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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
Red Staircase, Lello Bookshop, Portugal

Red Staircase, Lello Bookshop, Portugal

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

50 x 52 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 60 x 62.4 inches ed. of 7 $9,000 70 x 72.8 inches ed. of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format phot...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Bapst Library, Boston
Bapst Library, Boston

Bapst Library, Boston

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Bapst Library Boston 50 x 62.4 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 60 x 74.9 inches ed. of 7 $9,000 70 x 87.4 inches ed. of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Paper is trimmed to...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

C Print, Lambda

Rose Main Reading Room (New York Public Library)
Rose Main Reading Room (New York Public Library)

Rose Main Reading Room (New York Public Library)

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Rose Main Reading Room, 2014 Public Library New York 70 x 88.9 inches Ed. of 5 $11,000 60 x 76.2 inches Ed. of 7 $9,000 50 x 63.5 Ed. of 10 $6,000 signed and numbered on label, v...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Still Life Conceptual Scene, Playful Seafood in Vivid Color, Blue, Yellow , Pink
Still Life Conceptual Scene, Playful Seafood in Vivid Color, Blue, Yellow , Pink

Still Life Conceptual Scene, Playful Seafood in Vivid Color, Blue, Yellow , Pink

By Ryan Rivadeneyra

Located in Barcelona, ES

"Sexy Miami Futuristic Cocktail Lounge" is a series of photographs by Ryan Rivadeneyra inspired by the Art Deco colors of Miami that show beautiful objects and textures arranged meti...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Film, C Print, Giclée, Archival Pigment

Reinhard Görner, Sainte Geneviève II Library, Paris

Reinhard Görner, Sainte Geneviève II Library, Paris

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Reinhard Görner Sainte Geneviève II Library Paris, France 62.5" x 50" Edition of 10 $6,000 75" x 60" Edition of 7 $9,000 87.5" x 70" Edition of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the monumentality of historical architecture, gardens, and masterpieces. An active architecture photographer since 1985, is a master of perspectives and precise spatial compositions, and he thus considers classical sculpture, in all of its possible facets, a special challenge. "Görner’s photographs sometimes open the doors to another world and take the viewer with them on a journey through time. Here the palace is no longer a museum but both royal residence and a site steeped in history. The viewer does not have to share the halls with the masses of visitors; instead the images offer him exclusive impressions of the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) and the Galerie des Batailles (Hall of Battles) as even the king of France was probably never granted. The halls are empty of people, yet they seem to be able to unfurl their individual characters of their own accord. These places practically breathe history, and this aspect is also part of the essence captured in the photographs. King Wilhelm of Prussia was named German Emperor Wilhelm...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Pine Cut Down B, by Alan Turner
Pine Cut Down B, by Alan Turner

Pine Cut Down B, by Alan Turner

By Alan Turner

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Alan Turner Title: Pine Cut Down B Year: 1981 Medium: Lithograph, Signed and Numbered in Pencil Edition: 40 Paper Size: 22 x 17 inches [55.88 x 43.18...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

Virtue, Bode–Museum, Berlin
Virtue, Bode–Museum, Berlin

Virtue, Bode–Museum, Berlin

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Virtue, Bode–Museum, Berlin 50 x 62.5 inches ed. of 10 $6000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the monumentality ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

The Blue Books, Upper Library, Oxford, German Interior Architecture Photograph
The Blue Books, Upper Library, Oxford, German Interior Architecture Photograph

The Blue Books, Upper Library, Oxford, German Interior Architecture Photograph

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

An exquisite meditation on knowledge and architectural splendor, Reinhard Görner’s The Blue Books invites the viewer into the hallowed halls of Oxford’s Upper Library. The interplay ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

C Print, Lambda

Basilica, Bode Museum

Basilica, Bode Museum

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

Lambda

Sound in Grey

Sound in Grey

By Robert Petrick

Located in Los Angeles, CA

"Sound in Grey" Graffiti & Line series 2017 acrylic on canvas 60X44" Signed, dated and titled on the reverse side. Robert Petrick's paintings create a link between the street cul...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Acrylic

Arches, Bode Museum, Berlin

Arches, Bode Museum, Berlin

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Arches, Bode Museum, Berlin 40 x 50 inches ed. of 10 $5,000 50 x 62.5 inches ed. of 5 $6,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photograp...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Colored Columns III: Neue Museum, Berlin

