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Conceptual Sculptures

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
Hyperrealistic Bronze Female Head Lost-Wax Sculpture, Hollow Skull, Contemporary
Hyperrealistic Bronze Female Head Lost-Wax Sculpture, Hollow Skull, Contemporary

Hyperrealistic Bronze Female Head Lost-Wax Sculpture, Hollow Skull, Contemporary

By Óscar Aldonza Torres

Located in FISTERRA, ES

Hyperrealistic bronze female head sculpture with hollowed skull evokes mystery and organic patina. Soño (24 × 17 × 22 cm) by Aldonza is cast by the artist using the traditional lost-...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Niemand and Soldier Duo
Niemand and Soldier Duo

Niemand and Soldier Duo

By Viktor Frešo

Located in Denver, CO

"Niemand and Soldier Duo" is of a limited edition of 25 works, edition 20/25 and signed. The Duo will be shipped directly from the artist's studio in Slovakia to your location. Ship...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Polyurethane

Goodfellas

Goodfellas

By Viktor Frešo

Located in Denver, CO

"Goodfellas" is comprised of 3 individual white statues that are meant to be presented as a trio. They are part of a limited edition of 25 of which this is number 12. Each individual...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Polyurethane

Solid Liquid, Conceptual Hand-Blown Glass by Arik Levy
Solid Liquid, Conceptual Hand-Blown Glass by Arik Levy

Solid Liquid, Conceptual Hand-Blown Glass by Arik Levy

Located in Long Island City, NY

Arik Levy, Israeli (1963 - ) - Solid Liquid, Medium: Hand-Blown Colored and Silvered Glass, Size: 27 x 18 x 18 in. (68.58 x 45.72 x 45.72 cm)

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Blown Glass

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 1, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol
Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 1, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 1, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol

By Jo Yarrington

Located in Darien, CT

Jo Yarrington’s photographs, prints, works on paper, glass sculptures and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Yale University, Cornell University, the Museum of Glass, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Artists Space, St. John the Divine Cathedral, Grounds for Sculpture, the Museum of American Glass and ODETTA, among others. International exhibitions have included Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow University, Galeria Sala Uno and Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato. She represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates and participated in the Berlin Biennial. in 2010 she received the Bronze Prize, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia. Yarrington is a recipient of artist grants and Fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She has received Residency Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass, the Bridge Virtual Residency/ SciArt Center, the Lucile Walton Fellow/Mountain Lake Biological Station, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Anderson Center and the Ucross Foundation, among others. International grants and fellowships have included the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity/Canada, SIMS Residency/ Iceland, Cill Rialaig Artists Residency/Ireland, the Burren College of Art Residency/Ireland and the American Scandinavian Foundation. She is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University and lives and works in New York City. STATEMENT In site-specific exhibitions, public art commissions, collaborative and individual projects Jo Yarrington has used varied combinations of glass, waxed surfaces, found artifacts and experimental analog photography to investigate the way we perceive – searching for, experimenting with and developing throughout a sensory-based vernacular. Her mostly translucent materials function as physical framework and symbolic membrane. Light, both natural and ambient, provides a kinetic or time-based element to her work. Scale and the integration of architecture are also pivotal components. In the 6-part installation for the two-person exhibition Illuminated, Yarrington continues her interest in the connections between vision, sound and language. In Mute-ability: Compositions 1 – 6, her title for this light-based comprehensive work, she combines the words mute and malleability. The work focuses on found piano rolls, a music storage medium, originally conceived as coded notations or ‘note control data’ for music produced in pneumatic player pianos...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Steel

Found Object Wall Sculpture/Relief by Gertie Lowe
Found Object Wall Sculpture/Relief by Gertie Lowe

Found Object Wall Sculpture/Relief by Gertie Lowe

By Gertie Lowe

Located in Long Island City, NY

Wall sculpture assemblage by Gertie Lowe, from 1978, is a conceptual abstract with everyday objects. Muted neutral tones are contrasted with vibrant accents. Signed and dated verso...

Category

1970s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Plastic, Wood

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 6, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol
Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 6, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 6, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol

By Jo Yarrington

Located in Darien, CT

Jo Yarrington’s photographs, prints, works on paper, glass sculptures and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Yale University, Cornell University, the Museum of Glass, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Artists Space, St. John the Divine Cathedral, Grounds for Sculpture, the Museum of American Glass and ODETTA, among others. International exhibitions have included Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow University, Galeria Sala Uno and Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato. She represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates and participated in the Berlin Biennial. in 2010 she received the Bronze Prize, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia. Yarrington is a recipient of artist grants and Fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She has received Residency Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass, the Bridge Virtual Residency/ SciArt Center, the Lucile Walton Fellow/Mountain Lake Biological Station, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Anderson Center and the Ucross Foundation, among others. International grants and fellowships have included the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity/Canada, SIMS Residency/ Iceland, Cill Rialaig Artists Residency/Ireland, the Burren College of Art Residency/Ireland and the American Scandinavian Foundation. She is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University and lives and works in New York City. STATEMENT In site-specific exhibitions, public art commissions, collaborative and individual projects Jo Yarrington has used varied combinations of glass, waxed surfaces, found artifacts and experimental analog photography to investigate the way we perceive – searching for, experimenting with and developing throughout a sensory-based vernacular. Her mostly translucent materials function as physical framework and symbolic membrane. Light, both natural and ambient, provides a kinetic or time-based element to her work. Scale and the integration of architecture are also pivotal components. In the 6-part installation for the two-person exhibition Illuminated, Yarrington continues her interest in the connections between vision, sound and language. In Mute-ability: Compositions 1 – 6, her title for this light-based comprehensive work, she combines the words mute and malleability. The work focuses on found piano rolls, a music storage medium, originally conceived as coded notations or ‘note control data’ for music produced in pneumatic player pianos...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Steel

