Here comes the concept: main features of conceptual art

Together with a groundbreaking approach of Marcel Duchamp, who twisted the conservative idea of art as of merely a source of visual appealing result of one's  craftsmanship, the avant garde scene of the 60-th came to recreation of the very essence of art. Actually, it looked like coming back to basics. In his "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", he stated that the physical form of an artwork does not mean anything without a concept behind it, and that every piece is born when it's concept is. We see the extreme edge of neglecting the physical aesthetics of art in sake of dominating concept. 

De-materialization of art had some important consequences. First, it gave the artists a new status, which moved even further from the image craftsman, towards the image of thinker. Second, it removed the price tag from the artworks, as art was existing only for conceptual purposes. Finally, since the visual side wasn't important anymore, the objects were mostly minimalist and ready-made. At some point artists like Baldessari  and Weiner started to use language as a means of realization for their ideas. 

For Conceptualists, the effective piece of art should be self-referencing and self-explaining. the dominance of concept should be preserved, no matteris there is an object or if there's not. They also saw exhibitions as the way to finish the artwork that was born as a concept of an artist and developed by being installed.

One and three chairs

Joseph Kosuch

1965

A well-known artwork by one of the developers of Conceptualism. It was one of his 'One and three' series. The artwork depict three variations of the word 'chair' : material, physical and verbal. The artist was very interested in exploring the correlations between linguistic and visual. Same as in this work he tries to bring understanding of how a simple array of words is immediately associated with a physical object and why does THIS word represent THIS object. It seems like Kosuch also wants to challenge the viewer to go deeper inside his perception and figure out what of the 'chairs' was his primary chair. 

UNEX Sign #1

Jenny Holzer

1983

Another conceptual artist who works extensively with words. Her works are from later period, when some simple technological solutions became available for artists. This work is made on a LED screen, like the one which typically used for written announcements in public places.  The board by Holzer was also transmitting messages. However the selection was quite unusual for this king of screen that people are used to see in malls and railway stations. The messages were of different character and varied in levels of acceptability. The artist also touched upon some social issues. The primary concept of the artwork was to convey some simple, more personal and emotional phrases, so that the viewer can change the perception of such basic object as LED screen 

Sources:

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-conceptual-art.htm

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-holzer-jenny.htm

https://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/joseph-kosuth/one-and-three-chairs.jpg

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