Conceptual Black and White 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, MT Inv. No 2-059 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 2-059
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 19,6 x 12,5 cm (7 3/4 x 4 7/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 10-1-96 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 10-1-96
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 17,9 x 11,2 cm (7 x 4 3/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, prac...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-3-74 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-3-74
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 29,7 x 22,5 cm (11 3/4 x 8 7/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 10-1-167 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 10-1-167
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 17,7 x 17,8 cm (7 x 7 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-431 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-431
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 15 x 9,8 cm (5 7/8 x 3 7/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, pra...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-5-64 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-5-64
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 18 x 11,7 cm (7 1/8 x 4 5/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, pra...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-185 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-185
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 14,9 x 10,4 cm (5 7/8 x 4 1/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-3-11 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-3-11
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 22,9 x 17,1 cm (9 x 6 3/4 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, pract...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-6-88 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-6-88
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 17 x 10,3 cm (6 3/4 x 4 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practic...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-11-31 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-11-31
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 18 x 13 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, prac...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-8-73 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-8-73
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 29,3 x 19,7 cm (11 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 10-1-54 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 10-1-54
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 23,4 x 14,5 cm (9 1/4 x 5 3/4 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 9-1-56 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 9-1-56
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 28,4 x 19,5 cm (11 1/8 x 7 5/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 6-9-23 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 6-9-23
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 23 x 16,5 cm (9 x 6 1/2 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practic...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 2-070 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 2-070
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 18,1 x 13,2 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/4 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Model: 1964 Renault Dauphine-Four, R-1095, Body Type And Seating: 4-DR Sedan-4 t
Located in New York, NY
Christopher Williams is a conceptual artist and fine art photographer
Gelatin Silver print, artist proof
Unsigned
11 x 14 inches
Provenance:
Ar...
Category
Early 2000s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
End of the Affair #3 Ltd Ed.
Located in New York, NY
Vintage 50's Barbie with vintage accessories and set. Narrative depicts title - the end of the affair. Metallic print produced on metal. Black and white Photography. Ltd Ed.
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Metal
End of the Affair #4 Ltd Ed
Located in New York, NY
Vintage 50's Barbie with vintage accessories and set. Narrative depicts title - the end of the affair. Metallic print produced on metal. Black and white Photography. Ltd Ed.
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Metal
Tempus Fugit
By Phil Marco
Located in New York, NY
Face mounted Plexi. Aluminum Braced. Archival Print. Humorous, conceptual subject matter.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Marco studied fine art at Pratt Institute and the Art Students League in New York. New York Times photography critic Gene Thornton called Marco “a Minimalist, whose images are sensual, whimsical, often surreal, always strong, and deceptively simple.”
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Phil Marco on a number of my films. Phil is a man of extraordinary talents. It seems that his passion is to take an everyday object or event, and show it in an entirely new and exciting way.”
Martin Scorsese.
Phil’s work is represented in MOMA, The Museum of the Moving Image,
and The George Eastman Museum of Photography.
His first photographs were studies for his paintings, before he launched a career in print advertising. He eventually became a Director / DP for film and television for a vast base of national and international clients with his wife Patricia as Partner and Producer. In the 1980’s and 90’s Phil was the go to person for Special Effects in Television and Cinema, also best known for his graphic conceptual still lives, and his consummate mastery of lighting, and design. He’s won many awards for his work, including numerous Cannes Lions, Cleo’s, a Grammy for his print work on the legendary “Tommy the...
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Water Music Series #5023 : landscape photography
Located in New York, NY
Landscape photography by fine art and documentary photographer Holly Gordon.
Holly Gordon is one of the many treasures that Long Island has to offer, co...
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-236 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-236
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 16,8 x 11,8 cm (6 5/8 x 4 5/8 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing.
Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period.
– Art, Black and White...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-10-51 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography
Located in Zurich, CH
Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic)
Untitled, MT Inv. No 7-10-51
Unknown, ca. 1970-1990
Silver Gelatin Print
Sheet 16 x 8,4 cm (6 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)
Unique
Print only
Tichý, pra...
Category
Late 20th Century Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
End of the Affair #2 - Ltd Ed
Located in New York, NY
Vintage 50's Barbie with vintage accessories and set. Narrative depicts title - the end of the affair. Metallic print produced on metal. Black and white Photography. Ltd Ed.
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Metal
The End of The Affair #1 - Ltd Ed
Located in New York, NY
Vintage 50's Barbie with vintage accessories and set. Narrative depicts title - the end of the affair. Metallic print produced on metal. Black and white Photography. Ltd Ed.
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Metal
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 Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Totem of Unmeasurable Memory, 1995 Assemblage of 7 silver gelatin prints
By Lewis Koch
Located in Surfside, FL
Totem of Unmeasurable Memory, 1995 Assemblage of 7 vintage silver gelatin prints
Lewis Koch lives in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. After completing undergradu...
Category
1990s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Do Not Go Quietly Into the Night (B&W)
By Gary Hodson
Located in Kansas City, MO
Artist : Gary Hodson
Title : Do Not Go Quietly Into the Night (B&W)
Materials : Archival Pigment Print
Date : 2018
Dimensions : 13 x 19 in.
Gary Hodson’s subject matter remains di...
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Photographic Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment
Side Views - William Wegman (Colour Photography)
Located in London, GB
Side Views - William Wegman (Colour Photography)
Signed and inscribed with title
Unique black and white Polaroid print, printed 1998
24 x 20 inches
The dogs, bewigged and bedecked w...
Category
1990s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Polaroid
It was finally my day! 2015
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Two years later, I was drunk enough to sing at the St. Pat's party. 2014
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Napping with Floyd, 2011
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
Category
2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik, Sogetsu Hall Tokyo, Japan
By Paul Garrin
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 Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Conceptual black and white photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Conceptual black and white 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. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Savannah Spirit, Miroslav Tichy, Jennifer Greenburg, and Samuel Field. Frequently made by artists working with Archival Pigment Print, and Pigment Print 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 black and white photography, so small editions measuring 3.31 inches across are also available. Prices for black and white 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 $278 and tops out at $46,412, while the average work sells for $3,000.