Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art?

Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art?

Author: Peter Goldie

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-10-16

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1135234868

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What is conceptual art? Is it really a kind of art in its own right? Is it clever – or too clever? Of all the different art forms it is perhaps conceptual art which at once fascinates and infuriates the most. In this much-needed book Peter Goldie and Elisabeth Schellekens demystify conceptual art using the sharp tools of philosophy. They explain how conceptual art is driven by ideas rather than the manipulation of paint and physical materials; how it challenges the very basis of what we can know about art, as well as our received ideas of beauty; and why conceptual art requires us to rethink concepts fundamental to art and aesthetics, such as artistic interpretation and appreciation. Including helpful illustrations of the work of celebrated conceptual artists from Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Kosuth and Piero Manzoni to Dan Perjovschi and Martin Creed, Who’s Afraid of Conceptual Art? is a superb starting point for anyone intrigued but perplexed by conceptual art - and by art in general. It will be particularly helpful to students of philosophy, art and visual studies seeking an introduction not only to conceptual art but fundamental topics in art and aesthetics.


Philosophy and Conceptual Art

Philosophy and Conceptual Art

Author: Peter Goldie

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 2007-03-22

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0191536547

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The fourteen prominent analytic philosophers writing here engage with the cluster of philosophical questions raised by conceptual art. They address four broad questions: What kind of art is conceptual art? What follows from the fact that conceptual art does not aim to have aesthetic value? What knowledge or understanding can we gain from conceptual art? How ought we to appreciate conceptual art? Conceptual art, broadly understood by the contributors as beginning with Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades and as continuing beyond the 1970s to include some of today's contemporary art, is grounded in the notion that the artist's 'idea' is central to art, and, contrary to tradition, that the material work is by no means essential to the art as such. To use the words of the conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, 'In conceptual art the idea of the concept is the most important aspect of the work . . . and the execution is a perfunctory affair'. Given this so-called 'dematerialization' of the art object, the emphasis on cognitive value, and the frequent appeal to philosophy by many conceptual artists, there are many questions that are raised by conceptual art that should be of interest to analytic philosophers. Why, then, has so little work been done in this area? This volume is most probably the first collection of papers by analytic Anglo-American philosophers tackling these concerns head-on. Contributors Margaret Boden, Diarmuid Costello, Gregory Currie, David Davies, Peter Goldie, Robert Hopkins, Matthew Kieran, Peter Lamarque, Dominic McIver Lopes, Derek Matravers, Elisabeth Schellekens, Kathleen Stock, Carolyn Wilde, and the 'Art & Language' group.


Conceptual Art

Conceptual Art

Author: Paul Wood

Publisher: Tate

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 88

ISBN-13:

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Conceptual Art has set out to undermine two concepts associated with art - the production of objects to look at, and the act of contemplative looking itself. This introduction explores the reasons why the new avant-garde chose to produce such work.


Systems We Have Loved

Systems We Have Loved

Author: Eve Meltzer

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-07-02

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 022600791X

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By the early 1960s, theorists like Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Foucault, and Barthes had created a world ruled by signifying structures and pictured through the grids of language, information, and systems. Artists soon followed, turning to language and its related forms to devise a new, conceptual approach to art making. Examining the ways in which artists shared the structuralist devotion to systems of many sorts, Systems We Have Loved shows that even as structuralism encouraged the advent of conceptual art, it also raised intractable problems that artists were forced to confront. Considering such notable art figures as Mary Kelly, Robert Morris, Robert Smithson, and Rosalind Krauss, Eve Meltzer argues that during this period the visual arts depicted and tested the far-reaching claims about subjectivity espoused by theorists. She offers a new way of framing two of the twentieth century’s most transformative movements—one artistic, one expansively theoretical—and she reveals their shared dream—or nightmare—of the world as a system of signs. By endorsing this view, Meltzer proposes, these artists drew attention to the fictions and limitations of this dream, even as they risked getting caught in the very systems they had adopted. The first book to describe art’s embrace of the world as an information system, Systems We Have Loved breathes new life into the study of conceptual art.


