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Conceptual Art

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
Color:  Orange
Tree Abstract, Serigraph by Menashe Kadishman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Menashe Kadishman, Israeli (1932 - 2015) Title: Tree in Tree Year: 1979 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 125 Size: 41 x 30 in. (104.14 x 76....
Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

Chinatown Portfolio II, Image 2
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Chryssa, Greek (1933 - 2013) Title: Chinatown Portfolio II, Image 2 Year: circa 1978 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 150 Size: 40 in. x 30.5 in. (...
Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

"Pink Palm" Serigraph by Menashe Kadishman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Menashe Kadishman, Israeli (1932 – 2015) Title: Pink Palm Year: 1979 Medium: Serigraph, signed in pencil Edition: WP (Working Proof) Size: 30.5 x 21...
Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

El Caso
By Christian Boltanski
Located in Surfside, FL
Christian Boltanski, El Caso, Parkett., Zürich. 1989 in the collection of the MOMA Museum of Modern Art NYC Miniature booklet with 17 photographs, 2 x 3 1/8” (5 x 8 x 0,6 cm) ring bound with perspex covers and printed title Ed. 80/XX, signed and numbered (this one is not signed or numbered and might be an artist proof) Guilty, Not Guilty. Themes central to Boltanski’s oeuvre find devastating expression in this tiny piece of pocket pornography containing images of brutal murder re-photographed by the artist from the Spanish detective magazine El Caso. [Ref. Bob Calle - Christian Boltanski Artist's Books 1969-2007, p.60]. Artists' book featuring 17 b/w photographs held together with two metal rings: "Luxury edition of a booklet with real glossy photographs, small enough to be hidden behind the hand... It pictures the bodies of victims of violent crime. By showing these photographs of half-naked corpses, bought nearer by close-up shots, the artist transforms the viewer into a voyeur who virtually becomes a sadistic partner in the crime." -- from Catalogue: Books, Printed Matter, Ephemera 1966-1991. references "Livres" by Christian Boltanski. Paris / Köln / Frankfurt, France / Germany : AFAA / Jennifer Flay / Walther König / Portikus, 1991. No. 69 in "Christian Boltanski : Catalogue: Books, Printed Matter, Ephemera, 1966-1991" by Christian Boltanski, Jennifer Flay, Günter Metken. Köln / Frankfurt, Germany : Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König / Portikus, 1992, pp. 184 - 185. "Christian Boltanski : Artist's Books 1969 - 2007" by Christian Boltanski, Bob Calle. Paris, France : Éditions 591, 2008, pp. 60. Quote “There is in the work of the artist something of the high priest and something of the charlatan...
Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Paper

Dovelike
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Dovelike 2018 Pencil signed and title. Joanna Salska was born in Poland and received her MFA from Warsaw Academy of Fine Art. She is a painter and interd...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

La mujer que ha sido una flor ('A Woman who has been a flower')
Located in Barcelona, ES
The painting is being offered with a work certificate
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic

The reproach
Located in Barcelona, ES
the painting is being offered with a work certificate
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Acrylic, Mixed Media

Contemporary Conceptual Palm Tree Painting, "Burnt Palm Tree"
Located in San Diego, CA
This is a one of a kind conceptual oil painting by local San Diego artist, Perry Vàsquez. Its dimensions are 16 x 48 (LxH). It is not framed. The artist has depicted a tall palm tree against an orange- yellow sky. The palm tree is on fire thus the title, "Burnt Palm Tree". Vàsquez focuses primarily on his exploration of various iterations of palm trees. Ubiquitous in Southern California, and historically viewed as a provider of nourishment, shelter, and bounty, the trees in Vásquez’s paintings are instead framed in peculiar or dire scenarios. Many of the trees in his work are ablaze, or are actually cell towers...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oscar Niemeyer Staircase, Light Pastel Tones Interior Architecture, Still-Life
Located in Barcelona, ES
"Sexy Miami Futuristic Cocktail Lounge" is a series of photographs by Ryan Rivadeneyra inspired by the Art Deco colors of Miami that show beautiful objects and textures arranged meti...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, G...

