu Hall Tokyo, Japan, 1982 Vintage silver gelatin print 11 × 14 in 27.9 × 35.6 cm signed
Category

1980s Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Conceptual portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Conceptual portrait photography available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add portrait photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of green, purple, orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Emily Cheng, Jo Yarrington, Jose Sierra, and Nadine Saacks. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Photographic Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Conceptual portrait photography, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $180 and tops out at $46,412, while the average work sells for $2,000.

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