Conceptual Art

Conceptual Art

Author: Tony Godfrey

Publisher: Phaidon Press Limited

Published: 1998-11-06

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13:

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What is art? Must it be a unique, saleable luxury item? Can it be a concept that never takes material form? Or an idea for a work that can be repeated endlessly? Conceptual art favours an engagement with such questions. As the variety of illustrations in this book shows, it can take many forms: photographs, videos, posters, billboards, charts, plans and, especially, language itself. Tony Godfrey has written a clear, lively and informative account of this fascinating phenomenon. He traces the origins of Conceptual art to Marcel Duchamp and the anti-art gestures of Dada, and then establishes links to those artists who emerged in the 1960s and early 1970s, whose work forms the heart of this study: Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, Victor Burgin, Marcel Broodthaers and many others.


Conceptual Art

Conceptual Art

Author: Daniel Marzona

Publisher: Taschen America Llc

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 95

ISBN-13: 9783822829622

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Ideas, systems and processes - Includes discussion of pieces of work by various exponents of the movement.


Conceptual Art

Conceptual Art

Author: Ursula Meyer

Publisher: Plume Books

Published: 1972

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13:

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The function of the critic and the function of the artist have been traditionally divided; the artist's concern was the production of the work and the critic's was its evaluation and interpretation. During the past several years a group of young artists evolved the idiom of Conceptual Art, which eliminated this division. Conceptual artists take over the role of the critic in terms of framing their own propositions, ideas, and concepts. "An essential aspect of Conceptual Art is its self-reference; often the artists define the intentions of their work as part of their art. Thus, many Conceptual artists advance propositions or investigations. It is in keeping, then, with Conceptual Art that it is best explained through itself, i.e., through the examination of Conceptual Art, rather than through any assumptions outside of itself. In this sense, this book is not a 'critical anthology' by a documentation of Conceptual Art and Statements."


Conceptual Art

Conceptual Art

Author: Peter Osborne

Publisher: Phaidon Press

Published: 2011-03-23

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780714861128

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Conceptual art marks a major turning point in late twentieth-century art. An art of ideas - which can be written, published, performed, fabricated, or which can simply remain inside your head - it is also an art of questions. Since its emergence in the mid 1960s, it has challenged our precepts about not only art but society, politics and the media. An international movement, Conceptual art encompasses not only North America and Western Europe but also South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Japan. Its legacy is global, ranging from small local participatory projects to large-scale installations at major museums and biennales. This comprehensive volume combines in one book an authoritative Survey essay by philosopher and art historian Peter Osborne, tracing Conceptual art's origins in Europe, Japan and the USA, its development throughout the 1960s and 1970s and its legacy in contemporary art; a Works section documenting the key works, divided usefully into six distinctive types of Conceptual art; and a Documents section including texts by philosophers and writers who crucially influenced the movement, alongside key original texts by artists, critics and art historians.


Rewriting Conceptual Art

Rewriting Conceptual Art

Author: Michael Newman

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 1999-12

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781861890528

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"An international movement that developed along separate but parallel lines in Europe and America during the 1970s, Conceptual Art grew out of the legacy of Marcel Duchamp. Aiming to completely redefine the relationships between the production, definition and ownership of artworks and their various audiences, Conceptual artists rejected traditional formats, media and definitions. Instead they chose to address some of the key issues underlying modern life and art. Thse included the gulf between initial idea and finished work, the value assigned works of art in modern economies, the role of women and of feminine creativity in general, the politics of exhibition organization - in short, the ways art and the art world have been defined for centuries. Among the notable figures whose work is discussed in essays ranging from the evaluative to the theoretical are Judy Chicago, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Marcel Broodthaers and Mary Kelly. The influence of Conceptual Art continues to be felt today in the work of such controversial young artists as Rachel Whiteread and Damien Hirst." - back cover.