conceptual art

American  

noun

1. art in which emphasis is placed on the means and processes of producing art objects rather than on the objects themselves and in which the various tools and techniques, as photographs, photocopies, video records, and the construction of environments and earthworks, are used to convey the message to the spectator.

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conceptual art British  

noun

1. art in which the idea behind a particular work, and the means of producing it, are more important than the finished work

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Other Word Forms

• conceptual artist noun

Example Sentences

It may be a layered example of up-to-the-minute Conceptual art, deeply absorbing and surprisingly suggestive, but the deeds are also lithographs, a perfectly traditional medium.

From Los Angeles Times

In true Conceptual art form, the notarized documents confirming the transactions are lined up on the wall in alphabetical order, from Alabama and Alaska to Wisconsin and Wyoming, in two rows of 25.

From Los Angeles Times

I understood he had gone to Cal Arts in the conceptual art heyday of that school and that he was part of the Groundlings, an experimental theater group, but other than that, I didn’t know much.

From Salon

Because of that, drawing flourished as a wholly independent medium in the 1970s, thanks to the concurrent rise of idea-intensive Conceptual art.

From Los Angeles Times

Bruce Nauman’s celebrated Conceptual art ripened during the decade he worked in Pasadena.

From Los Angeles Times