Conceptual art

Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, denotes an artistic practice where the underlying concepts or ideas are prioritized equally to or above traditional aesthetic, technical, and material considerations. Some conceptual artworks can be realized by anyone simply by adhering to a set of written instructions. This methodology was central to American artist Sol LeWitt's definition of conceptual art, which was among the first to be published:

In conceptual art, the idea or concept constitutes the most crucial aspect of the work. When an artist employs a conceptual artistic form, all planning and decisions are made in advance, rendering the execution a perfunctory affair. The idea thus functions as a mechanism that generates the art.

Tony Godfrey, author of Conceptual Art (Art & Ideas) (1998), asserts that conceptual art fundamentally questions the nature of art. This notion was elevated by Joseph Kosuth to a definition of art itself in his seminal early manifesto of conceptual art, Art after Philosophy (1969). The idea that art should examine its own essence was already a potent element of influential art critic Clement Greenberg's vision for Modern art during the 1950s. However, with the emergence of exclusively language-based art in the 1960s, conceptual artists such as Art & Language, Joseph Kosuth (who became the American editor of Art-Language), and Lawrence Weiner initiated a far more radical interrogation of art than had been previously possible. A primary aspect they challenged was the common assumption that the artist's role was to create specific types of material objects.

Through its association with the Young British Artists and the Turner Prize during the 1990s, "conceptual art" in popular usage, particularly in the United Kingdom, came to signify all contemporary art that does not employ traditional painting and sculpture skills. One reason for the term's association with diverse contemporary practices, far removed from its original aims and forms, lies in the inherent difficulty of defining the term itself. As artist Mel Bochner suggested as early as 1970, in explaining his dislike for the epithet "conceptual," it is not always entirely clear what "concept" refers to, and it risks being confused with "intention." Therefore, when describing or defining a work of art as conceptual, it is crucial not to conflate what is termed "conceptual" with an artist's "intention."

Historical Precursors

French artist Marcel Duchamp significantly influenced the conceptualists, providing them with examples of prototypically conceptual works, such as his readymades. The most famous of Duchamp's readymades was Fountain (1917), a standard urinal basin signed by the artist with the pseudonym "R. Mutt" and submitted for inclusion in the annual, un-juried exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York (which rejected it). Traditional artistic conventions do not typically classify a commonplace object (such as a urinal) as art because it is neither created by an artist with artistic intent nor is it unique or handcrafted. Duchamp's relevance and theoretical importance for future "conceptualists" were later acknowledged by American artist Joseph Kosuth in his 1969 essay, Art after Philosophy, where he stated: "All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually."

In 1956, Isidore Isou, the founder of Lettrism, developed the notion of an artwork that, by its very nature, could never be physically created but could nonetheless provide aesthetic rewards through intellectual contemplation. This concept, also termed Art esthapériste (or "infinite-aesthetics"), derived from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's infinitesimals—quantities that could not actually exist except conceptually. As of 2013, the current incarnation of the Isouian movement, Excoördism, defines itself as the art of the infinitely large and the infinitely small.

Origins

In 1961, the philosopher and artist Henry Flynt introduced the term "concept art" in an article of the same title, published within the proto-Fluxus compilation An Anthology of Chance Operations. Flynt asserted that his "concept art" originated from his theory of "cognitive nihilism," which posits that logical paradoxes diminish the inherent substance of concepts. Utilizing the structures of logic and mathematics, concept art was intended to transcend both mathematics and the prevailing formalistic music within serious art communities. Consequently, Flynt argued that for a work to qualify as concept art, it had to critically examine logic or mathematics, employing a linguistic concept as its primary medium—a characteristic notably absent from later "conceptual art."

The term subsequently acquired a distinct interpretation when adopted by Joseph Kosuth and the English Art and Language group. These practitioners rejected traditional art objects, opting instead for a documented critical investigation, initiated in 1969 with Art-Language: The Journal of Conceptual Art, into the social, philosophical, and psychological dimensions of the artist's role. By the mid-1970s, their efforts had yielded a diverse array of outputs, including publications, indices, performances, texts, and paintings. The inaugural exhibition dedicated to conceptual art, Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects, was presented at the New York Cultural Center in 1970.