Colored Columns III: Neue Museum, Berlin

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

New Museum, Berlin 3 sizes 62.5 x 50 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 75 x 60 inches ed. of 5 $9,000 87.5 x 70 inches ed. of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso An active arch...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Uris Library, Ithaca, Cornell University, Large Scale Architectural Photograph
Uris Library, Ithaca, Cornell University, Large Scale Architectural Photograph

Uris Library, Ithaca, Cornell University, Large Scale Architectural Photograph

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

A mesmerizing portrait of architectural elegance and intellectual grandeur, Reinhard Görner’s Uris Library, Ithaca immerses viewers in the ornate beauty of Cornell University’s iconi...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

C Print, Lambda

Original Pompe Caruelle - water pump, vintage French antique poster
Original Pompe Caruelle - water pump, vintage French antique poster

Original Pompe Caruelle - water pump, vintage French antique poster

Located in Spokane, WA

Original linen-backed fun vintage poster "POMPE CARUELLE" full lithograph from 1924. Printed by Gaillard, Paris, France. Linen baked in very fine condition, A-.. Ready to Frame. The image features a boy showing how easy the new Pomjpe Caruelle is to use, able to work it with just one hand. Above him are featured an American Indian, a Chinese man, a Man in a green hat, and an African with large earrings and a nose ring...

Category

1920s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

Orange and Grey Concerto, Pop Art Serigraph by Arman
Orange and Grey Concerto, Pop Art Serigraph by Arman

Orange and Grey Concerto, Pop Art Serigraph by Arman

By Arman

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Arman, French (1929 - 2005) Title: Orange and Grey Concerto Year: 1979 Medium: Silkscreen on Arches, Signed and Numbered in Pencil Edition: 150, AP 30 Size: 30 in. x 22...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

Unknown Person, Surrealist Etching from Brodsky and Utkin: Projects 1981 - 1990
Unknown Person, Surrealist Etching from Brodsky and Utkin: Projects 1981 - 1990

Unknown Person, Surrealist Etching from Brodsky and Utkin: Projects 1981 - 1990

By Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, Russian (1955 - ) Title: Unknown Person from Brodsky and Utkin: Projects 1981 - 1990 Year: 1990 Medium: Etching on German Rag paper, signed ...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Etching

Acheter Dieu, 1961 - mixed media, 44x33 cm, framed
Acheter Dieu, 1961 - mixed media, 44x33 cm, framed

Acheter Dieu, 1961 - mixed media, 44x33 cm, framed

By Ben Vautier

Located in Nice, FR

Gouache and technic mixte on paper, signed in the text. Benjamin Vautier was born July 18, 1935 in Naples, Italy to a French family. He is the great-grandson of the Swiss painter Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier [fr] (1829-1898). He discovered Yves Klein and the Nouveau Réalisme in the 1950s, but he became quickly interested in the French dada artist Marcel Duchamp and the music of John Cage. In 1959, Vautier founded the journal Ben Dieu. In 1960, he had his first one-man show, Rien et tout in Laboratoire 32. Ben joined George Maciunas...

Category

1960s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Wooden Flowers, Biblioteca Joanina, Portugal

Wooden Flowers, Biblioteca Joanina, Portugal

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

40 x 60 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 50 x 75 inches ed. of 7 $9,000 60 x 90 inches ed. of 5 $11,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photogra...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Grand Opening, Lello Bookshop, Portugal
Grand Opening, Lello Bookshop, Portugal

Grand Opening, Lello Bookshop, Portugal

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

60 x 40 inches ed. of 10 75 x 50 inches ed. of 7 90 x 60 inches ed. of 5 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the m...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Prise De Possession Du Tout, 1960 - mixed media, 33x34 cm, framed
Prise De Possession Du Tout, 1960 - mixed media, 33x34 cm, framed

Prise De Possession Du Tout, 1960 - mixed media, 33x34 cm, framed

By Ben Vautier

Located in Nice, FR

Gouche and technic mixte on paper.signed in the text. Benjamin Vautier was born July 18, 1935 in Naples, Italy to a French family. He is the great-grandson of the Swiss painter Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier [fr] (1829-1898). He discovered Yves Klein and the Nouveau Réalisme in the 1950s, but he became quickly interested in the French dada artist Marcel Duchamp and the music of John Cage. In 1959, Vautier founded the journal Ben Dieu.[2] In 1960, he had his first one-man show, Rien et tout in Laboratoire 32. Ben joined George Maciunas...

