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

Thumbing its nose at the blockchain while offering a technodystopic vision of the Freudian death drive, it’s conceptual art with a serious message that refuses to take itself too seriously.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

Pondering her return to sculpture after several decades as an acclaimed performance and conceptual artist, Fraser notes that the L.A. artists in this year’s biennial are united by the intersection of conceptual art and craft.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2026

A car park is in the conceptual art of the park.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2025

After shifting to a more conceptual art practice, Kearney has thought carefully about how much information to reveal in an image and how much to conceal.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 21, 2023

I’ve been lucky to have these phenomenal, deep collaborations with designers where we’ll meet early and often and really approach it like conceptual art, or whether design can really inform, in many cases, the text.

From New York Times • Jul. 5, 2023