Critiques of Formalism and Art Commodification

Conceptual art materialized as a significant movement during the 1960s, partly in opposition to the formalism championed by the influential New York art critic Clement Greenberg. Greenberg posited that Modern art progressed through a systematic process of reduction and refinement, aiming to delineate the fundamental, formal essence of each artistic medium. Consequently, any elements perceived as antithetical to this intrinsic nature were to be eliminated. For instance, the objective of painting, in Greenberg's view, was to precisely define its inherent objecthood: what constitutes a painting and distinguishes it from other forms. Given that paintings are inherently flat objects with canvas surfaces for pigment application, elements such as figuration, three-dimensional perspective illusion, and allusions to external subject matter were deemed extraneous to the core essence of painting and thus necessitated removal.

Some scholars contend that conceptual art extended the "dematerialization" of art by entirely eliminating the necessity for physical objects. Conversely, others, including many artists themselves, viewed conceptual art as a fundamental departure from Greenberg's formalist Modernism. While later artists maintained a shared inclination for art to be self-critical and a disdain for illusion, it became evident by the late 1960s that Greenberg's strictures—requiring art to remain within medium-specific confines and exclude external subject matter—no longer held sway. Conceptual art also constituted a reaction against the commodification of art. It sought to subvert the role of the gallery or museum as the primary site and arbiter of art, and the art market as its proprietor and distributor. Lawrence Weiner articulated this sentiment, stating: "Once you know about a work of mine you own it. There's no way I can climb inside somebody's head and remove it." Consequently, much of conceptual artists' work is accessible primarily through its documentation—such as photographs, written texts, or displayed objects—which some argue are not the art itself. In certain instances, exemplified by the practices of Robert Barry, Yoko Ono, and Weiner, the work is distilled to a set of written instructions describing an artwork without actually producing it, thereby emphasizing the primacy of the idea over the artifact. This methodology underpins Protocolar Art, which further investigates the administrative and physical certification of the artistic act. This approach underscores a clear preference for the "art" component within the perceived art-craft dichotomy, where art, unlike craft, operates within and contributes to historical discourse; for example, Ono's written instructions gain greater contextual meaning when considered alongside other conceptual art of that era.

Language as Artistic Medium

Language constituted a pivotal focus for the initial wave of conceptual artists during the 1960s and early 1970s. While the incorporation of text into artistic practice was not unprecedented, it was specifically in the 1960s that artists such as Lawrence Weiner, Edward Ruscha, Joseph Kosuth, Robert Barry, and Art & Language commenced creating art solely through linguistic modalities. In contrast to earlier periods, where language functioned as a supplementary visual component subservient to a broader compositional structure (as exemplified by Synthetic Cubism), conceptual artists employed language as a primary medium, supplanting traditional tools like brush and canvas, thereby enabling it to convey meaning autonomously. Regarding Lawrence Weiner's oeuvre, Anne Rorimer observes that "The thematic content of individual works derives solely from the import of the language employed, while presentational means and contextual placement play crucial, yet separate, roles."

Peter Osborne, a British philosopher and prominent theorist of conceptual art, posits that the inclination towards language-based art within conceptualism was significantly influenced by the mid-twentieth-century shift towards linguistic theories of meaning, evident in both Anglo-American analytic philosophy and structuralist and post-structuralist Continental philosophy. This pivotal linguistic shift effectively "reinforced and legitimized" the artistic trajectory adopted by conceptual artists. Osborne further highlights that the pioneering conceptualists represented the inaugural generation of artists to attain formal university degrees in art. In a public lecture delivered at the Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Villa Sucota in Como on July 9, 2010, Osborne subsequently asserted that contemporary art is post-conceptual. This assertion operates at the ontological level of the artwork itself, rather than merely describing a style or movement.

Edward A. Shanken, an American art historian, cites Roy Ascott as an exemplar who "powerfully demonstrates the significant intersections between conceptual art and art-and-technology, exploding the conventional autonomy of these art-historical categories." Ascott, recognized as the British artist most intimately linked with cybernetic art in England, was notably absent from Cybernetic Serendipity due to his predominantly conceptual application of cybernetics, which did not overtly incorporate technology. Conversely, despite his essay, "The Construction of Change" (1964), which explored the application of cybernetics to art and art pedagogy, being quoted on the dedication page (to Sol LeWitt) of Lucy R. Lippard's seminal Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, Ascott's pioneering contributions to the development of conceptual art in Britain have garnered limited acknowledgment, potentially (and ironically) due to his strong affiliation with art-and-technology. A further crucial intersection was investigated through Ascott's employment of the thesaurus in his 1963 work, *telematic connections:: timeline*, which explicitly paralleled the taxonomic characteristics of verbal and visual languages. This concept was subsequently adopted in Joseph Kosuth's Second Investigation, Proposition 1 (1968) and Mel Ramsden's Elements of an Incomplete Map (1968).