Category

1960s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Parterre de Latone Fountain, Versailles

Parterre de Latone Fountain, Versailles

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

40 x 60 inches ed. of 10 $6,000 50 x 75 inches ed. of 5 $9,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the monumentalit...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Peristyle, Grand Trianon, Versailles

Peristyle, Grand Trianon, Versailles

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

40 x 80 inches ed. of 5 $8,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the monumentality of historical architecture, gar...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

Rotunda, Old National Gallery

Rotunda, Old National Gallery

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

40 x 50 inches ed. of 10 $4,600 50 x 62 inches ed. of 5 $7,200 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the monumentalit...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Orangerie, Parc de Versailles, France

Orangerie, Parc de Versailles, France

By Reinhard Görner

Located in Los Angeles, CA

40 x 60 inches ed. of 10 $5,000 50 x 75 inches ed. of 5 $8,000 signed and numbered on label, verso Reinhard Görner, with his large format photographs orchestrates the monumentalit...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Lambda

How to Grow an Onion, Conceptual Art Lithograph by Will Mentor
How to Grow an Onion, Conceptual Art Lithograph by Will Mentor

How to Grow an Onion, Conceptual Art Lithograph by Will Mentor

By Will Mentor

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Will Mentor, American (1958 - ) Title: How to Grow an Onion Year: 1997 Medium: Lithograph and Chine colle, Signed and numbered in Pencil Edition: 11/36 Paper Size: 36 x 28 in...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lithograph

Ken Aptekar Contemporary Conceptual Judaica Art Drawing Go Study Chasidic Rabbis
Ken Aptekar Contemporary Conceptual Judaica Art Drawing Go Study Chasidic Rabbis

Ken Aptekar Contemporary Conceptual Judaica Art Drawing Go Study Chasidic Rabbis

By Ken Aptekar

Located in Surfside, FL

Ken Aptekar American (b. 1950) Go Know (Study) 1996 Graphite, white pigment, transparency film, and staples on paper Hand signed lower right sheet: 18 x 18 inches frame dimensions: 21 x 21 x 1 3/4 inches, wood frame with acrylic glazing Ken Aptekar is an artist who combines painting with text. He paints new versions of historical paintings and frames, bolting glass with sandblasted words to his painted panels. Aptekar’s work belongs to the tradition of painting, yet he brings to that tradition a recognition that paintings produce meaning only through their interaction with viewers. He investigates the nature of spectatorship. By “recreating” works of art in a painterly but utilitarian manner, Aptekar promotes viewers’ own narratives prompted by the image-text combinations. Born in Detroit, Aptekar received his BFA at the University of Michigan, then moved to Brooklyn to complete an MFA at Pratt Institute. Most recently, his work was featured at the Jewish Museum in Vienna, Austria, and in the Biennale Internationale d’Autun, in Autun, France. A major commissioned solo exhibition, NACHBARN (“NEIGHBORS”), 2016, was on view at the St. Annen Museum in Lübeck, Germany, including paintings with text, silverpoint drawings, and video all based upon medieval altarpieces in the St. Annen Museum’s collection. Previously, his work has been seen in solo exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum in collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery (London), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), Memorial Art Gallery (Rochester, NY), Centro da Cultura Judaica (Sao Paolo, Brazil), Musée Robert Dubois-Corneau (Brunoy, France), the New Museum (New York, NY), Douglas Cooley Gallery at Reed College (Portland, OR), Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State (State College, PA), Cummer Museum (Jacksonville, FL), and the Elaine Jacob Gallery at Wayne State University (Detroit, MI). In 2012 Aptekar’s work was the subject of a survey exhibition, ​“Ken Aptekar: Look Again,” at the Beard and Weil Galleries, Wheaton College, Massachusetts. He was in the show Words & Music with John Giorno, Cheonae Kim...

