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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
Untitled
Untitled

Untitled

Located in Barcelona, CT

The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Watercolor

Untitled
Untitled

Untitled

By Lluis Barba

Located in Barcelona, CT

The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate

Category

Early 2000s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Aguas Serenas
Aguas Serenas

Aguas Serenas

Located in Barcelona, CT

The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Untitled
Untitled

Untitled

By Alfonso Albacete

Located in Barcelona, CT

the painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Printer's Ink

Untitled, MT Inv. No 2-070 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography

Untitled, MT Inv. No 2-070 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography

By Miroslav Tichy

Located in Zurich, CH

Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic) Untitled, MT Inv. No 2-070 Unknown, ca. 1970-1990 Silver Gelatin Print Sheet 18,1 x 13,2 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/4 in.) Unique Print only Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing. Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period. – Art, Black and White...

Category

Late 20th Century Conceptual Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-185 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography

Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-185 – Miroslav Tichy, Woman, Czech, Photography

By Miroslav Tichy

Located in Zurich, CH

Miroslav Tichý (*1926, Czech Republic) Untitled, MT Inv. No 3-8-185 Unknown, ca. 1970-1990 Silver Gelatin Print Sheet 14,9 x 10,4 cm (5 7/8 x 4 1/8 in.) Unique Print only Tichý, practically reinventing photography from scratch, reconstitutes pictorialism along with it, and not as a distortion of the medium but as something like its essence. What counts for him is not only the image - just one moment in the photographic process - but also the chemical activity of the materials, which is never entirely stable or complete, and the delimitation of the results via cropping and framing. Marginal and exceptionally voyeuristic, in his methods Tichý could be described as an “art brut photographer” yet he is also marked by classical influences. Though his images are produced with poor-quality equipment and carelessly shot, they offer an idiosyncratic and almost hallucinatory vision of a fantastical, eroticised reality. With his endless return to the same subject and the volume and regularity of his production, Tichý’s work draws many parallels to certain practices of conceptual art during the same period. – Art, Black and White...

Category

Late 20th Century Conceptual Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Hockey Stick Blades
Hockey Stick Blades

Hockey Stick Blades

By Greg Curnoe

Located in Toronto, Ontario

Greg Curnoe (1936-1992) was a highly revered artist, bookmaker and competitive cyclist. He was based in London, Ontario but beloved across the country. He would represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1976. Unwavering in his allegiance to the Canadian/local art scene, Curnoe led the London Regionalism movement alongside fellow artists such as Jack Chambers, Tony Urquhart...

Category

1960s Conceptual Art

Materials

Rubber, Ink

Nova
Nova

Nova

By General Idea

Located in Toronto, Ontario

In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over 25 years, they made a significant contribution to po...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Graphite

Shaping the Essence, Aluminum Sculpture
Shaping the Essence, Aluminum Sculpture

Shaping the Essence, Aluminum Sculpture

By Jorge Wellesley

Located in Brooklyn, NY

JORGE WELLESELEY "Shaping the Essence", 2019 Aluminum, concrete, LED 13.25 x 10 x 10 in Ed: 1/3 + 1AP Jorge Wellesley (Havana, 1979) Cuban-born artist based in Guttenberg, New Je...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Concrete, Metal

Praise for the Misguided

Praise for the Misguided

Located in New York, NY

Oil on canvas. Conceptual piece - female centric. About the artist: “There's a dry ironic twist to Paul’s paintings that give the work — while realistic — a postmodern feeling of reflection, observation and cultural critique. Somewhere between the Cohen Brothers...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Small PIece

Small PIece

By Chad Knight

Located in New York, NY

Digital Art. 2 masks at dusk. Produced on metal. Floats in white frame. About the Artist: Chad Knight’s vibrant digital art moves between the medita...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal

Elizabeth - 3D 6/10

Elizabeth - 3D 6/10

By Reisig and Taylor

Located in New York, NY

Homage to the famed Elizabeth Taylor. About the Artists: Animated through an assemblage of analog, digital, and lenticular photographic technologies, these selections from Reisi...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lenticular

Sci Fi Close Encounters with Orange New York City
Sci Fi Close Encounters with Orange New York City

Sci Fi Close Encounters with Orange New York City

By Mitchell Funk

Located in Miami, FL

Conceptual Photographer Mitchell Funk created a Sci-Fi image 2 years before the iconic Close Encounters of a Third Kind was released in 1977. Funk's work is really two images combine...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment, Archival Ink, Archival Paper

Scorpio

Scorpio

By Chad Knight

Located in New York, NY

Digital Art. Scorpio theme. Produced on metal with white 2 inch border. About the Artist: Chad is more than just a freelance artist, he is the Head of 3D Design at Nike and not so long ago retired from an exciting career as a professional skateboarder that ran from 1998-2011. Nowadays, when he isn’t working for Nike, his unique artwork is enjoyed by people around the world. Chad Knight...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal

Emergency Broadcast

Emergency Broadcast

Located in New York, NY

Figurative piece with a fun, simple narrative. The beauty of the piece lies in its simplicity. On 3/4 canvas.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil Crayon, Acrylic

