CONCEPTUAL ART MOVEMENT

Attitudes and Ideas that Inspired the Original Conceptual Art Movement & the Legacy for Later Artists

Attitudes and Ideas that Inspired the Original Conceptual Art Movement & the Legacy for Later Artists

Introduction

The paper will elaborate on the attitudes and ideas that inspired and drove the original conceptual art movement. In order to do so adequately, the research conducted for the paper will consider the role and relevance of influential artists who catalyzed the original conceptual art movement and whose work to inspire future artists. The discussion will give special relevance to the reasons because of which new ideas replaced old ones and the identification of individuals who contributed to the development and acceptance of new ideas.

Discussion & Analyses

It was as a result of Emmanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment that the investigation and exploration into art was revived (Meecham & Sheldon, 2000; Stewart, 2012). This 1781 publication was the result of the manner in which Clement Greenberg's theories has begun to question the reliability and authenticity of modernist definitions that pertained to minimal art. This art was also referred to as Neo-Dada art and the artists working in this genre tended to engage in a borrowing of former work (Cherix, 2009; Gardner & Kleiner, 2010). The pop artists of the time became known for their mockery of the high art through their work. They would deliberately portray high art in a low position in order to make art more of an experience for the audience. This led to the development of a perception that questioned the very foundations of art and demanded a definition that could be used as criteria for to identify art (Harrison, 2001; Meecham & Sheldon, 2000). The 60s saw what was left of the disarray in art caused by the conflicting approaches of Modernism, Abstract Expressionism and European High Modernism. In essence, this was a time when it was ok to belong to subscribe to a relatively unpopular form of art because almost all genres had their own followers and admirers (Stewart, 2012; Buszek, 2011). It was not until the dawn of Conceptualism in 1970 that the attention given to Modernism began to bear fruit (Willette, 2012).

During a visit to the tracks in 1964, Arthur Danto was stunned when he witnessed Andy Warhol's work on Brillo Boxes (Willette, 2012). The suite had been remodeled and it was at when Arthur Danto noticed the refinement of Warhol's work that it became imperative to establish a more modern definition for art (Harrison, 2001). Conceptual art is a movement that prizes ideas over the formal or visual components of art works. An amalgam of various tendencies rather than a tightly cohesive movement, Conceptualism took myriad forms, such as performances, happenings, and ephemera. From the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s Conceptual artists produced works and writings that completely rejected standard ideas of art (Cherix, 2009). Their chief claim - that the articulation of an artistic idea suffices as a work of art - implied that concerns such as aesthetics, expression, skill and ...