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Conceptual 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
Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, Signed Conceptual Art
Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, Signed Conceptual Art

Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, Signed Conceptual Art

By Brenda Zlamany

Located in Surfside, FL

This is a proof print. signed and marked bat (for bon a tirer or good to print) This is a single print from 1998 Birds. Suite of eight Cibachromes. Edition of fifteen. 10″ × 10″. Muse [X] Editions. Brenda Zlamany has shown widely in the United States and Europe. Her work has been reproduced in The New York Times Magazine, Artforum, Flashart, Art in America, Art and Antiques, and The New Yorker. She was born in New York City in 1959. 1976 - 77 Yale College Before College Program, New Haven, Conn. 1981 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. (BA) Stanley William Hayter s Atelier 17, Paris. Tyler School of Art, Rome. 1984 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine. Select Museums: Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; the National Museum, Gdansk; Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent. Select Collections: Cincinnati Art Museum; Deutsche Bank; the Museum of Modern Art, Houston; the Neuberger Museum of Art; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art; the World Bank; the Yale University Art Gallery. Select Commissions the World Bank, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center the New York Times Magazine (Marian Anderson for an article by Jessye Norman, Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2005, cover, Jeffrey Dahmer) Select Grants and Awards: Fulbright Fellowship (2011), Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2006–07), New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship in Painting (1994). MacDowell Colony (1995, 1992, 1986) Yaddo (1997). For many years, Brenda Zlamany has painted portraits of other artists, including Chuck Close, Alex Katz, and David Hockney. She has also been a subject for them; as she puts it, “we are professional posers.” Recently, however, she has worked to paint portraits of those whose gaze is more internal—monks and nomads in Tibet, aboriginal people in Taiwan—creating large bodies of portraits that investigate the limits of the genre. She returned, with her daughter, to Hockney’s studio in 2014, not only to sit for him but to paint him once again. Her practice involves the long sittings and intense looking required of traditional portrait-making. Muse X Editions. An (now defunct) LA based innovative publisher of limited-edition prints, Muse X has launched its first group of prints and is just beginning to make itself known to artists, curators, dealers and collectors. Among works just off the press are otherworldly landscapes by Barbara Kasten and Oliver Wasow, a sizzling sunset by Peter Alexander, abstract compositions by Pauline Stella Sanchez and Jennifer Steinkamp, text and photo combinations by Bill Barminski and Nancy...

Category

1990s Conceptual Photography

Materials

C Print

Faith Thumbnail H Large Mixed Media Conceptual Abstract Painting
Faith Thumbnail H Large Mixed Media Conceptual Abstract Painting

