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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
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

Viola d'Amour, Signed Pop Art Screenprint by Arman
Viola d'Amour, Signed Pop Art Screenprint by Arman

Viola d'Amour, Signed Pop Art Screenprint by Arman

By Arman

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Arman Title: Viola d'Amour Year: 1978 Medium: Silkscreen on Arches, Signed and Numbered in Pencil Edition: 150, AP 30 Paper Size: 30 in. x 22 in. (76.2 cm x 55.88 cm) Printer...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, Signed Conceptual Art
Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, Signed Conceptual Art

Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, Signed Conceptual Art

By Brenda Zlamany

Located in Surfside, FL

This is a proof print. signed and marked bat (for bon a tirer or good to print) This is a single print from 1998 Birds. Suite of eight Cibachromes. Edition of fifteen. 10″ × 10″ (sheet size). Muse [X] Editions. Taxidermy Bird. Brenda Zlamany has shown widely in the United States and Europe. Her work has been reproduced in The New York Times Magazine, Artforum, Flashart, Art in America, Art and Antiques, and The New Yorker. She was born in New York City in 1959. 1976 - 77 Yale College Before College Program, New Haven, Conn. 1981 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. (BA) Stanley William Hayter s Atelier 17, Paris. Tyler School of Art, Rome. 1984 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine. Select Museums: Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; the National Museum, Gdansk; Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent. Select Collections: Cincinnati Art Museum; Deutsche Bank; the Museum of Modern Art, Houston; the Neuberger Museum of Art; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art; the World Bank; the Yale University Art Gallery. Select Commissions the World Bank, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center the New York Times Magazine (Marian Anderson for an article by Jessye Norman, Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2005, cover, Jeffrey Dahmer) Select Grants and Awards: Fulbright Fellowship (2011), Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2006–07), New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship in Painting (1994). MacDowell Colony (1995, 1992, 1986) Yaddo (1997). For many years, Brenda Zlamany has painted portraits of other artists, including Chuck Close, Alex Katz, and David Hockney. She has also been a subject for them; as she puts it, “we are professional posers.” Recently, however, she has worked to paint portraits of those whose gaze is more internal—monks and nomads in Tibet, aboriginal people in Taiwan—creating large bodies of portraits that investigate the limits of the genre. She returned, with her daughter, to Hockney’s studio in 2014, not only to sit for him but to paint him once again. Her practice involves the long sittings and intense looking required of traditional portrait-making. Muse X Editions. An (now defunct) LA based innovative publisher of limited-edition prints, Muse X has launched its first group of prints and is just beginning to make itself known to artists, curators, dealers and collectors. Among works just off the press are otherworldly landscapes by Barbara Kasten and Oliver Wasow, a sizzling sunset by Peter Alexander, abstract compositions by Pauline Stella Sanchez and Jennifer Steinkamp...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

C Print

Reggae Curve, Painted Hanging Sculpture by Kevin Cole
Reggae Curve, Painted Hanging Sculpture by Kevin Cole

Reggae Curve, Painted Hanging Sculpture by Kevin Cole

By Kevin Cole

Located in Long Island City, NY

This hanging sculpture by the American artist Kevin Cole, is a modern conceptual work. It is constructed of painted rubber and wood. Cole was quoted, "Throughout all of my work, I ...

Category

20th Century Conceptual Art

Materials

Rubber, Wood, Paint

Experiencing Anxiety (Abstract Photography)
Experiencing Anxiety (Abstract Photography)

Experiencing Anxiety (Abstract Photography)

By Gianfranco Pezzot

Located in London, GB

Experiencing Anxiety (Abstract Photography) Archival Pigment Print on Ilford Smooth Pearl paper. Unframed. Edition 6 + 2 AP - Edition 2/6 This new series titled Neurosis brings t...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment, Paper

White Horse from Wessex, Conceptual Etching by Joe Tilson
White Horse from Wessex, Conceptual Etching by Joe Tilson

