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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
Morgan Library II, New York
Morgan Library II, New York

Morgan Library II, New York

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Morgan Library II New York 50 x 62.4 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 60 x 74.9 inches ed. of 7 $9,000 70 x 87.5 inches ed. of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Paper is trim...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

C Print, Lambda

"Untitled 3.16" Photography 24' x 16' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

"Untitled 3.16" Photography 24' x 16' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 3.16" Photography 24' x 16' inch Edition of 15 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 Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

"Untitled 2.18" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

"Untitled 2.18" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 2.18" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 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 Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

"Untitled 5.20" Still Life Photography 16' x 24' in Ed of 15 by García De Marina

"Untitled 5.20" Still Life Photography 16' x 24' in Ed of 15 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 5.20" 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 Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)
LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)

LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)

By Sol LeWitt

Located in Southampton, NY

Silkscreen on vélin Saunders Waterford, St Cuthberts Mill paper. Paper Size: 8 x 7.625 inches. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Ficciones, 1984...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

Two Screenprinted pillow cases (one hand signed by Baldessari) in bespoke box
Two Screenprinted pillow cases (one hand signed by Baldessari) in bespoke box

Two Screenprinted pillow cases (one hand signed by Baldessari) in bespoke box

By John Baldessari

Located in New York, NY

John Baldessari Pillow Cases in Bespoke Presentation Box (one pillowcase hand signed by John Baldessari) for The Thing Quarterly Issue 22, 2014 Silkscreen on 100% cotton 320 thread count sateen pillowcases (Hand signed by John Baldessari) Boldly signed in ink by John Baldessari on one of the pillowcases (see photo) Unframed One of the pillowcases is hand signed in ink by John Baldessari: John Baldessari was one of the artists who were invited to contribute an object (or "thing") with text for a special project for "The Thing" publication (read on for more on "The Thing") ; the conceptual object therefore had to incorporate text. Baldessari's contribution in 2014 was a silkscreened pillowcase with text. A limited (unknown) number of these pillowcases were marketed and sold as a set of two in a bespoke box. However, exceptionally, Baldessari hand signed a very few of pillowcases in ink. This is one of the very special sets bearing one hand signed pillow case - purchased directly from "The Thing". (a copy of the 2014 receipt is shown here.) The rest of these boxed sets were not hand signed. The pillowcase is brand new, and will look gorgeous once pressed and framed by a professional framer. More about this boxed set: Issue 22 of THE THING Quarterly is by LA-based conceptual artist John Baldessari. It consists of two 100% cotton sateen pillowcases featuring an image of a woman clutching a pillow. The black and white image is taken from a Hollywood film still in Baldessari's collection and has been silkscreened on each pillowcase with environmentally-friendly, water-based ink. The pillowcases are standard-sized and envelope-style. For those who like their thread count high, the issue clocks in at a solid 320 thread count. Measurements: Box 10.5 inches by 13 inches by 2 inches Pillow 20 inches vertical by 26 inches What was The Thing Quarterly? THE THING was an experimental publication created in collaboration with Will Rogan as part of an artist residency. We saw it as a quarterly periodical in the form of an object. Each year, four artists, writers, musicians or filmmakers were invited to create an everyday object that somehow incorporates text. The object is reproduced and hand wrapped at wrapping parties and then mailed to the homes of the subscribers with the help of the United States Postal Service. It began as part of an artist residency in San Francisco’s Southern Exposure. Will and I had met in grad school at UC Berkeley and discovered our mutual affinity for quarterlies. He was a librarian at SFAI for five years and I had been a high school teacher for five years. WE were both interested pushing the boundaries of publication. Our plan was to create a 1 year publication with four artists, but from the very start the project generated so much interest and international excitement that we found ourselves running a publication complete with a brick and mortar storefront and a staff of four individuals. After 10 years, 34 issues, 59 projects and countless live events, we decided to end the publication in order to pursue our individual projects. We are still working together on a less ambitious new project, and hope to launch it at some point in 2021. CONTRIBUTORS: have included John Baldessari, Dave Eggers, Miranda July...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Fabric, Cotton, Screen, Ink, Mixed Media, Cardboard

LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)
LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)

LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)

By Sol LeWitt

Located in Southampton, NY

Silkscreen on vélin Saunders Waterford, St Cuthberts Mill paper. Paper Size: 8 x 7.625 inches. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Ficciones, 1984...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)
LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)

LeWitt, Composition, Ficciones (after)

By Sol LeWitt

Located in Southampton, NY

Silkscreen on vélin Saunders Waterford, St Cuthberts Mill paper. Paper Size: 8 x 7.625 inches. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Ficciones, 1984...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

Luciano Berio's Epiphany Large Abstract Collage Israeli Painting
Luciano Berio's Epiphany Large Abstract Collage Israeli Painting

Luciano Berio's Epiphany Large Abstract Collage Israeli Painting

By Naftali Golomb

Located in Surfside, FL

Collage and Painted mixed media artwork painting. Born 1930 in Chile, Golomb immigrated to Palestine in 1935. He later became a member of the Radius Group and an instructor at the A...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Acrylic Polymer

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 Art

Materials

Steel

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls, 2018, Organic Material, Photographic Film, Plastic
Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls, 2018, Organic Material, Photographic Film, Plastic

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls, 2018, Organic Material, Photographic Film, Plastic

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 Art

Materials

Pins, Organic Material, Plastic, Photographic Film, Acrylic Polymer, Fou...

