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Conceptual Paintings

CONCEPTUAL STYLE

In 1967, artist Sol LeWitt wrote that in “Conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work.” He was giving a name to an art movement that had emerged in the 1960s in which artists were less focused on their medium being something traditionally “artistic” and instead engaged in using any object, movement, form, action or place to express an idea.

LeWitt’s work was featured alongside an assemblage of notes, drawings and outlines by other artists in “Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to Be Viewed as Art,” a groundbreaking show at New York City’s School of Visual Arts curated by Mel Bochner, another leading exponent of Conceptualism. Building on radical 20th-century statements, like Fountain (1917) by French artist Marcel Duchamp, Conceptual artists around Europe and North and South America were not interested in the commercial art scene and rather directly challenged its systems and values.

Stretching into the 1970s, this movement has also been called Post-Object art and Dematerialized art. Conceptual art reflected a larger era of social and political upheaval. Pieces associated with the style range from Roelof Louw’s Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges) (1967) — a work of installation art that sees fresh oranges stacked into a pyramid from which visitors are allowed to take one orange away — to On Kawara’s “Today” series, which saw the Japanese artist carefully painting a date in white acrylic on canvases consisting of a single color from 1966 to his death in 2014. Artists such as Ed Ruscha, who created the Twentysix Gasoline Stations book — a collection of photos of gas stations that is widely said to be the first modern artists’ book — made photography a major platform for Conceptual art, as did Bruce Nauman, who burned one of Ruscha's books and then photographed it for his own.

Conceptual art’s legacy of questioning artistic authorship, ownership and how to work with complex ideas of space and time had a significant influence on the decades of culture that followed, and it continues to inform art today.

The collection of Conceptual photography, paintings and sculptures on 1stDibs includes artworks by John Baldessari, Jenny Holzer, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth and others.

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Style: Conceptual
Period: 1990s
Untitled
Located in Barcelona, ES
The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

A Foam Assembly #2
Located in New York, NY
A Foam Assembly #2 Acrylic and ink on paper 14 x 18 inches
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Ink, Acrylic

Turkish Medal
Located in Buffalo, NY
Beam recognizes that a successful work of art “must develop its own personality…It must empower, engage or provoke the public’s attention.” One exhibition in particular, titled Owavi...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Latex, Latex, Masonite, Wood

"Primavera" Landscape by Alvaro Peppoloni
Located in Pasadena, CA
Alvaro Peppoloni, is an Italian Postwar & Contemporary artist, born in 1951, who now finds his artistic sanctuary in Castel Ritaldi, an Italian commune nestled within the Perugia pro...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Oil

Subcontinent, Woven Newspaper Wall Hanging by Toshio Sekiji
Located in Wilton, CT
Materials: Red, green, black, natural lacquer, Hindi (Delhi) and Malayalam (Kerala State) newspapers. This artwork is framed in a maple wood shadowbox with Optium Museum plexiglass. Toshio Sekiji...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Oak, Textile, Plexiglass, Mixed Media, Found Objects, Paper, Lacquer, Ta...

Jennifer W. Reeves "Untitled" Abstract Iconic Striped Form
By Jennifer Wynne Reeves
Located in Detroit, MI
SALE ONE WEEK ONLY Jennifer's "Untitled" piece appears to be a landscape with a colorful stripped form arising out of the grasses. It is an iconic image that she incorporates into her work. The following excerpt from her Artist Statement best describes her feeling about it: I stopped the slug imagery and started making purely abstract paintings. Eventually, abstract lines and forms evolved into “characters.” They lived in landscapes of a realistic sort. They were abstractions on a representational journey. It occurred to me that they were the slugs. I thought they had gone but they hadn’t. It occurred to me that they were the slugs. I thought they had gone but they hadn’t. They were the slugs transformed. Evolved slugs and broken out from their cocoons. They had become abstract “butterflies.” Jennifer Wynne Reeves was known for creating a body of paintings, drawings and photographs that speak to and confront formalist and humanist dilemmas. Beyond her achievements in the art world, Reeves enjoyed a considerable fan-base as a result of her astonishing Facebook presence where she chronicled and interwove her art and diaristic prose. Reeves solo exhibitions included Art & Public in Geneva, Gian Enzo Sperone in Rome; Max Protetch, Ramis Barquet and BravinLee programs, NYC. Reeves was also celebrated for her writing. She produced a graphic novel, The Anyway Ember and Soul Bolt, a book of images and prose. “Profoundly rewarding works” said LA Times writer, David Pagel, in a review her 2015 exhibition at CB1 Gallery. Reeves is a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow recipient. The following is an artist’s statement about her theory off work: “Twenty years ago, I called them slugs. In the beginning, they were like long lumps without arms or legs. Powerless. Difficult. Paralyzed. I thought maybe they were the symbols of sloth or depression or fear. They didn’t do anything. I wondered if I should stop making them? They were not beautiful. Nobody liked them. Nobody wanted to look at them. They were repellent and, worse, they were funny. I hated that. I wanted to be a “serious” artist. I was conflicted. I had to make the images that came to me but I was embarrassed. Maybe it wasn’t a fancy path but painting slugs was more honest than painting flowers (nothing against flower paintings, mind you). It came down to a moral choice. So, I determined to follow the slug road. Maybe it was a road that led somewhere? Or maybe not. After several years, I thought I hit a dead-end. I stopped the slug imagery and started making purely abstract paintings. Eventually, abstract lines and forms evolved into “characters.” They lived in landscapes of a realistic sort. They were abstractions on a representational journey. It occurred to me that they were the slugs. I thought they had gone but they hadn’t. It occurred to me that they were the slugs. I thought they had gone but they hadn’t. They were the slugs transformed. Evolved slugs and broken out from their cocoons. They had become abstract “butterflies.” Little kids liked them. I hated that. I wanted to be a “serious” artist. I’m not sure, exactly, who they are. They could be our conscience, our psychology, or simply the part inside us that yearns. They could be artists, modernists or the first of “us” that crawled out of the ocean. My best hunch is they are whatever it is that makes us want to make. I hope that’s a good thing and beautiful and seriously funny. Whatever the case, I’d like to know what it’s all about.” Jennifer Reeves...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Wood