White Horse from Wessex, Conceptual Etching by Joe Tilson

By Joe Tilson

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Joe Tilson, British (1928 - ) Title: White Horse from Wessex Portfolio Year: 1977 Medium: Etching, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: I/XXV Size: 19.5 x 13.75 in. (49.53 ...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Etching

Eleusis Proscinemi, Abstract Aquatint Etching by Joe Tilson
Eleusis Proscinemi, Abstract Aquatint Etching by Joe Tilson

Eleusis Proscinemi, Abstract Aquatint Etching by Joe Tilson

By Joe Tilson

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Joe Tilson, British (1928 - ) Title: Eleusis Proscinemi Year: 1980 Medium: Etching with Aquatint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: AP 4/20 Size: 31.5 x 22.5 in. (80.01 ...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

ABS, Etching, Aquatint

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

Faces, Vintage Color Photograph Digital Photo Collage Print Asian American
Faces, Vintage Color Photograph Digital Photo Collage Print Asian American

Faces, Vintage Color Photograph Digital Photo Collage Print Asian American

By Emily Cheng

Located in Surfside, FL

This was from Muse X publishers. It came in a plastic bag signed Emily Cheng. (the plastic bag is not included) It is on Fuji crystal photo paper. It depicts two Asian faces in a cubist, fractured way, with a woman (or man) holding a photograph over his/her face. It is a proof print and is not signed or numbered. Emily Cheng (born in New York City, in 1953) is an American artist of Chinese ancestry. She is best known for large scale painting with a center focus often employing expansive circular images radiantly colored, radially composed. Cheng received her BFA in 1975 from the Rhode Island School of Design and attended the New York Studio School. Cheng has exhibited widely in the US and in Asia. In 2011, Cheng created Charting Sacred Territories, an exhibition exploring world religions which opened in the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MOCA) , Taiwan (2011) and traveled to Hanart TZ Gallery in (2015), Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, (2015) and in Europe at the Palais Liechtenstein Feldkirch, Austria (2019). Cheng has had numerous solo shows in the US and in Asia and is represented by Hanart TZ Gallery in Hong Kong. In 2007, Timezone 8 published a monograph of Emily Cheng titled, Chasing Clouds, a decade of studies, with essays by Kevin Powers and Johnson Chang. Emily Cheng has lived and worked in New York City since 1977 and teaches Asian Art History at the School of Visual Arts. Influenced by a wide array of eastern and western artists including Van Gogh, Gauguin, Manet and Giacometti as well as de Kooning, early Philip Guston and Jackson Pollock. Nicolas Carone and Leland Bell were both among her teachers as well as Elaine de Kooning. Selected solo exhibitions Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, (2015) Hanart T.Z. Gallery, Hong Kong, Zane Bennett Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico, (2013) Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Taipei , Taiwan (2011) Louis Vuitton Maison, Kowloon, Hong Kong, (2010) Ayala Museum Makati, Philippines, (2006) Plum Blossom Gallery, New York, NY, (2004) Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO (2001) Metropolitan Museum of Manila , Philippines (1997) John Post Lee Gallery, New York, NY, Projects Room (1997) Contemporary Arts Center , Cincinnati, Ohio, 1994 David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, (1992) Lang & O'Hara Gallery, New York, NY, The Bronx Museum of the Arts , Bronx, NY, (1989) White Columns , New York, NY, (1985) Selected group exhibitions Art Basel Hong Kong , (Hanart Gallery) , Hong Kong, 2017 China Institute, New York, NY, 2014 Beijing Art Fair, Beijing, China, 2013 Museum of Chinese in America New York, NY, 2010 Kidspace, MASS MoCA , Williamstown, MA, 2010, 2005 Museum of Contemporary Art , Shanghai, China, 2009 Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong, China, 2009 Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2008 Contrast Gallery, Shanghai and Beijing, China, 2008 University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum , Tampa, Florida, 2006 Hong Kong Arts Centre , Hong Kong, 2004 American Academy of Art , New York, New York, 2004 Longmarch Project, Beijing, China, 2002 Sotheby’s , New York, NY, 2001 Newhouse Center, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY, 2000 Katonah Museum of Art , Katonah, NY, 2000 National Academy and Museum, NY, 2000 Municipal Museum of Gyor, Hungary, 1999 New Museum of Contemporary Art , New York, NY, 1998 De Cordova Museum and the Computer Museum , Boston, MA, 1994 International Graphic Biennial, Muveszeti Museum, Hungary, 1995 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts , San Francisco, CA, 1994 Drawing Center, NY; traveled to Corcoran, Washington D.C., Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica CA; The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis MO; American Center, Paris, France, Cone Editions Gallery, New York 1990 Anina Nosei Gallery, New York, 1988 Greenville County Museum of Art , South Carolina, 1988 North Carolina Museum of Art , Hallwalls , Buffalo, NY, 1988 Grace Borgenicht Gallery , New York, 1986 Tibor de Nagy, New York, 1985 Asian American...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print