Original ink on Paper, Contemporary Blue Abstract Seaweeds , Waves
Original ink on Paper, Contemporary Blue Abstract Seaweeds , Waves

Original ink on Paper, Contemporary Blue Abstract Seaweeds , Waves

By TUSET

Located in Carballo, ES

Blue Minimal Painting is an original artwork realized by TUSET in 2020. The painting is unframed, we can frame it in natural wood or black on request. The title of this works is "F...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Ink, Handmade Paper

Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence

Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Biblioteca Marucelliana Florence, Italy 2022 62.5 x 50 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 75 x 60 inches ed. of 7 $9,000 87 x 70 inches ed. of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

C Print, Lambda

Palazzo Zenobio I

Palazzo Zenobio I

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the monumentality of historical architecture, gardens, and masterpieces. An acti...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

"Play" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture
"Play" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture

"Play" - 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 Art

Materials

Metal

John Morton, Fever Songs, 2018, site specific sound installation
John Morton, Fever Songs, 2018, site specific sound installation

John Morton, Fever Songs, 2018, site specific sound installation

By John Morton

Located in Darien, CT

Fever Songs is an interactive public sound installation project that brings together the vocal traditions of many religions, creating an active sonic experience that explores spiritu...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal

RARE Yvon Lambert Gallery mailer (Hand Signed and Addressed by Dennis Oppenheim)
RARE Yvon Lambert Gallery mailer (Hand Signed and Addressed by Dennis Oppenheim)

RARE Yvon Lambert Gallery mailer (Hand Signed and Addressed by Dennis Oppenheim)

By Dennis A. Oppenheim

Located in New York, NY

Dennis Oppenheim Directed Seeding -Wheat, Historic Yvon Lambert Gallery Poster (Hand Signed and Addressed by Dennis Oppenheim), 1969 Offset lithograph poster. Hand signed, inscribed. Postmarked and addressed to Oppenheim's dealer, John Gibson 23 × 16 inches Hand Signed and inscribed by Dennis Oppenheim lower right in blue marker in 2006, hand addressed by Dennis Oppenheim in 1969 in red marker Unframed This is an extremely uncommon vintage poster/mailer announcing the May 20th, 1969 opening reception (Vernissage) for the exhibition of works by American conceptual art pioneer Dennis Oppenheim at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris. The poster is historic in that it was originally mailed to John Gibson, the East 67th Street dealer, who famously gave Dennis Oppenheim his first New York exhibition in 1968, and it is hand addressed to Gibson, bearing the original Paris, France postmark of 1969. It is, exceptionally, hand signed and dedicated by Dennis Oppenheim to a collector who acquired the poster from John Gibson's collection, and then secured Dennis Oppenheim's autograph in 2006, making this an especially valuable collectors item. More information about the project from the Tate Gallery archives, which acquired the work: This work brings together two interventions Oppenheim created on a field owned by farmer Albert Waalken in Finsterwolde, north-eastern Holland, in 1969. It comprises four distinct elements mounted on board: a colour photograph of a wheatfield being sowed by a tractor in parallel curving lines seen from high up; a negative image in black and white of a map of the area of Finsterwolde onto which two sections of text have been collaged; and two black and white aerial photographs of the same field being traversed by a tractor cutting an X into the wheat. The first two elements relate to the action Directed Seeding. For this the field was seeded according to a line plotted by following the road from the village of Finsterwolde, the location of the field, to Nieuweschans, another village where the farmer’s storage silo for wheat was located. Oppenheim reduced this curved line by a factor of six in order to direct the trajectory of seeding. The tractor then carved a series of curved parallel lines on the surface of the field as it dug up earth and scattered seed. From an aerial perspective the patterning of parallel lines may be viewed as a form of line drawing on the landscape. The precise location of the field and the silo are indicated on the map, showing the trajectory of the road. The two sections of text collaged onto the upper portion of the map briefly describe the two interventions. Explaining the action Cancelled Crop, the artist wrote: In September the field was harvested in the form of an X. The grain was isolated in its raw state, further processing was withheld. This project poses an interaction upon media during the early stages of processing. Planting and cultivating my own material is like mining ones own pigment (for paint) – I can direct the later stages of development at will. In this case the material is planted and cultivated for the sole purpose of withholding it from a product-oriented system. Isolating this grain from further processing (production of food stuffs) becomes like stopping raw pigment from becoming an illusionistic force on canvas. The esthetic is in the raw material prior to refinement, and since no organization is imposed through refinement, the material’s destiny is bred with its origin. (Quoted from artist’s statement in Tate acquisition file.) Directed Seeding and Cancelled Crop are two separate works, brought together in several different versions of which Tate’s is one. The collage presents three ways in which human action may marks the land. For the first two, agricultural machinery is used to create straight lines, in the process of harvesting as in the X of Cancelled Crop, or curved lines, during the process of planting seed in the contours photographed for Directed Seeding. The map shows a third (and more ancient) way of marking the land, through the construction of roads. The use of the landscape – natural, industrial or urban – as a canvas on which to act is typical of Oppenheim’s work in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In a related action, Directed Harvest, 1966 (Tate T07590) and Directed Harvest 1968 (Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands), the artist caused a field to be harvested in linear patterns which he then had photographed in its progressive stages. In Reverse Processing: Cement Transplant, East River, NY, 1970, 1978 (Tate T07591) Oppenheim drew large crosses on the roofs of barges transporting raw cement that he found moored on the New York East River banks. All these works centre on process as an agent of change and utilise materials, elements and locations on which the artist can have no permanent claim, making them deliberately ephemeral. Such actions as seeding a crop and harvesting it several months later operate within time parameters dependent on the cycles of the seasons rather than the will of man, mixing human processes with those of nature. Oppenheim’s analogy between the prevention of a crop from entering the food chain and the halting of the expressive, ‘illusionistic’ force of paint deconstructs the sophisticated processes of art-making and the food industry to the elemental notion of making simple marks on the environment. In this way, the artist highlights contemporary man’s dependency on complex chains...

