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.

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

• conceptual artist noun

Example Sentences

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

The ’70s and ’80s New York art world: The art world, when we arrived in the late ’70s, was very much about conceptual art, minimal art.

From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2023

All will complement two pillars of the Hirshhorn’s collection: Joseph Hirshhorn’s founding bequest and the 39 works from the Panza collection of minimalist and conceptual art that came into the collection in 2008.

From Washington Post • Jan. 4, 2023