Contemporary American Painting Mandala Salt Pastel Female Artist Jody Hanson
Contemporary American Painting Mandala Salt Pastel Female Artist Jody Hanson

Contemporary American Painting Mandala Salt Pastel Female Artist Jody Hanson

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original salt on paper work by contemporary conceptual artist Jody Hanson. This piece is "Clutch", 2019, Copper sulfate and Potassium ferricyanide on paper. Artwork size 20” x ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Copper

Don't drown (The Contemporary World)-collage, acrylic on canvas
Don't drown (The Contemporary World)-collage, acrylic on canvas

Don't drown (The Contemporary World)-collage, acrylic on canvas

By Lena Cher

Located in Fort Lee, NJ

The war, cruelty, racism, political games, the age of gluttony in consumption, making money and of course the race for youth and beauty, when it’s hard to find out who you are and wh...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Epoxy Resin, Acrylic

Counting the energy of the shoe
Counting the energy of the shoe

Counting the energy of the shoe

By Timofey Smirnov

Located in Fort Lee, NJ

The facsimile print made on a paper with size of 100x70cm (39.3x27.5 in). The dominant colors are black and white with a greyish gamma. Describing the work of Timofey Smirnov we can say that you will find here, a fragment of the Fragonard's "Swing" who were a student of famous Boucher and an old electric meter...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Paper, Pencil, Carbon Pencil, Carbon Pigment

Book: Selected Works 1967-90 And the Mind Grew Fingers (PLUS handwritten letter)
Book: Selected Works 1967-90 And the Mind Grew Fingers (PLUS handwritten letter)

Book: Selected Works 1967-90 And the Mind Grew Fingers (PLUS handwritten letter)

By Dennis Oppenheim

Located in New York, NY

Dennis Oppenheim Dennis Oppenheim: Selected Works 1967-90 : And the Mind Grew Fingers (with handwritten signed letter laid in separately), 1992 Softback book with separate hand signe...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Ink, Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset

Chef Portrait: Daniel Clifford /British Chef / Large Photograph in white + blue
Chef Portrait: Daniel Clifford /British Chef / Large Photograph in white + blue

Chef Portrait: Daniel Clifford /British Chef / Large Photograph in white + blue

By John Reardon

Located in London, GB

Daniel Clifford (born 6 August 1973) is an English chef who is best known for his work at the two Michelin star restaurant Midsummer House. He was also named one of the winners of th...