Category

1960s Conceptual Art

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Large French Conceptual Sculpture Photograph Triptych Copper Frame Pascal Kern
Large French Conceptual Sculpture Photograph Triptych Copper Frame Pascal Kern

Large French Conceptual Sculpture Photograph Triptych Copper Frame Pascal Kern

Located in Surfside, FL

Pascal Kern (1952-2007) Icone (three panel triptych), 1987 Cibachrome print, inn copper handmade frame. (One is empty of photo on purpose.) Bearing artist label and inscriptions (frame verso) 48 x 48 inches. (each) Provenance: the Ginny L Williams...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Copper

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls 2018, Digital Print, Plastic
Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls 2018, Digital Print, Plastic

Jo Yarrington, Ghost Girls 2018, Digital Print, Plastic

By Jo Yarrington

Located in Darien, CT

This series of six transparencies are in an edition size of 3. They are designed to be installed directly onto interior window areas to allow light to pass thru them. These transparencies can also be purchased separately for $3200 each and are an edition size of 3. Dimensions are 72 x 48 inches each. The upper transoms are window transparencies in shades of green. They are also available and can be fit to meet specific window sizes. In this window setting, they are 45 x 45 inches and can be purchased as a set of 5 panels for $3500 for that group. 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 Art

Materials

Plastic, Digital

Reinhard Görner 'Biblioteca del Senado, Madrid, Spain' (Library, Madrid)

Reinhard Görner 'Biblioteca del Senado, Madrid, Spain' (Library, Madrid)

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Reinhard Görner Biblioteca del Senado, Madrid 2017 59 x 50 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 71 x 60 inches ed. of 7 $9,000 83 x 70 inches ed. of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Paper is trimmed to the image: actual image size listed Internal Keywords: Reinhard Görner, Library series, Madrid, Spain, Large-Scale Photography, Large-scale German photography, Spanish Libraries, Spanish Monuments, Library Photography...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda, C Print

Harmony and Freedom - 21st Century Contemporary, Figurative, Portrait, Modern
Harmony and Freedom - 21st Century Contemporary, Figurative, Portrait, Modern

Harmony and Freedom - 21st Century Contemporary, Figurative, Portrait, Modern

By Michael Adetula

Located in Ibadan, Oyo

Harmony and Freedom captures the peaceful and reflective mood of the artwork, highlighting the tranquility of the water, which signifies the moment of calm and self-recovery through ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Archival Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Unbridled Joy of Festivity - 21st Century Contemporary, Christmas Holiday, Child
Unbridled Joy of Festivity - 21st Century Contemporary, Christmas Holiday, Child

Unbridled Joy of Festivity - 21st Century Contemporary, Christmas Holiday, Child

By Michael Adetula

Located in Ibadan, Oyo

Festivity happiness, is the unbridled joy that both young and old experience during Christmas, most especially small children there experience during Christmas, and the way the holid...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Archival Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic

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.