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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:  Yellow
Half Dead, "Inflammatory Essay" (from Documenta 1982)
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny Holzer is one of the most important and original artists of the 20th century. Her body of work, with its emphasis on text, is provocative and occasionally frightening, manipulating the language of folk wisdom, pop culture, and government slogan to produce a commentary on global issues including power structures, gender struggle, economics, voting, and warfare. Holzer's iconic "Inflammatory Essays", produced between 1979 and 1982, were first pasted on walls throughout heavily populated metro areas including New York, and shortly after in other cities. Unsigned and commercially produced, they subverted the conventions of advertising, graffiti, and public art. Each essay was in a different eye-catching color to maximize viewers' attention. It was also helpful when one Essay replaced an older one. The texts were derived from her childhood interest in rapturous writings. Holzer tried to emulate a similar style for her essays, yet borrowed from political theorists (notably Mao, Lenin, and Emma Goldman...
Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Composition I
By Ruperto Cabrera
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Ruperto Cabrera (Spanish 1960 - ) Title: Composition I Year: 1999 Medium: Oil, Silkscreen, Zund UV Jet Print on Canvas, Signed verso Size: 32 x 39 in. (81.28 x 99.06 cm)
Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Oil

Chinatown Portfolio II, Image 1, Silkscreen by Chryssa
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Chryssa, Greek (1933 - 2013) Title: Chinatown Portfolio II, Image 1 Year: circa 1978 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 150 Size: 40 in. x 30.5 in. (...
Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

Wake Up Man from Bullet Space, Your House is Mine
By Eric Drooker
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Eric Drooker, American (1958 - ) Title: Wake Up Man from Bullet Space, Your House is Mine Year: 1988-1992 Medium: Silkscreen, signed in pencil Edition: 126/150 Size: 23...
Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

One: Yellow
Located in New York, NY
Patrick is a conceptual artist, curator, and theorist exploring how media shape our perception of reality as well as the borders between the digital and the material. He is best know...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

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The Sprinters, for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, with official COA
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John Baldessari The Sprinters, 1982 Limited Edition Offset Lithograph on Parson's Diploma paper Signed in graphite on the front. Accompanied by letter of authenticity from the publisher 36 x 24 inches Unframed Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the publisher on Olympic Committee letterhead. This is one of 750 hand signed lithographic posters, published in 1982 to celebrate the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics . Even though the signed edition is 750, the publisher is said to have sold fewer than 200 and destroyed the rest; hence signed editions of this print are far more scarce than the edition suggests. The Olympic Committee commissioned 15 nationally known artists, including to create unique designs to promote the event. This was John Baldessari's contribution to the portfolio - cleverly juxtaposing a modern day race, with ancient images, tying old and new and honoring the ancient Olympic tradition. In 2017, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne Switzerland...
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Running Fences yellow
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1970s Conceptual Art

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Geranium
Located in Llanbrynmair, GB
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Geranium
Geranium
H 25.99 in W 20.08 in
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1970s Conceptual Art

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20th Century Conceptual Art

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Category

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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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