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Conceptual Art

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
Color:  Gold
Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 16
Located in Paris, IDF
Lego, gold leaf, plastic model 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 Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Shiko 17
Located in Paris, IDF
Lego, gold leaf, cashew lacquer  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 Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

Bronze Nest
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
This cast bronze twig NEST with a bright blue patina (with some of the bronze left raw) holds three highly polished bronze eggs. "The bronze NESTS are ano...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Japanese Contemporary Art By Kojun - Mujo Gold
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 Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

Conceptual Bronze Sculpture, "Don't Cry!"
Located in San Diego, CA
This is a limited edition conceptual bronze sculpture made by San Diego artist, Maidy Morhous. Its dimensions are 12" x 8" x 14". A certificate of authenticity will follow its delive...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Indignado
Located in Santa Fe, NM
These gold-leaf compositions by Cuban artist José Ángel Vincench are artworks and bold political statements. The artist is known for his lustrous paintings of minimalist abstractions...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

Bronze Nest (dark magenta patina with dozen eggs) by Steve Tobin
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
This delicate cast bronze twig NEST with a bright magenta patina (with some of the bronze left raw) holds a dozen brushed steel eggs for a lovely contrast. This sculpture makes a lovely table centerpiece! "The bronze NESTS...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Shoe 2 - bronze shoe sculpture
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
This cast bronze shoe sculpture has a highly detailed pink and black lace pattern and is stuffed with four delicious looking rolled cookies! From world-renowned artist Steve Tobin's bronze "Shoe" series of 100 shoes, each one is completely unique. The dimensions shown are approximate. "Shoe" sizes in the series range from US women's size 6-10. "Shoes" are available individually or in groups. The listed price reflects a single shoe. For the "Shoe Wall...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Shoe 3 - bronze shoe sculpture
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
This cast bronze shoe sculpture is patterned in an elaborate gold and black patina and stuffed with bright and shiny hard candies. From world-renowned artist Steve Tobin's bronze "Shoe" series of 100 shoes, each one is completely unique. The dimensions shown are approximate. "Shoe" sizes in the series range from US women's size 6-10. "Shoes" are available individually or in groups. The listed price reflects a single shoe. For the "Shoe Wall...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Conceptual Sculpture Titled, "Weighed Down By Public Opinion No. 2"
Located in San Diego, CA
One of a kind original sculpture by local San Diego artist, Duke Windsor. This sculpture depicts a figure facedown with gold bricks on their backs. The artist uses gold leaf to highl...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Concrete, Gold Leaf

Shoe 6 - bronze shoe sculpture
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
This cast bronze shoe sculpture has a handful of bright green peapods stuffed into the colorful leopard print shoe. From world-renowned artist Stev...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Nonsense (Gas Mask), Unique Bronze Sculpture by Mark Eastridge
By Mark Eastridge
Located in Long Island City, NY
A bronze sculpture by Mark Eastridge. A surrealist composition of a bronze case gas mask sitting atop a glove. Artist: Mark Eastridge, American Title: Nonsense (Gas Mask) Medium: Br...
Category

Late 20th Century Conceptual Art

Materials

Granite, Bronze

El sueño de Acteón
Located in Mexico City, CDMX
He refers to the history of art, particularly to pop culture and the social circumstances of its local environment as well as its universal confrontation. Humor and irony with a crit...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Caimán monstruo americano
Located in Mexico City, CDMX
He refers to the history of art, particularly to pop culture and the social circumstances of its local environment as well as its universal confrontation. Humor and irony with a crit...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Americano 1/7, 2/7, 3/7, 4/7, 5/7
Located in Mexico City, CDMX
He refers to the history of art, particularly to pop culture and the social circumstances of its local environment as well as its universal confrontation. Humor and irony with a crit...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Éxtasis
Located in Mexico City, CDMX
He refers to the history of art, particularly to pop culture and the social circumstances of its local environment as well as its universal confrontation. Humor and irony with a crit...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Concert Tee shirt Tapestry: 'The Mammoth Tapestry'
Located in New York, NY
Inspired by amateur archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann who discovered Troy and by past elaborate hoaxes like that of the Piltdown Man, Joshua travels the world performing sta...
Category