Category

Late 20th Century Conceptual Art

Materials

Paper, Film, Graphite, Pigment

African American Large Vintage Color Photograph Dandy C Print Photo Ike Ude
African American Large Vintage Color Photograph Dandy C Print Photo Ike Ude

African American Large Vintage Color Photograph Dandy C Print Photo Ike Ude

By Iké Udé

Located in Surfside, FL

BEYOND DECORUM, CLOSED AND OPEN Series, I am selling each individually. they are pairs of open and closed jackets. I will include the second photo for reference. This listing is just for the closed jacket photograph. Vintage C-print on Fuji crystal archive paper. Image size is 40 x 30", sheet measures 50 X 36 Provenance: printed by Muse X, Los Angeles. I believe these were test, proof prints. They are not signed or editioned The work of Nigerian-born Iké Udé explores a world of dualities: photographer/performance artist, artist/spectator, African/post-nationalist, mainstream/marginal, individual/everyman and fashion/art. Iké Udé (born 1964) is a Nigerian-American photographer, performance artist, Ike Ude was born in 1964 in Lagos, Nigeria where he was raised. The eldest son of a wealthy family, he was exposed to photography and portraiture at an early age by dressing up for biweekly family portraits. Udé knew he was an artist by the age of six, when he developed a habit of firing a catapult at passers-by when he disapproved of their walk or the way they were dressed. As an adolescent, Udé attended the Government Secondary School, a British boarding school in Afikpo Nigeria. He was a habitué of London before he moved to New York in 1981 to study Media Communications at Hunter College, CUNY. He began his art career in the late 1980s with abstract painting and drawing. Since the 1990s, photography has been his primary medium. Udé is a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria. Udé's paintings and drawings are less well known than his photography, though critics and art historians have recognized his early work. The late Henry Geldzahler, said of Udé's paintings and works on paper: "I am touched and amazed at the ways in which he manages to blend invisibly the modernist tradition with his own Nigerian roots. There is never anything forced in the conjunction; air and light seem to be his media." Udé began his Cover Girls series in 1994. Each photograph imitates the cover of a popular fashion or lifestyle magazines, in which the artist himself is featured as the model. (ala the work of Cindy Sherman) The photographs were consciously stylized, posed, photographed and then paired with type matching that of the respected magazine. At first glance, each photograph appears to be an authentic magazine cover. Udé used the magazine cover as a stage to critique the fetishism of the upper class white model and the effects of popular culture on today's consumerist society. The series was exhibited in 1994 in the New York City gallery Exit Art. Udé's black and white series of photographs, Uli, references both high fashion and Uli body art, wall motifs from Udé's Igbo heritage. The photographs explore the anonymity of the inscribed and disembodied self. Udé's dynamic use of light, namely the chiaroscuro effect, serves as a critical compositional element in the series. Udé's Beyond Decorum series, begun in 1999, juxtaposes photographs of men's shirts and women's pumps with suggestive personal advertisements in place of the clothing tags. With its accompanying book, Beyond Decorum: Photographs by Iké Udé, the series traveled across the United States and Canada. The exhibition was shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine; OBORO in Montreal, Canada; Sert Gallery; Carpenter Center at the Harvard University Art Museum; and MAK Museum in Vienna, Austria before traveling for two more years internationally. Udé's Paris Hilton: Fantasy and Simulacrum is a conversation between his alter ego, Visconti, and the celebrity Paris...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print, Color

Untitled
Untitled

Untitled

By Jorge Castillo

Located in Barcelona, CT

the painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Engraving

IC1 - Et Dominus
IC1 - Et Dominus

IC1 - Et Dominus

Located in New York, NY

Et Dominus by Robert Perez Acrylic on wood 24x24 Conceptual Abstract, Mixed Media, Colors: Orange, Pink, Black, White, Green

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Plywood, Acrylic

Contemporary Bird Painting, "Passenger Pigeons Terrarium, Blue"
Contemporary Bird Painting, "Passenger Pigeons Terrarium, Blue"

Contemporary Bird Painting, "Passenger Pigeons Terrarium, Blue"

Located in San Diego, CA

This is a one of a kind conceptual animal painting. Its dimensions are 34.25x26.5x1. It comes in a white frame. A signed certificate of authenticity from the artist is provided after delivery. This painting depicts passenger pigeons...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Spray Paint, 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.