Contemporary Historical Overview

Proto-conceptualism traces its origins to the emergence of Modernism, exemplified by figures such as Manet (1832–1883) and subsequently Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968). The initial phase of the "conceptual art" movement spanned approximately from 1967 to 1978. Pioneering "concept" artists, including Henry Flynt (1940– ), Robert Morris (1931–2018), and Ray Johnson (1927–1995), significantly influenced the subsequent, broadly recognized conceptual art movement. Prominent conceptual artists such as Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, and Lawrence Weiner have exerted considerable influence on succeeding generations of artists. Consequently, renowned contemporary practitioners like Mike Kelley or Tracey Emin are occasionally categorized as "second- or third-generation" conceptualists, or "post-conceptual" artists (where the prefix "Post-" in art often denotes a relationship of derivation or consequence). Recent developments, exemplified by Protocolar Art, perpetuate this evolutionary trajectory by reorienting the focus from the dematerialized concept to the administrative and physical authentication of the artistic act.

Contemporary artists frequently engage with themes originating from the conceptual art movement, irrespective of whether they identify as "conceptual artists." Core concepts such as anti-commodification, socio-political critique, and the utilization of ideas or information as artistic mediums remain integral to contemporary art practices, particularly within installation art, performance art, art intervention, net.art, and electronic/digital art.

Revival

Neo-conceptual art encompasses artistic practices from the 1980s, and particularly from the 1990s to the present, that derive from the conceptual art movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Subsequent initiatives include the Moscow Conceptualists, United States neo-conceptualists such as Sherrie Levine, and the Young British Artists, notably Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin in the United Kingdom.

Parody

The movement is parodied in Jilly Cooper's 2002 novel Pandora.