From the series “Creatio Continua I” Conceptual Oil and Marble Dust Painting
Located in Salzburg, AT
Krzysztof Gliszczyński is Professor for painting on Academy of fine arts Gdansk. Krzysztof Gliszczyński born in Miastko in 1962. Graduated from the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts in 1...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Marble

CMMM conceptual Minimialist painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Diti Almog (Israeli, b. 1960) CMMM, 1999; Acrylic on aircraft plywood; Signed, dated and titled; 12'' x 14''; Provenance: Baldwin Gallery, Colorado BIOGRAPHY Born Haifa, Israel 1982 – 1986 Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem, Israel Lives and works in New York Currently teaching at NYU, New York SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 Inga Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2009 Spacesurplus, New York 2008 Inga Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2007 Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden 2006 Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel 2004 Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden 2002 Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden 2000 Gallerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York 1999 Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado 1998 Gallery Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France 1997 Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery, New York 1996 Boesky & Callery Gallery, New York 1995 Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 1992 Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 1991 Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 1990 Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 1988 The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 1987 Borgrashov Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2010 High Definition, Bezalel Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel. Curated by Ruti, Director 2008 Reframing, CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain. Curated by Barry Schwabsky 2007 Horizon, Elizabeth Foundation Galleries, New York 2004 The Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia 2000 Compression, Feigen Contemporary, New York Telesthesia Amnescopia, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois New Work; Abstraction, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco 1999 Christmas Paintings, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York The Stroke, Exit Art, New York. Curated by Ross Bleckner 1998 Painting Now and Forever, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York People, Places and Things, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York 1996 Ceremonial, Apex Art, New York. Curated by Barry Schwabsky (brochure published) 1995 Summer Group Show, Patrick Callery, New York Summer Group Show, Bravin Post Lee Gallery, New York 1994 Art Focus, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel 1993 Locus, Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 1991 Perspective, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel 1990 Aperto, Venice Biennale – The Israeli Proposal, Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan, Israel The Museum as Collector, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel Life Size, a Sense of the Real in Recent Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (The opening of the Nathan Cummings 20th Century Building) Feminine Presence, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel 1988 Fresh Paint, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel 1986 Artists Studios, Aika Brown...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Untitled
Located in Barcelona, ES
The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled
Located in Barcelona, ES
The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled
Located in Barcelona, ES
The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled
Located in Barcelona, ES
The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Etching

Composition I
By Ruperto Cabrera
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Ruperto Cabrera (Spanish 1960 - ) Title: Composition I Year: 1999 Medium: Oil, Silkscreen, Zund UV Jet Print on Canvas, Signed verso Size: 32 x 39 in. (81.28 x 99.06 cm)
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Oil

Iosis, Synergic Painting - Conceptual Encaustic Painting On Canvas XL Format
Located in Salzburg, AT
Krzysztof Gliszczyński is Professor for painting on Academy of fine arts Gdansk. Krzysztof Gliszczyński born in Miastko in 1962. Graduated from the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts in 1...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Encaustic, Pigment, Canvas

Caput Mortuum - Conceptual Encaustic Oil Painting, Marble Dust Ash On Canvas XXL
Located in Salzburg, AT
Overall Size: Height 200cm x Width 300cm ( The painting consists of 2 parts, one part: 200x150cm ) Overall Size: Height 78,7402 Inch x Width 118,11 Inch ( The painting consists o...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Marble

Yoko Ono and John Lennon
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Anton Solomoukha, Russian (1945 - ) Title: Yoko Ono and John Lennon Year: 1990 Medium: Oil and Collage on Canvas, signed and dated l.r. Size:...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paper, Mixed Media, Oil

Manhole Cover (Manhattan DPW)
By Josep Cisquella
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Josep Cisquella, Spanish (1955 - ) Title: Manhole Cover (Manhattan DPW) Year: 1991 Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas, signed on verso Size: 38.2...
Category

1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Oil

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It Happened II
Located in Long Island City, NY
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1970s Conceptual Paintings

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Organism II
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Artist: Liana Vassalou, Greek (1948 - ) Title: Organism II Year: 1979 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed Size: 56 in. x 48 in. (142.24 cm x 121.92 cm) Frame Size: 56.5 x 48.5 inches
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1990s Conceptual Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Watercolor, Color Pencil

House
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H 5 in W 8.5 in
Geomteric Composition (Architectural Constructivism)
By Hannes Forster
Located in Kansas City, MO
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Graphite

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Located in Buffalo, NY
This two panel stretched and dyed rubber piece was created by American contemporary artist John Drummer in 1993. This work was recently featured in the White Columns exhibition for ...
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1990s Conceptual Paintings

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Conceptual paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Conceptual paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, red, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Peter Soriano, Penelope Ellis, Eduardo Costa, and Mattia Novello. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Conceptual paintings, so small editions measuring 6.75 inches across are also available. Prices for paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $333 and tops out at $115,000, while the average work sells for $3,713.

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