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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
"Oasis 1", Conceptual Oil Painting on Canvas, Framed, 2010s, 26.5x88.5
"Oasis 1", Conceptual Oil Painting on Canvas, Framed, 2010s, 26.5x88.5

"Oasis 1", Conceptual Oil Painting on Canvas, Framed, 2010s, 26.5x88.5

By Perry Vàsquez

Located in San Diego, CA

This is a conceptual oil painting by local San Diego artist, Perry Vàsquez. Its dimensions are 26.5 x 88.5. It comes in a wooden neutral frame. This painting depicts a palm tree against a blue sky background. The palm tree is ornate with fine details from the artist in the leaves and the tree trunk. The artist has employed bright colors like green, brown, and blue. Vàsquez focuses primarily on his exploration of various iterations of palm trees. Ubiquitous in Southern California, and historically viewed as a provider of nourishment, shelter, and bounty, the trees in Vásquez’s paintings are instead framed in peculiar or dire scenarios. Many of the trees in his work are ablaze, or are actually cell towers...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Joseph Beuys, Order
Joseph Beuys, Order

Joseph Beuys, Order

By Joseph Beuys

Located in Hamburg, DE

Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986) Order, 1973 Medium: Order card, stamped Sheet dimensions: 15 x 10.5 cm Frame dimensions: 25.5 x 21.1 x 3 cm Edition of 120: Hand-signed and numbered ...

Category

20th Century Conceptual Art

Materials

Offset

"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

"Grow" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture
"Grow" - Contemporary Street Sign Sculpture

"Grow" - 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

Earth Series 2, Conceptual Lithograph by Alan Sonfist
Earth Series 2, Conceptual Lithograph by Alan Sonfist

Earth Series 2, Conceptual Lithograph by Alan Sonfist

By Alan Sonfist

Located in Long Island City, NY

Alan Sonfist, American (1946 - ) - Earth Series 2, Year: 1980, Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 300, Image Size: 24 x 18 inches, Size: 30 x 22 in. (7...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

Earth Series 3, Conceptual Lithograph by Alan Sonfist
Earth Series 3, Conceptual Lithograph by Alan Sonfist

Earth Series 3, Conceptual Lithograph by Alan Sonfist

By Alan Sonfist

Located in Long Island City, NY

Alan Sonfist, American (1946 - ) - Earth Series 3, Year: 1980, Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 300, Image Size: 24 x 18 inches, Size: 30 in. x 22 in....

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled IV, Conceptual Intaglio by Shlomo Koren
Untitled IV, Conceptual Intaglio by Shlomo Koren

Untitled IV, Conceptual Intaglio by Shlomo Koren

Located in Long Island City, NY

Shlomo Koren, German/Israeli (1932 - ) - Untitled IV, Year: 1970, Medium: Intaglio, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 15, Size: 26 x 20 in. (66.04 x 50.8 cm)

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Intaglio

Fins Ap
Fins Ap

Fins Ap

By Ap Verheggen

Located in Brecon, Powys

Title: Fins Ap Type: Laughing Wall Shark ​ Another wall creation from this much acclaimed Dutch artist. Epoxy, painted White Length 59", Height 1...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Acrylic Polymer

Tennis Balls, Conceptual Art Lithograph by Mati Klarwein

Tennis Balls, Conceptual Art Lithograph by Mati Klarwein

Located in Long Island City, NY

Mati Klarwein, German (1932 - 2002) - Tennis Balls, Year: 1978, Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: H.C. 23, Image Size: 23 x 23 inches, Size: 25 x 25 i...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

Move VI, Lithograph by Helene Guetary

Move VI, Lithograph by Helene Guetary

By Helene Guetary

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Helene Guetary, French/American (1957 - ) Title: Move VI Year: circa 1979 Medium: Lithograph on Arches, Signed and Numbered in Pencil Edition: 200 Size: 38 in. x 25.5 in. (96...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