Faith Thumbnail H Large Mixed Media Conceptual Abstract Painting

By Dennis Balk

Located in Surfside, FL

From his show Hashish at Michael Steinberg Gallery (bearing their label verso) Reviewed by Roberta Smith in the New York Times. Abstract Expressionism meets graffiti photography. Cy Twombly in cyberspace. Existential physics. The trajectories of car bombs. These phrases came to mind at the show of Dennis Balk's new work, made during the last three years while he lived in Bahrain and traveled primarily in the Middle East. The show is dominated by black-on-white gestural drawings on canvas from Mr. Balk's Faith Thumbnail series. Full of graphic and even painterly nuance, they turn out to have been made completely on the computer. In a smaller room, the Exhausted and Ideographic series features gaudy, vertiginous digital mixes of colorful photographs. Originally a performance artist, he became known in the art world in the early 1990s for improvisational diagrams that brought different historical narratives into collision. One work in his solo debut at American Fine Arts in SoHo in 1992 charted the lives of Ho Chi Minh and Abraham Lincoln -- both fathers of their countries in different ways -- across white paper napkins. His 2003 exhibition at that gallery was titled ''Particles + Waves With Plausibility,'' as is a recent book of his work. Dennis Balk is an educator, visual artist, writer, media designer and playwright based primarily in New York. Balk has an MFA Degree from California Institute of the Arts. Throughout the 90s and 00s he was an Art Director and media designer for television, outdoor, print and emerging tech and social/ media at; Arnell/ Bickford Associates, Frankfurt Gipps Balkind, Foote Cone & Belding and McCann Erickson, New York. At Amster Yard, the conceptual agency within McCann Worldwide, Balk was involved in concepting high-profile campaigns that ran both domestically and internationally. As an interactive and exhibition designer, Balk has designed significant exhibition work for; Princeton University (The Firestone Library), The National Building Museum (Washington DC), The Jewish Museum (New York) and The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC) in conjunction with the offices of James Ingo Freed. Balk has taught and lectured at a variety of Universities, most recently; UCLA in the Department of New Genres, the Università IUAV di Venezia, Yale University, Otis College of Art and Design- Public Practice MFA and as Coordinator of the Department of Fine Arts/ Computer Graphics at the New York Institute of Technology, Bahrain Campus. Since the late 80s his art work has addressed, in multiple formats (including several productions of his plays), the conditions of narrative and the narrative aspects of historicizing the present. His work has been exhibited internationally and reviewed extensively including; Artforum, Filosofia e Questioni Pubbliche, Bookforum, Art in America, Paper Magazine and The New York Times. While in New York, his primary gallery representation was with the seminal gallery, American Fine Arts. In February 2009, INOVA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee presented the early work survey titled, “Dennis Balk - Early Work 1890-2090”. His recent publications include; “Dennis Balk/1890-2090” (2010-channel 171), “Dennis Balk The Arabian Gulf” (2010-channel 171), “ash” (2009-channel 171), “Colin de Land, American Fine Arts” (2008-powerhouse books), and “particles + waves with plausibility” (2006-powerhouse books). SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2011 Jack Bankowsky, Rosetta Brooks, Ingrid Schaffner, Nicholas Frank, Christina Valentine, Dennis Balk, Jennifer Bolande...

Category

Early 2000s Conceptual Photography

Materials

Canvas, Ink

Untitled (from ROBOTNICS Series)
Untitled (from ROBOTNICS Series)

Untitled (from ROBOTNICS Series)

By Christian Rothmann

Located in Kansas City, MO

Christian Rothmann ROBOTNICS Series C-Print 2019 Edition S (Edition of 10) 12 x 8.3 inches (30.5 x 21 cm) Signed, dated and numbered verso Other Edition Sizes available: - Edition ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Photography

Materials

C Print

"Untitled 1.15" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

"Untitled 1.15" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 1.15" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina García de Marina was born in Gijón (Spain) in 1975. He emerged thru a deep transformation in 2010. A do...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Digital Pigment

"Untitled 1.18" Still Life Photography 16' x 24' in Ed of 15 by García De Marina
"Untitled 1.18" Still Life Photography 16' x 24' in Ed of 15 by García De Marina

"Untitled 1.18" Still Life Photography 16' x 24' in Ed of 15 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 1.18" Still Life Photography 16' x 24' in Ed of 15 by García De Marina Signed and numbered by the artist Comes with COA issued by the artist Not framed. Ships rolled in tu...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Digital Pigment

Butch in the Tub, NYC
Butch in the Tub, NYC

Butch in the Tub, NYC

By Nan Goldin

Located in Toronto, Ontario

Nan Goldin (b. 1953) is unquestionably one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. Goldin was the first to use the "slide show" format in a high-art setting. Beginning in the 1970's Goldin took candid shots of her lovers, friends and family characters often living on the margins of society in Boston and then New York City. "Butch in the Tub...

