Published: June 11, 2019 | Last Updated: June 11, 2025
What is Conceptual art? Definition & Meaning
Conceptual art is a movement that emerged in the 1960s where the idea behind the work takes priority over its material form, aesthetic qualities, or craftsmanship.
Conceptual art emerged as a reaction against the dominance of painting and sculpture. Instead of making traditional objects, artists presented instructions, diagrams, documents, or actions that emphasized thought over execution. The work often existed only as a proposal, a written statement, or a record of an event. This shift changed how artists defined authorship and what counted as a finished piece.
Historical Origins
The roots of conceptual art stretch back to earlier movements that questioned artistic conventions. Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) rejected aesthetic tradition by presenting a mass-produced urinal as art. By the 1960s, a range of artists in New York and Europe began building on that idea with more structured, philosophical approaches.
Minimalism reduced form to basic geometric structures. Fluxus used instructions and chance operations to blur art and life. Performance artists turned actions into temporary works.
The idea was to remove personal style and stress the process. Conceptual artists took it further by saying the idea itself was enough.
Key Conceptual Works
Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs (1965) includes a real chair, a photo of the chair, and a dictionary definition of “chair.” The piece highlights how language, representation, and reality overlap. The idea behind the arrangement is the artwork. The materials used are secondary.
Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #1 (1968) consists of written instructions for drawing lines in pencil on a wall. Anyone can execute it. LeWitt wrote, “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” The instructions matter more than the person who applies them.
George Brecht’s Water Yam (1963) was a box with small cards with event scores, i.e., short instructions for simple actions. Like other Fluxus works, it invited viewers to follow directions or imagine the results. These pieces made participation and process central to the work.
Conceptual Methods
Conceptual artists used text, photography, performance, and installations to express ideas. Many works came with instructions or statements instead of traditional materials. Some were never realized physically. Others existed briefly and only through documentation.
Language played a key role. Artists like Lawrence Weiner made text pieces using neutral descriptions of actions or materials and art work that was quickly over. His works, such as “Two minutes of spray paint directly upon the floor,” could exist as a written proposal, a wall installation, or both. The form did not affect the meaning.
Influence on Film and Media
Conceptual art shaped later movements in video, performance, and installation. Its focus on structure and systems also influenced experimental cinema.
Hollis Frampton’s Zorns Lemma (1970) replaced narrative with a mathematical progression of images.
Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Paradise Films) used repetition and real-time pacing to reduce drama to routine. Here’s Chantal discussing her inspiration for the film and more:
In recent decades, artists have applied conceptual frameworks to digital formats. Works that use video, VR, or AR often inherit the same priorities: viewer interaction, abstract structure, and the absence of traditional craft. What matters is how the idea functions, not how it looks.
Reception and Legacy
Critics of conceptual art say it abandons skill or beauty. Supporters argue that it opens space for questioning and rethinking the purpose of art. By removing the object, conceptual artists redefined the role of the viewer. Interpretation became part of the work itself.
The influence of conceptual art is visible across contemporary art practices. Artists now work across media with an emphasis on instructions, systems, and commentary. The movement expanded what art could be, even when it left nothing behind but a statement.
Summing Up
Conceptual art made the idea behind the work more important than its execution. Artists gave instructions, posed questions, and removed the need for objects entirely. Their legacy continues in film, performance, text, and digital media, i.e., any format where the concept comes first.
Read Next: Curious how art movements shaped film?
Explore our full Visual Art Timeline to see how styles like Surrealism, Cubism, and Suprematism influenced cinema’s most experimental moments.
Or keep browsing our Film Movements & World Cinema section for more on the histories that shaped screen culture around the globe.