Wonder Woman - Original Lego Creation
Located in New York, NY
Homage to Wonder Woman. Made completely of legos. About the Artist: Joseph Kraham is an "engineering artist". He combines thousands of Lego pieces...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Jimi Hendrix
Located in New York, NY
Jimi Hendrix. Mixed Media. About the Artist: Le Closier is a Belgian painter living in New York. After moving to Paris in the early 2000's, mixing P...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Spray Paint, Acrylic

Seafront Landscape with Rocks, Conceptual Photography, Lively Colors Cave
Located in Barcelona, ES
"Sexy Miami Futuristic Cocktail Lounge" is a series of photographs by Ryan Rivadeneyra inspired by the Art Deco colors of Miami that show beautiful ob...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Ink, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, Giclée, Archival Pig...

Japanese Contemporary Art by Kojun - Kensho 3040
Located in Paris, IDF
UV print of digital photograph on pewter leaf on paper & mounted in Japanese silk scroll Kojun is an self-taught multimédia American artist born in 1977 based in Tokyo, Japan since ...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Japanese Contemporary Art by Kojun - Kensho 2453
Located in Paris, IDF
UV print of digital photograph on brass leaf on paper Kojun is an self-taught multimédia American artist born in 1977 based in Tokyo, Japan since 1999. Kojun project started in 2010...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Inkjet

Description of Torino Exhibit (Castello di Rivoli)
By James Lee Byars
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: James Lee Byars, American (1932- 1997) Title: Description of Torino Exhibit (Castello di Rivoli) Year: 1989 Medium: Marker on Foil Paper Siz...
Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Foil

Fast Food Still Life, Modern Print of Orange Food Scene, Animal Print Texture
Located in Barcelona, ES
"Sexy Miami Futuristic Cocktail Lounge" is a series of photographs by Ryan Rivadeneyra inspired by the Art Deco colors of Miami that show beautiful objects and textures arranged meti...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital, G...

Elton
Located in New York, NY
Homage to the great Elton John. Painting. Portrait. Vibrant. About the Artist: Le Closier is a Belgian painter living in New York. After moving to Paris in the early 2000's, mixing Pop Art and Street Art, he started painting on the walls of his Montparnasse neighborhood in Paris (famous in the 50's for being the gathering point of writers and painters i.e Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Modigliani....). A few years later, Le Closier made official portraits for tennis players Serena Williams, Kei Nishikori, Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten, Bryan Brothers, David Goffin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jeremy Chardy, American golf player Cristie Kerr and Paris-Saint-Germain's president Nasser Al-Khelaifi (among others). ​ In May 2016, he was asked by France Pavilion to paint a portrait of Chief Justice Stephen Breyer for the French/American business week at the French Embassy in Washington, DC. Today, Le Closier creates colorful compositions inspired by celebrities, arts, comics, advertising, fashion..., mixing people, brands and symbols on different supports (canvas, wood cutouts...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Spray Paint, Acrylic, Canvas

Japan Contemporary Art by Kojun - Kensho 1942
Located in Paris, IDF
UV print of digital photograph on brass leaf on paper Kojun is an self-taught multimédia American artist born in 1977 based in Tokyo, Japan since 1999. Kojun project started in 2010...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Appear Mirror Reflect, Screenprint by Les Levine
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Les Levine, Canadian (1935 - ) Title: Appear Mirror Reflect Year: 1986 Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: AP 2/8 Size: 17.5 x 38 in. (44.45 x 96.52 cm...
Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Screen

Krishna, Mythology, Acrylic, Tempera, Green, Yellow by Indian Artist "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Aditya Basak - Untitled - 36 x 30 inches (unframed size) Acrylic & Tempera on Canvas ** This work will be shipped in a roll form. "Through the medium of the fantasy, Basak probes...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Tempera, Canvas, Acrylic

