Conceptual Art
This category overlaps some others but is generally easy to spot. For our present purposes we will exhibit examples,
Look at the photo from the 1980s of an illuminated sign,proclaiming a saying by Jenny Holzer ‒ protect me from what I want. Her sayings of that nature became known as truisms. They are examples of word art.
Another work using words, from 1929 by the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte is composed of a text message ‒ this is not a pipe ‒ together with his painting of a pipe. That is one of a class of works called self referential.
Another early conceptual work is famous for challenging the idea of what constitutes art. The French artist Marcel Duchamp acquired a commercial urinal in 1917, named it Fountain, and put it into an art show. It was received poorly at the time, but now Duchamp’s urinal is considered groundbreaking. It led to the concept of ready-mades which are found or appropriated items that may be manipulated slightly or not at all and then exhibited as art. The high handed idea here is that if an artist calls it art then it is art.
Constructive Conceptual Art
A quite different branch of conceptual art involves much meticulous work. The American artist Sol LeWitt is the foremost exemplar of this art of construction according to plan. Here is a quote from Le Witt. “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”
LeWitt had assistants who produced the art, not necessarily paid by him but usually by some patron or institution. The wall drawing shown, actually done with ink washes, was constructed according to his detailed plans. In this case the plan is simple, make stripes in four major directions ‒ vertical, horizontal, sloping up, and sloping down. LeWitt called these works wall drawings because they are made directly on a wall, even though the application can involve a type of ink painting rather than true drawing.
LeWitt’s position about who does the physical work is very much like that of an architect or a composer. The architect designs, but others build the building. The composer writes the score but musicians perform the music.