Fritz Horstman, Formwork for Branching Stream, 2017, Wood, Walnut
Fritz Horstman, Formwork for Branching Stream, 2017, Wood, Walnut

Fritz Horstman, Formwork for Branching Stream, 2017, Wood, Walnut

By Fritz Horstman

Located in Darien, CT

While working on a large building project several years ago the artist, Fritz Horstman was struck by the poetry in the unfinished state of the construction site. He was drawn specifically to the space between the plywood walls that were raised as formworks for the pouring of cement. That space could only exist for a few hours before the cement truck...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Wood, Walnut

Stripes 2
Stripes 2

Stripes 2

By Lyn Carter

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original conceptual wall sculpture by contemporary Canadian female artist Lyn Carter. Lyn Carter works primarily in sculpture as well as drawing and has exhibited across Canada...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Fabric, Wood, Digital

Prelude to Dawn
Prelude to Dawn

Prelude to Dawn

By Kevin Kegler

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original conceptual hand carved and joined wood wall sculpture by Kevin Kegler. This work is currently featured in the artist's solo exhibition inside The Corridors Gallery at ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Copper

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 10
Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 10

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 10

By Kojun

Located in Paris, IDF

Lego, gold leaf (24k, 22.66k), copper wire, wood This collaborative work, which began with a common interest in Buddhism, explored the idea of expressing the sacred within everyday life. As artist and Zen monk...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Gold Leaf, Wire

Wood equals paper
Wood equals paper

Wood equals paper

By Dianne Baker

Located in Buffalo, NY

A contemporary collection of conceptual wall sculptures by Dianne Baker titled "Wood = Paper" created in 2016 with wood, metal, leather and handmade paper. Various Sizes: 16" x 1...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Shaman
Shaman

Shaman

By John Petrey

Located in Rye, NY

John Petrey’s Shaman is a striking mixed-media sculpture that merges mythology, ritual, and contemporary artistry. The figure wears a robe of richly patterned patchwork, assembled fr...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Leather, Fabric, Found Objects, Mixed Media

Queen

Queen

By Tim Yankosky

Located in Fairfield, CT

Materials are often the driving force and inspiration behind the works of art that I create. I have always been drawn to the functional wear and patina of vintage and found objects. ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Other Medium

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Mujo Gold
Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Mujo Gold

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Mujo Gold

By Kojun

Located in Paris, IDF

Cardboard, gold leaf, gilder’s bole This work was created for an exhibit as part of the artistic unit SHIKŌ, a collaborative effort between sculptors Kanji Hasegawa, Isaji Yugo, and...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Gold Leaf

"Vintage Alarm Clock in Custom Vinyl Slipcover"
"Vintage Alarm Clock in Custom Vinyl Slipcover"

"Vintage Alarm Clock in Custom Vinyl Slipcover"

By Cheryl R Riley

Located in New York, NY

“My art explores the similarity between seemingly disparate cultures through the lens of my African American ancestry. I examine my family’s plight shaped by the history of racism a...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Mixed Media

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 15
Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 15

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 15

By Kojun

Located in Paris, IDF

Gold leaf, concrete, wood, copper wire W220 × D65 × H40 mm + W60 × D35 × H75 mm (concrete) This collaborative work, which began with a common interest in Buddhism, explored the idea of expressing the sacred within everyday life. As artist and Zen monk...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Concrete, Wire, Gold Leaf

Milagro 15
Milagro 15

Milagro 15

By Eduardo Costa

Located in Mexico City, CDMX

Eduardo Costa is one of the key figures in global conceptual art. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1940. He graduated in Literature and Art at the University of Buenos Aires in 1965 where he took courses with Jorge Luis Borges in the late fifties. His practice developed into Conceptual POP with the Fashion Fictions Series, 1966-to the present. He is also credited with creating Conceptual Geometry which he showed internationally starting in 1995 at the Elga Wimmer Gallery, NY, and in 2001 at Cecilia de Torres LTD., NY. With Cecilia de Torres he exhibited a fully developed edition of his Volumetric Paintings, which use painting to such a volume that it stands by itself without any cloth or other support.Eduardo Costa lived twenty-five years in New York and over four years in Rio de Janeiro where he met almost daily with Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Acrylic

Survival Pencils
Survival Pencils

Survival Pencils

By Jenny Holzer

Located in Toronto, Ontario

Jenny Holzer's menacing "Truisms" first appeared in 1983 when the artist was invited to participate in a group show exploring the themes and dialogue from George Orwell's "1984". O...