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 5, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol
Located in Darien, CT
Jo Yarrington’s photographs, prints, works on paper, glass sculptures and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Yale University, Cornell University, the Museum of Glass, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Artists Space, St. John the Divine Cathedral, Grounds for Sculpture, the Museum of American Glass and ODETTA, among others. International exhibitions have included Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow University, Galeria Sala Uno and Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato. She represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates and participated in the Berlin Biennial. in 2010 she received the Bronze Prize, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia. Yarrington is a recipient of artist grants and Fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She has received Residency Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass, the Bridge Virtual Residency/ SciArt Center, the Lucile Walton Fellow/Mountain Lake Biological Station, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Anderson Center and the Ucross Foundation, among others. International grants and fellowships have included the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity/Canada, SIMS Residency/ Iceland, Cill Rialaig Artists Residency/Ireland, the Burren College of Art Residency/Ireland and the American Scandinavian Foundation. She is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University and lives and works in New York City. STATEMENT In site-specific exhibitions, public art commissions, collaborative and individual projects Jo Yarrington has used varied combinations of glass, waxed surfaces, found artifacts and experimental analog photography to investigate the way we perceive – searching for, experimenting with and developing throughout a sensory-based vernacular. Her mostly translucent materials function as physical framework and symbolic membrane. Light, both natural and ambient, provides a kinetic or time-based element to her work. Scale and the integration of architecture are also pivotal components. In the 6-part installation for the two-person exhibition Illuminated, Yarrington continues her interest in the connections between vision, sound and language. In Mute-ability: Compositions 1 – 6, her title for this light-based comprehensive work, she combines the words mute and malleability. The work focuses on found piano rolls, a music storage medium, originally conceived as coded notations or ‘note control data’ for music produced in pneumatic player pianos...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Steel

Indian Woman, Citylife, Acrylic, Tempera on Canvas, Green, Yellow, Red"In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Aditya Basak - Untitled - 36 x 30 inches (unframed size) Acrylic & Tempera on Canvas ** This work will be shipped in a roll form. "Through the medium of the fantasy, Basak probes...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Tempera, Canvas, Acrylic

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 6, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol
Located in Darien, CT
Jo Yarrington’s photographs, prints, works on paper, glass sculptures and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Yale University, Cornell University, the Museum of Glass, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Artists Space, St. John the Divine Cathedral, Grounds for Sculpture, the Museum of American Glass and ODETTA, among others. International exhibitions have included Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow University, Galeria Sala Uno and Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato. She represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates and participated in the Berlin Biennial. in 2010 she received the Bronze Prize, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia. Yarrington is a recipient of artist grants and Fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She has received Residency Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass, the Bridge Virtual Residency/ SciArt Center, the Lucile Walton Fellow/Mountain Lake Biological Station, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Anderson Center and the Ucross Foundation, among others. International grants and fellowships have included the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity/Canada, SIMS Residency/ Iceland, Cill Rialaig Artists Residency/Ireland, the Burren College of Art Residency/Ireland and the American Scandinavian Foundation. She is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University and lives and works in New York City. STATEMENT In site-specific exhibitions, public art commissions, collaborative and individual projects Jo Yarrington has used varied combinations of glass, waxed surfaces, found artifacts and experimental analog photography to investigate the way we perceive – searching for, experimenting with and developing throughout a sensory-based vernacular. Her mostly translucent materials function as physical framework and symbolic membrane. Light, both natural and ambient, provides a kinetic or time-based element to her work. Scale and the integration of architecture are also pivotal components. In the 6-part installation for the two-person exhibition Illuminated, Yarrington continues her interest in the connections between vision, sound and language. In Mute-ability: Compositions 1 – 6, her title for this light-based comprehensive work, she combines the words mute and malleability. The work focuses on found piano rolls, a music storage medium, originally conceived as coded notations or ‘note control data’ for music produced in pneumatic player pianos...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Steel