Category

1980s Conceptual Photography

Materials

C Print

III. Deceit of language (Abstract Photography)
III. Deceit of language (Abstract Photography)

III. Deceit of language (Abstract Photography)

By Gianfranco Pezzot

Located in London, GB

III. Deceit of language (Abstract Photography) Archival Pigment Print on Ilford Smooth Pearl paper. Unframed. This abstract work is part of the series titled Dichotomy of a Human ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment, Paper

Endless Desert Stone, The Dream Art Project
Endless Desert Stone, The Dream Art Project

Endless Desert Stone, The Dream Art Project

Located in New York, NY

The photograph is available in three sizes. The print is proposed as a face-mount; it is mounted to acrylic at the front and Dibond at the back. It is ready to hang with a metal bracket on the wall. Anne Valverde's photograph "Endless" captures the essence of an infinite desert landscape, stretching far beyond the bounds of the frame. The scene is one of stark, natural beauty, dominated by the sweeping dunes and scattered stones that pepper the sand. The neon text 'endless' is inscribed onto the barren desert floor, resonating with the boundless view. The composition of this image is striking in its simplicity and scale, with the gradation of light hinting at the vast expanse of space and time encapsulated within the desert's embrace. The text itself, a human-made construct, contrasts with the timeless and untouched environment, yet it seems to belong there, highlighting the desert's relentless continuum. The photograph, with its subdued tones and soft light, evokes a sense of solitude and introspection. It encourages the viewer to ponder on the concept of eternity and our place within it. The desert is a metaphor for the endless possibilities and the enduring passage of time, a place where one can lose themselves in the horizon that stretches into infinity. "Endless" is not just a visual representation of a desert; it is a reflection on the vastness of nature and the human spirit. Valverde's work prompts a contemplative state, a meditation on the unending cycle of life, and the awe-inspiring scale of the natural world. It is an invitation to explore the depths of our own thoughts and the ceaseless nature of our existence. Since 2015, Valverde has been working on a neon light installation project in several countries, which she materialises through photography. The DREAM ART PROJECT Her portfolio “City Icons” in 2008 brought her work to public attention. A series about Iconic Monuments from Major cities like Paris, New York, Hong Kong, London, Dubaï… Writing with Neon brings together two passions for Anne Valverde: light and words thus incorporating her main medium of expression: Photography. Valverde brings artificial light to areas where electricity is absent, creating a dissonance in the landscape and an unexpected and dreamlike light, creating a new message, independent from preexisting signs and words. Valverde’s first message is "dream", as she invites the viewer to go past reality and reflect on open spaces for escape in a complex and tormented world. Some themes are recurring: an amused gaze on social media omnipresence, hyper-connectivity or even office language shortcuts. This contemplation of the natural landscape suddenly opens up to a perspective on social evolution. By inserting neon lights in her photographs, she initiates a return...

Category

2010s Conceptual Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Acrylic Polymer, Neon Light, Archival Paper, Photogra...

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Film and Vintage Projector, 2018, Film, Found Objects
Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Film and Vintage Projector, 2018, Film, Found Objects

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls Film and Vintage Projector, 2018, Film, Found Objects

By Jo Yarrington

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 Photography

Materials

Film, Found Objects

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls_Transparencies, 2017, Inkjet Print, Photographic Film
Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls_Transparencies, 2017, Inkjet Print, Photographic Film

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls_Transparencies, 2017, Inkjet Print, Photographic Film

By Jo Yarrington

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 Photography

Materials

Plastic, Photographic Film, Inkjet

Jo Yarrington, Ghost girls_Slide Carousel, 2018, Photographic Film, Found Object
Jo Yarrington, Ghost girls_Slide Carousel, 2018, Photographic Film, Found Object

Jo Yarrington, Ghost girls_Slide Carousel, 2018, Photographic Film, Found Object

By Jo Yarrington

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 Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Found Objects

Jeff, Becker, Privacy Policy animation, 2016, Other Medium
Jeff, Becker, Privacy Policy animation, 2016, Other Medium

Jeff, Becker, Privacy Policy animation, 2016, Other Medium

By Jeff Becker

Located in Darien, CT

Using his inkjet printer as a paintbrush, Jeff Becker creates watercolor-like imagery without Photoshop or filters. He refers to this process of dynamic chemical processes as The Slu...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Other Medium