Category

1990s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Pencil

Conscience Level
Conscience Level

Conscience Level

By Barry Wolfryd

Located in Mexico City, CDMX

#murano #glass Barry Wolfryd (1952) Barry Wolfryd, born in Los Angeles and a naturalized Mexican, has spent most of his artistic career in Mexico, where he has lived for the past 35 ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Glass

Diversity (Blue)

Diversity (Blue)

By Oleg Lobykin

Located in Napa, CA

Oleg Lobykin (Russian, b. 1966) is a sculptor. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Lobykin now resides in Silicon Valley and also specializes in the restoration of landmark architecture ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Fiberglass

Katherine Jackson, Little Oil 19, 2020, Photograph on aluminum

Katherine Jackson, Little Oil 19, 2020, Photograph on aluminum

By Katherine Jackson

Located in Darien, CT

There are two Little Oil installations available with 6 sculptures each on top of LED light boxes. Little Oil 19 is a digital photographic print on aluminum for the flat files. Katherine Jackson has been working with glass and light together for many years, Recently, she's been making glass castings of vintage oil cans, and displaying them -- singly, in small groupings, or in vitrines -- on light boxes. So far she has created about 90, each one unique. The series is called Little Oil, alluding to Big Oil, and sometimes Small Oils, as in oil painting. But “oil” can mean many things. It has been a source of light (sometimes from unconscionable sources) since ancient times as well as a source of eternal light in many faith traditions. Set atop lightboxes, where each work glows from within, these pieces can simply seem like vessels of light itself. At times, they appear to me to transcend their relation to oil altogether, appearing anthropomorphic or creaturely, even biological. These days, I think of them as archeological artifacts, relics of a past, oil-based, civilization. Necropolis is a print of a painting inspired by a map of the necropolis where the terra cotta soldiers...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Glass, LED Light, Pigment

"Peace" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture
"Peace" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture

"Peace" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture

By Scott Froschauer

Located in West Hollywood, CA

Scott Froschauer is an experimental artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, where his primary focus is exploring new spaces and techniques for communication. This series "Word on ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Fritz Horstman, Formwork for the East River, 2017, Wood, Latex Paint, Wood Panel
Fritz Horstman, Formwork for the East River, 2017, Wood, Latex Paint, Wood Panel

Fritz Horstman, Formwork for the East River, 2017, Wood, Latex Paint, Wood Panel

By Fritz Horstman

Located in Darien, CT

While working on a large building project several years ago the artist, Fritz Horstman was struck by the poetry in the unfinished state of the construction site. He was drawn specifically to the space between the plywood walls that were raised as formworks for the pouring of cement. That space could only exist for a few hours before the cement truck arrived, but in that moment it was a revolving abstraction of potential, delineation, growth, and destruction. Once filled it was gone: the plywood was stripped away, the earth was backfilled. To suspend that moment he began building models of formworks. Leaving them unfilled, they are perpetually unfinished. From models based directly on architecture, Horstman expanded to forms found in the landscape. Making a formwork that depicts constraint upon the landscape is not exactly a reversal of the formwork’s function, but it asks different questions than a formwork designed for a building would. Why would you make a cement creek? What is the relationship between a flowing creek and poured cement? Is this a barrier or just delineation? For River Woman ODETTA, in addition to several small sculptures in the Flat File, Horstman will install Formwork for the East River, which describes that river’s shape as it flows from Rikers Island to the tip of Manhattan. The 3 x 18 x 7 foot sculpture...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Wood, Latex, Wood Panel

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls, Camel Hair Brush Display, 2018, Found Objects, Metal
Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls, Camel Hair Brush Display, 2018, Found Objects, Metal

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls, Camel Hair Brush Display, 2018, Found Objects, Metal

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 Sculptures

Materials

Metal

"Start" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture
"Start" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture

"Start" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture

By Scott Froschauer

Located in West Hollywood, CA

Scott Froschauer is an experimental artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, where his primary focus is exploring new spaces and techniques for communication. This series "Word on ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Fritz Horstman, Formwork for a Rectangle 2, 2014, Wood, Plywood
Fritz Horstman, Formwork for a Rectangle 2, 2014, Wood, Plywood

Fritz Horstman, Formwork for a Rectangle 2, 2014, Wood, Plywood

By Fritz Horstman

Located in Darien, CT

While working on a large building project several years ago the artist, Fritz Horstman was struck by the poetry in the unfinished state of the construction site. He was drawn specifically to the space between the plywood walls that were raised as formworks for the pouring of cement. That space could only exist for a few hours before the cement truck...

Category

2010s Conceptual Sculptures

Materials

Wood, Plywood

Conceptual sculptures for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Conceptual sculptures 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 sculptures created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, red, orange, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Beatrice De Domenico, Scott Froschauer, Jo Yarrington, and Kojun. Frequently made by artists working with Metal, and mixed media 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 sculptures, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available. Prices for sculptures 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 $125 and tops out at $500,000, while the average work sells for $3,220.