In 1917, Duchamp established “Found Art” with his “Readymade” A urinal that he signed, and titled “Fountain.”

Conceptual Art

Welcome to the modern art/contemporary art movement of Conceptual Art. This article is written to try and help you get an idea of how the modern art/contemporary art movement of Conceptual Art began and to outline what it was about. Conceptual Art was just one of the modern art movements to dominate the 20th centaury. From reading these articles you will be able to see how one contemporary art movement effected another contemporary art movement. You will be able to see how certain modern art movements were particularly influential in the creation and inspiration of another contemporary art/modern art movement. We have seen De Stijl, Expressionism, Fauvism, Futurism, Impressionism, minimalist, Op Art, Pop Art, Post impressionism, Surrealism and other Abstract art movements. Now it is time to look at the modern art/contemporary art movement of Conceptual Art. Please enjoy the article:

Conceptual art style painting

Conceptual art was all about free thinking. The belief was that the power of art is behind the thinking notnecessarily the finished article. This evolved into a way of thinking that emphasized the free thinking of artand to look everywhere and anywhere for ideas. In conceptual art, any idea is a good idea.

Conceptual Art became a major modern art/contemporary art movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

Marcel Duchamp championed this way of artistic thinking way back in 1910. He was a great believer inunderstanding that art was about free and creative artistic thought and that the necessary motor skills thatare needed to connect the brain to the hand and then to the paint brush are not needed in order to createmaster pieces. This idealism lead to creating master pieces that may not look pretty or experience goodtechnical work but have a quality and creative thought process, meaning and philosophy behind the finishedarticle that creates the masterpiece through idea and theory as opposed to visual splendor.

A great example of early conceptual art that conveys the ideas outlined above is Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain'.The idea that art could take any form shocked the art world and created divisions of highly insulted artspectators and highly inspired spectators and artists.

The term 'Conceptual art' wasn't coined until the 1950s. The term 'conceptual art' was first used by

EdwardKienholz.

An example of conceptual art from the height of the modern art movement is Joseph Kosuth's 'One and ThreeChairs' (1965). The exhibit includes a picture of a chair, an enlarged dictionary definition of the word 'chair' anda real chair. The picture of the chair is the same size as the real chair. The concept behind the exhibit is therelationship between language, picture and referent.

Conceptual Art was one of the largest and quickly undertaken movements in the 20th century. Great numbersof exhibits exist as a consequence of the conceptual art movement.

Other conceptual artists that deserve recognition are Robert Barry, Joseph Kosuth, Chris Burden, Mel Bochner,Vito Acconci.

Below are the artists that invented and pioneered Conceptual Art. Please click on their names to find out information about each artist:

To find out about the other major pioneering artists that contributed to the Conceptual art movement please research below:

Billy AppleMichael AsherJohn BaldessariVanessa BeecroftJoseph BeuysMel BochnerMarcel BroodthaersMarcel DuchampTracey EminYves KleinConceptual Art MovementModern Art Movements Homepage