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 2, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol
Located in Darien, CT
Jo Yarrington’s photographs, prints, works on paper, glass sculptures and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Yale University, Cornell University, the Museum of Glass, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Artists Space, St. John the Divine Cathedral, Grounds for Sculpture, the Museum of American Glass and ODETTA, among others. International exhibitions have included Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow University, Galeria Sala Uno and Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato. She represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates and participated in the Berlin Biennial. in 2010 she received the Bronze Prize, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia. Yarrington is a recipient of artist grants and Fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She has received Residency Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass, the Bridge Virtual Residency/ SciArt Center, the Lucile Walton Fellow/Mountain Lake Biological Station, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Anderson Center and the Ucross Foundation, among others. International grants and fellowships have included the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity/Canada, SIMS Residency/ Iceland, Cill Rialaig Artists Residency/Ireland, the Burren College of Art Residency/Ireland and the American Scandinavian Foundation. She is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University and lives and works in New York City. STATEMENT In site-specific exhibitions, public art commissions, collaborative and individual projects Jo Yarrington has used varied combinations of glass, waxed surfaces, found artifacts and experimental analog photography to investigate the way we perceive – searching for, experimenting with and developing throughout a sensory-based vernacular. Her mostly translucent materials function as physical framework and symbolic membrane. Light, both natural and ambient, provides a kinetic or time-based element to her work. Scale and the integration of architecture are also pivotal components. In the 6-part installation for the two-person exhibition Illuminated, Yarrington continues her interest in the connections between vision, sound and language. In Mute-ability: Compositions 1 – 6, her title for this light-based comprehensive work, she combines the words mute and malleability. The work focuses on found piano rolls, a music storage medium, originally conceived as coded notations or ‘note control data’ for music produced in pneumatic player pianos...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Steel

Motion Sickness, Mixed Media Collage by Josep Grau Garriga
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Josep Grau-Garriga, Spanish (1929 - 2011) Title: Motion Sickness Year: circa 1966 Medium: Acrylic and Collage on Paper Size: 23 x 20 inches
Category

1960s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Amber Lens
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original enamel on metal painting by emerging contemporary conceptual artist Craig Sheperd (b. 1984) Craig Sheperd’s paintings, most of which are enamel on metal, were created o...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal, Enamel

Ascoltando Il Sole II
Located in Rye, NY
With these pieces Mattia is painting a self-portrait in a unique and creative way without the typical technique of using paint with brush strokes. Mattia starts by creating molds then ice sculptures with color...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Kris and Kory's Studio Organ Building
Located in Kansas City, MO
Title : Kris and Kory's Studio Organ Building Materials : Colored pencil, acrylic, graphite, and watercolor on paper diptych Date : 2005 Dimensions : 36 x 48 x .1 in. Description : ...
Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Paper, Conté, Acrylic, Tempera, Watercolor, Graphite, Color Pencil, Paint

3 Out of Four - William Wegman (Colour Photography)
Located in London, GB
3 Out of Four - William Wegman (Colour Photography) Signed and inscribed with title Unique colour Polaroid print, printed 1988 24 x 20 inches The dogs, bewigged and bedecked with ou...
Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Polaroid

My Coo Kie - William Wegman (Colour Photography)
Located in London, GB
My Coo Kie - William Wegman (Colour Photography) Signed and inscribed with title Unique colour Polaroid print, printed 1991 24 x 20 inches The dogs, bewigged and bedecked with outfi...
Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Polaroid

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE #112, South Africa 2014
Located in Santa Monica, CA
This large format, color-photograph belongs to Jay Mark Johnson's wave series - the images from which depict the rhythmic cycling and recycling of oceanfront waves as recorded on remote coastlines around the world--in Hawaii, Florida, California, the Caribbean, Great Britain, Australia and South Africa. These artworks belong to the artist’s ongoing inquiry into the possibilities for timeline photography. For this decades-long project Johnson employs an unconventional camera system to produce seamless delineated renderings of familiar events as they occur over time. The results present an altered view of our surroundings. Artworks from Johnson’s timeline series have been exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. They can be found in the permanent collections of the Bundestag (German Parliament) in Berlin, the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie at Karlsruhe, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Langen Foundation, Hombroich, Germany, the Peter Klein...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Art

Materials

Aluminum

Conceptual art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Conceptual art 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 art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Reinhard Görner, Kojun, Jose Sierra, and xulong zhang. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and 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 art, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available. Prices for art 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 $45 and tops out at $500,000, while the average work sells for $2,465.

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