What is art? Must it be a unique, saleable luxury item? Can it be a concept that never takes material form? Or an idea for a work that can be repeated endlessly? Conceptual art favours an engagement with such questions. As the variety of illustrations in this book shows, it can take many forms: photographs, videos, posters, billboards, charts, plans and, especially, language itself.
Tony Godfrey has written a clear, lively and informative account of this fascinating phenomenon. He traces the origins of Conceptual art to Marcel Duchamp and the anti-art gestures of Dada, and then establishes links to those artists who emerged in the 196os and early 19705, whose work forms the heart of this study: Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, Victor Burgin, Marcel Broodthaers and many others. The art is viewed within its context - whether it be consumerism or the countercultural beliefs and challenges to authority that characterized the 1960s. Finally he considers the way that artists continue to adapt Conceptual strategies to elucidate their expe ence of the world. Godfrey has written the first truly internationa! account of Conceptual art, acknowledging the importance of the United States and Europe in its development, but also considering works from as far afield as Japan and Argentina.
Tony Godfrey has been writing on contemporary art since the
19705. A regular contributor to Art in America and the Burlington Magazine, his books include New Image: Painting in the 1980s and Drawing Today. He is programme director of the MA in contemporary art at Sotheby's Institute, London.