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 Art

Materials

Wood, Plywood

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 Art

Materials

Steel

Crown Prince
Crown Prince

Crown Prince

By Deborah Oropallo

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist: Deborah Oropallo (1954-) Title: Crown Prince Medium: Etching and aquatint in colors Date: 1987 Printer: Teaberry Press (Timothy Berry, San Franci...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Embrace

Embrace

By James Mannix

Located in East Hampton, NY

Two Men in an Embrace Printed to order Gay content Inquire about various sizing Comes unframed. About the Artist: Short Biography in a Nutshell: A fun journey My first foray into...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Paper

Antique Fingerprint Mirror (Stand not included)

Antique Fingerprint Mirror (Stand not included)

By Valerie Huhn

Located in New York, NY

“When I was sixteen I was in a serious car accident that left me with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). As a result, I spent years in psychiatric hospitals before the condition was par...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Ink, Mixed Media

Flora and Fauna Silkscreen
Flora and Fauna Silkscreen

Flora and Fauna Silkscreen

By Michail Grobman

Located in Surfside, FL

Shipping will be a bit longer as this piece is located in Israel Michail Grobman, Israeli, born in Soviet Union, 1939. Michail Grobman was born in Moscow. He grew up writing poetry...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Untitled 1.21" Still Life Photography 24' x 35' in Ed of 10 by García De Marina

"Untitled 1.21" Still Life Photography 24' x 35' in Ed of 10 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 1.21" Still Life Photography 24' x 35' in Ed 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 ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

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

Lambda, C Print

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 5, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol
Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 5, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 5, 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

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 Art

Materials

Glass, LED Light, Pigment

"Untitled 3.20" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

"Untitled 3.20" Photography 16' x 24' inch Edition of 15 by García De Marina

By García De Marina

Located in Culver City, CA

"Untitled 3.20" 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

Conceptual Collage, "In Search Of Enlightenment 1"
Conceptual Collage, "In Search Of Enlightenment 1"

Conceptual Collage, "In Search Of Enlightenment 1"

Located in San Diego, CA

This is a one of a kind original conceptual paper collage by Southern California artist, May-Ling Martinez. It is framed as pictured. Its dimensions are 20"x27.5". A certificate of a...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Paper

Linda Cunningham, 'Edge of Change III', 2015, Pastel, Acrylic Paint
Linda Cunningham, 'Edge of Change III', 2015, Pastel, Acrylic Paint

Linda Cunningham, 'Edge of Change III', 2015, Pastel, Acrylic Paint

By Linda Cunningham

Located in Darien, CT

Unexpected materials, found and manufactured, perch precariously on torn edges and bifurcated sheets of large paper. Here, fluid calligraphic lines are posed against the veracity of ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Pastel, Acrylic, Wood, Charcoal, Cotton Canvas, Found Objects

Giving Last Respect 2 - 21st Century Contemporary, Celebration of Life and Death
Giving Last Respect 2 - 21st Century Contemporary, Celebration of Life and Death

Giving Last Respect 2 - 21st Century Contemporary, Celebration of Life and Death

Located in Ibadan, Oyo

The celebration of life and death in Yoruba land is deeply connected to the use of Aso Oke, a traditional and cultural wear of the Yorubas. The ones used in Ondo to celebrate the liv...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Charcoal, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Remarkable Day 1 -21st Century Contemporary, Figurative, Couple Marriage Culture
Remarkable Day 1 -21st Century Contemporary, Figurative, Couple Marriage Culture

Remarkable Day 1 -21st Century Contemporary, Figurative, Couple Marriage Culture

Located in Ibadan, Oyo

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Mic...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Charcoal, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Flora 33, 2015 - Maple Helicopter Seeds Photography

Flora 33, 2015 - Maple Helicopter Seeds Photography

Located in Brighton, GB

Flora 33, 2015 - Maple Helicopter Seeds Photography by Marisa Culatto Flora 33 is a Giclée print on Ultra Bright Hahnemuehle paper, available in this size only from a Limited Editi...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, Color, Giclée

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.