Conceptual art

How it is used

Conceptual works may consist of text, instructions, photographs, documents or everyday objects. Writers trace its roots to Marcel Duchamp's readymades. The artists are conceptual artists, and their way of working is often called a conceptual practice.

Example sentences

1. Some visitors ask whether conceptual art is really art, which is exactly the question it wants them to ask.

2. Her work grew out of conceptual art and uses only text and photographs.

Common collocations

• conceptual artist
• conceptual practice
• early conceptual art
• conceptual framework

Related terms

• readymadeAn ordinary manufactured object that an artist chooses and presents as art, with little or no change; the idea was introduced by Marcel Duchamp in the 1910s.
• contemporary artThe art of the present time, usually meaning work made from about the 1960s or 1970s to today, often using new media, ideas and ways of exhibiting.
• installationAn artwork made for a particular space, often filling a whole room, which visitors walk into or around and experience with more than just their eyes.
• performance artArt in which the artist's own actions, carried out live in front of an audience or recorded, are the work itself, rather than an object.

More terms: Contemporary Art

• artist statement
• biennial
• site-specific
• street art