Borderless

Borderless

By Chad Knight

Located in New York, NY

Digital Art. Female Forms. Love theme. Pink hue. Produced on metal with white 2 inch border. About the Artist: Chad is more than just a freelance artist, he is the Head of 3D ...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal

Looming Loss

Looming Loss

By Stephen Hall

Located in New York, NY

Conceptual and powerful commentary on the oil industry harming our waters and creatures of the sea. Featuring a whale and a bird and can of oil. Acrylic on canvas. About the artis...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Prime Colors

Prime Colors

By Jim Molloy

Located in New York, NY

Nostalgic painting of vintage toy car that has been worked on by a novice mechanic. Oil on canvas with black frame one inch on front, two inches deep. This piece sold but commissio...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Up on Blocks Commission
Up on Blocks Commission

Up on Blocks Commission

By Jim Molloy

Located in New York, NY

Nostalgic painting of vintage toy car that has been worked on by a novice mechanic. Oil on canvas with black frame one inch on front, two inches deep. This piece sold but commissio...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

URBAN MUSTANG
URBAN MUSTANG

URBAN MUSTANG

By Donna Bernstein

Located in New York, NY

The American mustang. Revered for his freedom, yet never truly free. Cast in a red glow of pain, his spirit is never taken, as his numbers are cut down. Created in acrylics, life-...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Window

Window

By William Taylor

Located in New York, NY

Figurative piece with a fun, simple narrative. The beauty of the piece lies in its simplicity. On 3/4 canvas.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil Crayon, Acrylic

Chair

Chair

By William Taylor

Located in New York, NY

Figurative piece with a fun, simple narrative. The beauty of the piece lies in its simplicity. On 3/4 canvas.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil Crayon, Acrylic

Lonely Looking Wide Eyed Dog in a Car Window
Lonely Looking Wide Eyed Dog in a Car Window

Lonely Looking Wide Eyed Dog in a Car Window

By Mitchell Funk

Located in Miami, FL

A lonely-looking wide-eyed boxer peers out a car window in anticipation that his owner will return. On closer examination, this is not a photograph of a real Boxer but a cut out of...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

#3

#3

By Nadine Saacks

Located in New York, NY

Photojournalist portrait of vanishing Surma tribe. Printed on canvas. Shot in July 2018, over a month in Ethiopia. "I wanted to photograph lost tribes because there are not m...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Archival Pigment

#2

#2

By Nadine Saacks

Located in New York, NY

Photojournalist portrait of vanishing Surma tribe. Printed on canvas. Shot in July 2018, over a month in Ethiopia. "I wanted to photograph lost tribes because there are not m...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Archival Pigment

End of the Affair #4 Ltd Ed
End of the Affair #4 Ltd Ed

End of the Affair #4 Ltd Ed

By Andrea McCafferty

Located in New York, NY

Vintage 50's Barbie with vintage accessories and set. Narrative depicts title - the end of the affair. Metallic print produced on metal. Black and white Photography. Ltd Ed.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal

End of the Affair #3 Ltd Ed.
End of the Affair #3 Ltd Ed.

End of the Affair #3 Ltd Ed.

By Andrea McCafferty

Located in New York, NY

Vintage 50's Barbie with vintage accessories and set. Narrative depicts title - the end of the affair. Metallic print produced on metal. Black and white Photography. Ltd Ed.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal

Wonderful World

Wonderful World

By Cabell Molina

Located in New York, NY

Mixed Media. Woman on ladder in pool. Blue hues. About the Artist: Cabell Molina is a contemporary artist transplanted from California to the east. Where Cabell has proved herse...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Commuter

Commuter

By Jim Molloy

Located in New York, NY

Oil painting. The implied narrative adds to the piece. A glimpse into a child's world, one we all have experienced. Tone is engaging, fun with universal appeal. About the art...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Pieces

Pieces

By Jim Molloy

Located in New York, NY

Oil painting. The implied narrative adds to the piece. A glimpse into a child's world, one we all have experienced. Tone is engaging, fun with universal appeal. About the art...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oh James - 3D

Oh James - 3D

By Reisig and Taylor

Located in New York, NY

Depiction of a kind of life. About the Artists: Animated through an assemblage of analog, digital, and lenticular photographic technologies, these selections from Reisig and Tayl...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lenticular

Frida - 3D

Frida - 3D

By Reisig and Taylor

Located in New York, NY

An homage to the great Frida Kahlo. About the Artists: Animated through an assemblage of analog, digital, and lenticular photographic technologies, these selections from Reisig and...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Lenticular

The End of The Affair #1 - Ltd Ed
The End of The Affair #1 - Ltd Ed

The End of The Affair #1 - Ltd Ed

By Andrea McCafferty

Located in New York, NY

Vintage 50's Barbie with vintage accessories and set. Narrative depicts title - the end of the affair. Metallic print produced on metal. Black and white Photography. Ltd Ed.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Metal

