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 An art form made popular in the mid 1960s through the 1970s in which
the underlying concept and process are more important than any tangible
product or method of creating the 'product'. The theory is that
art exists for its own sake. Known also as Idea Art, it came to
widespread public awareness through the 1967 summer issue of
"Artforum", in an article by Sol LeWitt. However, artists Henry
Flint and Edward Kienholz had written earlier about Conceptual Art,
which was a reaction against the impersonality of Minimalism and the
commercialism of Pop Art. Described as a "document of the
artist's thinking", the word became an all-embracing term for art forms
that fit neither the description of painting nor sculpture and included
Performance Art, Video Art and Earth Art. Joseph Kosuth in a 1969
essay also wrote what has been described as a "founding text of
Conceptualism". (Princenthal). In that writing, he asserted that
philosophy was dead and was replaced by art based on thought and
material aspects that were disposable. Conceptual artists include
Kosuth, Marina Abramovic, Adrian Piper, John Baldessari, Mel Bochner,
James Lee Byars, Dan Graham, On Kawara, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim
and Richard Tuttle. Sources: Robert Atkins, "ArtSpeak"; Nancy
Princenthal, 'Reading Between the Lines', "Art in America", March 2005.
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