15th Century and Earlier Conceptual Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

LOL (laugh out loud)
Located in Buffalo, NY
LOL (laugh out loud) 2014 4x6" framed. 8x10" SUBTEXT This series of small paintings are a mash-up of Renaissance Choir book borders with their ornate grotesques and drolleries combi...
Category

Early 2000s Conceptual Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

Floor Chimes (Sonambient)
Located in Long Island City, NY
This modern abstract bronze sculpture by Bruggemann is characteristic of his work. His works derive from and depend largely upon elemental laws of physics and kinetic principles, approaching the practical limits of artistic statement combined with supreme craftsmanship. Artist: Winni Brueggemann, German Title: Floor Chimes...
Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

Shoe Wall - cast bronze shoe sculpture installation
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
This set of 48 cast bronze "Shoes" comes from a series of 100 playful shoes by world-renowned artist Steve Tobin. With a variety of extraordinary patinas on ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Bronze

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Previously Available Items
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Bronze Nest (with three mirror-polish eggs) by Steve Tobin
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Handstones -- Set of five, Sculpture, Bronze Multiple by Antony Gormley
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Braco D. Slobodan "Braco" Dimitrijević (born 18 June 1948) is a Paris-based Bosnian and Yugoslavian conceptual artist. His works deal mainly with history and the individual's place in it. He has exhibited internationally since the 1970s, including at the Tate Gallery in 1985. He has participated in documenta (1972, 1977 and 1992) and the Venice Biennale (1990 and 1993). His works are held in the collection of the Tate Gallery in London and that of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, among others. Solo museum exhibitions have taken place at The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg and Musée d’Orsay, Paris (2005); the Slought Foundation, Philadelphia (2007); Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2008), Musee d’Art Moderne de Saint Etienne (2009), Musee d'Art et d’Histoire Luxemburg (2011). He has participated in Documenta in 1972, 1976, and 1993 as well as the Venice Biennale in 1976, 1982, 1990, 1993, and 2009. His work can be found in approximately 70 public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Musee National d’Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, among others. Slobodan “Braco” Dimitrijević was born on 18 June 1948 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia. His father was the painter Vojo Dimitrijević, one of the most famous modern artists in Yugoslavia. He started painting at the age of 5 and was featured in a TV show entitled Filmske Novosti (Film News) in 1957. His first conceptual work dates back to 1963. He went on to study at Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, from which he graduated in 1971. He then studied at Saint Martin's School of Art in London from 1971 to 1973. In 1976, he wrote Tractatus Post Historicus, which formed the theoretical basis of his early work. In the 1970s, Dimitrijevic gained attention when he began his Casual Passer-by series. The work features very big close-up photographic portraits of everyday people that were hung on buildings and billboard in different cities in Europe and America. He then went on to produce memorial plaques in honour of other people that he met. About the one he made for the Lucio Amelio's "Terrae Motus" collection he said: "I Stopped the first man i saw in the street, explained to him what my work was and then asked him to be the model for the photo". His work incorporates objects similar to Christo and Arman Fernandez. His work from the 1980s which joined animals and works of art would go on to become an exhibition in 1998 at the Paris Zoo that was visited by over a million people. "I was already exhibiting in London when Belgrade artists started being active. When I moved to London I met some people from the Foksal Gallery. But really, in the late ’60s I had no knowledge of conceptual art in other Eastern European countries. In 1971 Nena and I did a show entitled “At the Moment” in an alternative space in Zagreb. After a gallery show in 1969 I chose an ordinary entrance hall of an apartment building in the center of Zagreb and sporadically made exhibitions there which would last a few hours. “At the Moment” was a group show with artists like Giovanni Anselmo, Joseph Beuys, Robert Barry...
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1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph, Screen

Sun Signatures
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Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

Conceptual art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Conceptual art 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 art 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, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Reinhard Görner, Kojun, Jose Sierra, and xulong zhang. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Paint 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 art, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available. Prices for art 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 $500,000, while the average work sells for $2,465.

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