Conceptual art: its purpose is to convey the idea of the artist

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Conceptual art is a modernist form of artistic expression in which specific concepts or ideas (usually personal (occurring in the mind of the artist) and complex) take the form of abstract, irrelevant images based on the denial of aesthetic principles. According to the definition of the pioneer of this direction, the American artist Saul Le Witt, in conceptualism the idea or concept (concept) is the most important aspect of the work. This means that the decision is made in advance, and its implementation is just a formality. An idea becomes a mechanism.

Generally speaking, conceptual art is a combination of different trends rather than a closely related movement. And it has many forms (including: installations, performances, happenings, ephemera). It originated in the first half of the twentieth century not as an artistic movement, but as a certain philosophy that calls into question the meaning of art itself. Dadaist Maurice Duchamp, who introduced a new artistic practice, argued that the idea of a work has morevalue than its physical representation. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, conceptual artists created works that completely rejected the traditional ideas of art: aesthetics, expressiveness, craftsmanship (including marketability).

However, it is important to understand that conceptual art developed in a succession of avant-garde movements (cubism, abstract expressionism, and the like) that succeeded in greatly expanding the boundaries of the concept of art itself. Conceptualists (in the strict sense) are the finalists of the avant-garde tradition. In truth, it doesn't matter if this extremely complex intellectual view fits the subjective idea of what art should be, as long as the fact remains. Some works of conceptual artists are perceived by museums, collectors, art dealers as masterpieces of world art.

By borrowing various techniques (such as minimalism), conceptual artists sought to rethink pop art forms that were not based on the theoretical foundations of art. Strongly influenced by the aforementioned minimalism (its simplicity), they, at the same time, categorically rejected its concepts, which were embodied in sculpture or painting, characteristic of perceptual or “felt” art (it is created primarily for visual perception). In relation to it, "conceptual" pursues completely different goals. The ancient art of Egypt, expressing ideas in a very subjective and highly symbolic way, can serve assome degree of association with him. The idea, according to artists, can take shape in any physical form. The relationship between the artist, who uses all available elements of expression, his work, and the viewer is absolutely transformed.

Conceptual art is not just a description of nature in all its diversity. The artist expresses his attitude to social, political, technological things and processes. In many cases, the viewer and the artist himself become an integral part of this art and its basic concepts. Starting as a movement among numerous art trends of the sixties, conceived to demonstrate the primacy of the artist's idea, today it is seen as a whole (as an aesthetic point of view of Conceptualism), having a great influence on modern ways of artistic expression.