Conceptual art

What is conceptual art?

Conceptual art is a movement that puts the emphasis on the idea (the concept) of the work, while its physical form is secondary. Artists hold that the idea itself is the artwork, and so a tangible object need not come into being at all. A work can therefore be a text on a wall, a performance, instructions in an envelope, or simply a written-down thought. Does it sound like philosophy? To a degree it does, and that is precisely why conceptual art is still so provocative.

When and how did conceptual art come about?

Conceptual art established itself as a significant movement in the 1960s, as a response to the commercialisation of art. Artists rejected the notion that a work must be an object that can be hung on a wall and sold. Its roots reach deeper, though, to Marcel Duchamp and his ready-made (an ordinary object raised to art by the artist's gesture alone), which is also the subject of the Art Part Club lecture Turning Points: The Ready-made.

Who are the most important conceptual artists?

Key figures include Joseph Kosuth, author of the celebrated work One and Three Chairs, which places side by side an actual wooden chair, a photograph of it and the dictionary definition of the word chair. Sol LeWitt also played a significant role, working with instructions as the work itself — meaning the work could be executed by someone else following his directions. With these artists you can see beautifully how attention shifts from the result to the idea.

How does conceptual art stand in the Czech context?

In Czechoslovakia, conceptual art established itself as early as the 1960s, both as a critique of traditional aesthetics and as a quiet response to political restrictions and the impossibility of exhibiting freely. Artists such as Jiří Kovanda and Karel Miler worked with unobtrusive gestures and their documentation, often directly in public space or in nature. Unlike American rationality, Czech conceptualism was more intimate and everyday, and perhaps for that very reason it is now highly valued by international institutions, where these works often end up.

What is actually being sold when the work is not an object?

That is probably the most common question collectors ask: if an idea has no material form, what am I actually buying? As a rule what is sold is a photograph, a video or a certificate of authenticity, and the value of the work therefore depends heavily on provenance (documented ownership history) and documentation. Without them a conceptual work can be practically unsellable, so papers and records are not a formality here but the very core of the work.

— Anna Pulkertová, founder of Art Part Club