The Messenger

The Messenger

By Phil Marco

Located in New York, NY

Face Mounted Plexi. Aluminum braced archival print. Mysterious subject matter. ABOUT THE ARTIST Marco studied fine art at Pratt Institute and the Art Students League in New York. New York Times photography critic Gene Thornton called Marco “a Minimalist, whose images are sensual, whimsical, often surreal, always strong, and deceptively simple.” “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Phil Marco on a number of my films. Phil is a man of extraordinary talents. It seems that his passion is to take an everyday object or event, and show it in an entirely new and exciting way.” Martin Scorsese. Phil’s work is represented in MOMA, The Museum of the Moving Image, and The George Eastman Museum of Photography. His first photographs were studies for his paintings, before he launched a career in print advertising. He eventually became a Director / DP for film and television for a vast base of national and international clients with his wife Patricia as Partner and Producer. In the 1980’s and 90’s Phil was the go to person for Special Effects in Television and Cinema, also best known for his graphic conceptual still lives, and his consummate mastery of lighting, and design. He’s won many awards for his work, including numerous Cannes Lions, Cleo’s, a Grammy for his print work on the legendary “Tommy the Who...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Giclée

Business Man Rises Above the Manhattan Skyline - Staged Photography
Business Man Rises Above the Manhattan Skyline - Staged Photography

Business Man Rises Above the Manhattan Skyline - Staged Photography

By Robert Funk

Located in Miami, FL

A two-inch plastic toy figure of a suited man is placed on top of an extended firetruck ladder. The toy truck and man are placed on the roof of a Brooklyn Heights building and positioned directly in front of the lower Manhattan skyline. At the time, it was the very center of of world commerce. The two-inch toy man raises above the tallest and most important buildings , including the recently finished World Trade Center Twin Towers. Clearly, this man is above it all and this photo is more than child's play. The work is signed, numbered 2/15, dated and titled lr. printed later, unframed, Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper Robert Funk is a pioneer of toy, doll, miniature, plastic thingies and staged photography. He also photographs his own paintings. Most of his work is done on location. He does not use photoshop to strip in images. He doesn’t take photographs he creates photographs and has works dating from 1973. He was widely published in the 1970's and early 1980's. As an undergrad in painting, he studied with first-generation abstract expressionist Robert Richenburg...

Category

1970s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Surreal to Conceptual Distortion Color Walls With Post-hospital Bathtub Photo
Surreal to Conceptual Distortion Color Walls With Post-hospital Bathtub Photo

Surreal to Conceptual Distortion Color Walls With Post-hospital Bathtub Photo

By Barbara Rosenthal

Located in New York, NY

Barbara Rosenthal’s Conceptual Photography is a concrete manifestation of complex inner stresses from external realities of all kinds: physical, familial, political, religious, time, space and relentless travel. Rosenthal begins by shooting surreal photographs in a kind of trance-state. She believes that the resultant images, and the Conceptual Distortions created from them, reveal elements of both her particular personality and psychological states, and reach the same in the viewers’ own. In artist’s own words: “I gave myself a camera and promised not to interfere.” During this decade of relentless exhibition and travel, Rosenthal has been shooting several hundred rolls of color and BW 35mm film with analog Olympus OM...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Dwellings 5
Dwellings 5

Dwellings 5

By Iliyan Ivanov

Located in New York, NY

This series “Dwellings” is comprised of pieces of mixed media on wood panels. The artist uses wood panels 5 x 5 inches each as base that is painted ei...

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Wood, Paper, Acrylic, Permanent Marker, Monoprint

FORT DE SOTO WAVES #36, St Petersburg, Florida  2013

FORT DE SOTO WAVES #36, St Petersburg, Florida 2013

By Jay Mark Johnson

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

CITYSCAPE, Textual Neon Mixed Media Sculpture by Chryssa
CITYSCAPE, Textual Neon Mixed Media Sculpture by Chryssa

CITYSCAPE, Textual Neon Mixed Media Sculpture by Chryssa

By Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali

Located in Long Island City, NY

Chryssa began working with neon in 1962, creating large-scale neon works using faux letters rather than legible characters. Reduced to base semiotics, her letterforms became examinat...

Category

1980s Conceptual Art

Materials

Neon Light, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Watercolor, Wood Panel, Laid Paper

Totem of Unmeasurable Memory Assemblage 7 Silver Gelatin Photograph Photo Prints
Totem of Unmeasurable Memory Assemblage 7 Silver Gelatin Photograph Photo Prints

Totem of Unmeasurable Memory Assemblage 7 Silver Gelatin Photograph Photo Prints

By Lewis Koch

Located in Surfside, FL

Totem of Unmeasurable Memory, 1995 Assemblage of 7 vintage silver gelatin prints Lewis Koch lives in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. After completing undergraduate studies in social histor...

Category

1990s Conceptual Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

The Weight of Man in Olympus
The Weight of Man in Olympus

The Weight of Man in Olympus

By Mattia Novello

Located in Rye, NY

This sculpture represents the idea of human balance in infinity. The symbol of construction while balancing a feather, symbol of freedom and lightness.

Category

2010s Conceptual Art

Materials

Plaster, Found Objects, Mixed Media

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.