Jeff Becker, Privey Policy, 2016, Archival Pigment Print

Jeff Becker, Privey Policy, 2016, Archival Pigment Print

By Jeff Becker

Located in Darien, CT

Using his inkjet printer as a paintbrush, Jeff Becker creates watercolor-like imagery without Photoshop or filters. He refers to this process of dynamic chemical processes as The Slu...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jeff Becker, Flag Privacy, 2016, Archival Paper, Inkjet Paper
Jeff Becker, Flag Privacy, 2016, Archival Paper, Inkjet Paper

Jeff Becker, Flag Privacy, 2016, Archival Paper, Inkjet Paper

By Jeff Becker

Located in Darien, CT

Using his inkjet printer as a paintbrush, Jeff Becker creates watercolor-like imagery without Photoshop or filters. He refers to this process of dynamic chemical processes as The Sl...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Inkjet

Peoples Privacy

Peoples Privacy

By Jeff Becker

Located in Darien, CT

Using his inkjet printer as a paintbrush, Jeff Becker creates watercolor-like imagery without Photoshop or filters. He refers to this process of dynamic chemical processes as The Sl...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Inkjet

Jeff Becker, Slurry Pentagon, 2016, Inkjet Print

Jeff Becker, Slurry Pentagon, 2016, Inkjet Print

By Jeff Becker

Located in Darien, CT

Using his inkjet printer as a paintbrush, Jeff Becker creates watercolor-like imagery without Photoshop or filters. He refers to this process of dynamic chemical processes as The Sl...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Inkjet

Trinity Site, Landscape of White Sands National Park, Cobalt Blue Framed artwork
Trinity Site, Landscape of White Sands National Park, Cobalt Blue Framed artwork

Trinity Site, Landscape of White Sands National Park, Cobalt Blue Framed artwork

Located in London, GB

Trinity Site, 2019 by George McLeod Limited Edition, Framed Fine Art Print #blue #white #human figure in the landscape #white sand dunes #smoke #surreal #NewMexico More info about t...

Category

2010s Conceptual Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment, Pigment, Color

The Great Wave
The Great Wave

The Great Wave

By Andrew Erdos

Located in New York, NY

The Great Wave, 2014-2015 Archival Pigment Print on Watercolor Paper Paper size 34 x 48 inches / 86 x 122 cm Edition of 3 +1 Ap Vanishing Poin...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

"Untitled 2.22" Photography 24' x 35' inch Edition of 10 by García De Marina

"Untitled 2.22" Photography 24' x 35' inch Edition of 10 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 2.22" Photography 24' x 35' inch Edition of 10 by García De Marina Signed and numbered by the artist Comes with COA issued by the artist García de Marina was born in Gijó...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Photography

Materials

Digital Pigment

Muscle Man and Female Admirer at the Beach - Staged Photography
Muscle Man and Female Admirer at the Beach - Staged Photography

Muscle Man and Female Admirer at the Beach - Staged Photography

By Robert Funk

Located in Miami, FL

A ripped muscleman strikes the pose with an admiring female bystander who holds an oversized pair of prank sunglasses. In reality, the muscleman is a 5-inch cut-out, and the girl is ...

Category

1970s Conceptual Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Conceptual Artist Allen Ruppersberg Hand Printed Lithograph Prints & Photographs
Conceptual Artist Allen Ruppersberg Hand Printed Lithograph Prints & Photographs

Conceptual Artist Allen Ruppersberg Hand Printed Lithograph Prints & Photographs

By Allen Ruppersberg

Located in Surfside, FL

Allen Ruppersberg (American, 1944-) Lithograph, Mixed media From the Top Ten Historical Similarities (and Differences) Between Prints and Photographs. This sale is of one print not t...

Category

2010s Conceptual Photography

Materials

Mixed Media, Lithograph

Conceptual photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Conceptual 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 photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, green, orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Reinhard Görner, Jose Sierra, xulong zhang, and Gianfranco Pezzot. Frequently made by artists working with C Print, and 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 photography, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available. Prices for 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 $45 and tops out at $46,412, while the average work sells for $3,512.