Category

Early 2000s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Archival Pigment

Botanical
Botanical

Botanical

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original contemporary mixed media work by conceptual artist Jody Hanson. Botanical, 2013, Potassium ferricyanide and salt on paper. artwork size 16” x 12”

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Archival Paper

Fingerprint
Fingerprint

Fingerprint

By Jozef Bajus

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original mixed media woven paper and staple wall sculpture by Jozef Bajus. This work can be acquired in a shadow box frame presentation for an additional $350.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

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

I loved demonstrating aerials, 2013

I loved demonstrating aerials, 2013

By Jennifer Greenburg

Located in Sante Fe, NM

Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

I've always preferred my own birthday, 2013

I've always preferred my own birthday, 2013

By Jennifer Greenburg

Located in Sante Fe, NM

Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

My Funeral, 2013

My Funeral, 2013

By Jennifer Greenburg

Located in Sante Fe, NM

Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

When he was a baby, 2011

When he was a baby, 2011

By Jennifer Greenburg

Located in Sante Fe, NM

Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

His first haircut, 2011

His first haircut, 2011

By Jennifer Greenburg

Located in Sante Fe, NM

Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Feather
Feather

Feather

By Allison Frey

Located in Buffalo, NY

A functional sculpture (Bench and Planter) created with black walnut, bent italian maple and black walnut veneer. This work was part of a recent pop up exhibition The Dreamer Who Dr...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Wood

A Naturalist Cyanotype on Cotton Sateen, "Polyphony"
A Naturalist Cyanotype on Cotton Sateen, "Polyphony"

A Naturalist Cyanotype on Cotton Sateen, "Polyphony"

By Annalise Neil

Located in San Diego, CA

A 24" x 30" Naturalist Cyanotype on Cotton Sateen mounted on Wood Panel. A certificate of authenticity will be provided upon its purchase or delivery. Neil’s cyanotype and watercolo...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Paper

Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, NFS Sample Conceptual Taxidermy Art
Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, NFS Sample Conceptual Taxidermy Art

Birds, Cibachrome Photograph Print, NFS Sample Conceptual Taxidermy Art

By Brenda Zlamany

Located in Surfside, FL

This is a proof print. Stamped with the Muse X stamp and marked NFS. This is a single print from 1998 Birds. Suite of eight Cibachromes. Edition of fifteen. 10″ × 10″ (sheet size). Muse [X] Editions. Taxidermy Bird. Brenda Zlamany has shown widely in the United States and Europe. Her work has been reproduced in The New York Times Magazine, Artforum, Flashart, Art in America, Art and Antiques, and The New Yorker. She was born in New York City in 1959. 1976 - 77 Yale College Before College Program, New Haven, Conn. 1981 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. (BA) Stanley William Hayter s Atelier 17, Paris. Tyler School of Art, Rome. 1984 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine. Select Museums: Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; the National Museum, Gdansk; Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent. Select Collections: Cincinnati Art Museum; Deutsche Bank; the Museum of Modern Art, Houston; the Neuberger Museum of Art; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art; the World Bank; the Yale University Art Gallery. Select Commissions the World Bank, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center the New York Times Magazine (Marian Anderson for an article by Jessye Norman, Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2005, cover, Jeffrey Dahmer) Select Grants and Awards: Fulbright Fellowship (2011), Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2006–07), New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship in Painting (1994). MacDowell Colony (1995, 1992, 1986) Yaddo (1997). For many years, Brenda Zlamany has painted portraits of other artists, including Chuck Close, Alex Katz, and David Hockney. She has also been a subject for them; as she puts it, “we are professional posers.” Recently, however, she has worked to paint portraits of those whose gaze is more internal—monks and nomads in Tibet, aboriginal people in Taiwan—creating large bodies of portraits that investigate the limits of the genre. She returned, with her daughter, to Hockney’s studio in 2014, not only to sit for him but to paint him once again. Her practice involves the long sittings and intense looking required of traditional portrait-making. Muse X Editions. An (now defunct) LA based innovative publisher of limited-edition prints, Muse X has launched its first group of prints and is just beginning to make itself known to artists, curators, dealers and collectors. Among works just off the press are otherworldly landscapes by Barbara Kasten and Oliver Wasow...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

C Print

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.