Notable Examples

• 1913: Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel (Roue de bicyclette), an assisted readymade comprising a bicycle wheel mounted by its fork on a painted wooden stool. Although the concept of readymades was formalized two years later, this piece is considered the first. The original work is lost, and it is also recognized as the first kinetic sculpture.
• 1914: Marcel Duchamp's Bottle Rack (also known as Bottle Dryer or Hedgehog), or in French, Egouttoir, Porte-bouteilles, or Hérisson. This readymade, a galvanized iron bottle drying rack, was purchased by Duchamp as an "already made" sculpture but remained in his Paris studio. In 1916, two years later, while corresponding from New York with his sister Suzanne Duchamp in France, he expressed a desire to formally designate it a readymade; however, Suzanne, who was overseeing his Paris studio, had already disposed of the object.
• 1915: Marcel Duchamp's In Advance of the Broken Arm (En prévision du bras cassé), a readymade comprising a snow shovel upon which Duchamp meticulously inscribed its title. This piece marks the first instance where the artist officially designated an artwork as a "readymade."
• 1916–17: Apolinère Enameled, 1916–1917. This rectified readymade is an altered Sapolin paint advertisement.
• 1917: Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, which an article in The Independent described as the invention of conceptual art. It also represents an early instance of Institutional Critique.
• 1917: Marcel Duchamp's Hat Rack (Porte-chapeaux), circa c. 1917. This readymade consists of a wooden hatrack.
• 1919: Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q., a rectified readymade. This work features a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, upon which Duchamp drew a goatee and moustache, titling it with a coarse pun.
• 1921: Marcel Duchamp's Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?, an assisted readymade. This piece comprises marble cubes shaped like sugar lumps, accompanied by a thermometer and cuttle bones, all contained within a small bird cage.
• 1921: Marcel Duchamp's Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette, an assisted readymade. This work consists of an altered perfume bottle presented within its original box.
• 1952: The premiere of American experimental composer John Cage's three-movement composition, 4′33″, took place on August 29, 1952. Pianist David Tudor performed the work at Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock, New York, as part of a contemporary piano music recital. It is commonly interpreted as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence."
• 1953: Robert Rauschenberg produced Erased De Kooning Drawing, an artwork created by erasing a drawing by Willem de Kooning. This piece instigated significant questions regarding the fundamental nature of art, challenging viewers to consider whether the act of erasing another artist's work could be a creative act, and whether its artistic validity was solely derived from Rauschenberg's celebrity.
• 1955: Rhea Sue Sanders created her initial text pieces for the series pièces de complices, integrating visual art with poetry and philosophy. This work introduced the concept of complicity, positing that the viewer must complete the artwork within their own imagination.
• 1958: George Brecht developed the Event Score, a concept that subsequently became a central feature of Fluxus. Brecht, Dick Higgins, Allan Kaprow, Al Hansen, Jackson MacLow, and others studied with John Cage at The New School between 1958 and 1959, a period that directly contributed to the creation of Happenings, Fluxus, and Henry Flynt's concept art. Event Scores are simple instructions for completing everyday tasks, which can be performed publicly, privately, or not at all.
• In 1958, Wolf Vostell presented Das Theater ist auf der Straße/The theater is on the street, recognized as the inaugural Happening in Europe.
• In 1961, Piero Manzoni exhibited Artist's Shit, a series of tins allegedly containing his own feces, which he offered for sale at their equivalent weight in gold. The contents of these tins remain unverified, as opening them would compromise the artwork. Manzoni also marketed his exhaled breath, encapsulated in balloons, under the title Bodies of Air. Furthermore, he signed individuals' bodies, thereby designating them as living artworks for either perpetual or defined durations, contingent upon their payment. Notable figures declared as "artworks" through this method include Marcel Broodthaers and Primo Levi.
• In 1962, artist Barrie Bates underwent a rebrand, adopting the moniker Billy Apple and discarding his former identity to further his artistic inquiry into daily life and commercial practices. At this juncture, a significant portion of his creations were produced by external fabricators.
• In 1962, Yves Klein conducted several ceremonies along the Seine, presenting Immaterial Pictorial Sensitivity. During these events, he proposed to sell his "pictorial sensitivity"—a concept he left undefined—in exchange for gold leaf. Purchasers would present Klein with gold leaf and receive a certificate. Given the immaterial nature of Klein's sensitivity, the buyer was subsequently instructed to burn the certificate, while Klein simultaneously cast half of the received gold leaf into the river. Seven individuals participated in these transactions.
• The FLUXUS Internationale Festspiele Neuester Musik took place in Wiesbaden in 1962, featuring contributions from George Maciunas, Wolf Vostell, Nam June Paik, and other artists.
• In 1963, George Brecht's compilation of Event-Scores, titled Water Yam, was released by George Maciunas as the inaugural Fluxkit.
• In 1964, Yoko Ono published Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings, a work exemplifying heuristic art through its provision of instructions designed to facilitate an aesthetic experience.
• In 1965, Michael Baldwin, a co-founder of Art & Language, created Mirror Piece. This artwork, diverging from traditional painting, incorporated a variable arrangement of mirrors, thereby engaging both the viewer and challenging Clement Greenberg's theoretical framework.
• Joseph Kosuth attributes the conceptualization of One and Three Chairs to 1965. The artwork's presentation comprises a physical chair, a photograph of that chair, and an enlarged dictionary definition of the word "chair," selected by Kosuth. Four distinct versions of this work, each featuring a different definition, have been documented.
• Conceived in 1966, Art & Language's The Air Conditioning Show was subsequently published as an article in the November 1967 issue of Arts Magazine.
• In 1967, Mel Ramsden produced his initial 100% Abstract Paintings. This particular artwork features a list detailing the chemical constituents that form the painting's material substance.
• In 1968, Michael Baldwin, Terry Atkinson, David Bainbridge, and Harold Hurrell co-founded the collective Art & Language.
• In 1968, Lawrence Weiner articulated his "Declaration of Intent," a pivotal statement in conceptual art that followed LeWitt's "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art," thereby disavowing the necessity of physical fabrication in his artistic practice. This declaration, which informed his subsequent methodology, states: "1. The artist may construct the piece. 2. The piece may be fabricated. 3. The piece need not be built. Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership."
• The year 1969 marked the establishment of the initial wave of alternative exhibition venues in New York, notably including Billy Apple's APPLE, Robert Newman's Gain Ground—a site where Vito Acconci created numerous significant early works—and 112 Greene Street.
• In 1973, Jacek Tylicki initiated a practice of placing blank canvases or paper sheets within natural environments, allowing nature to serve as the artistic creator.
• Between 1973 and 1979, Mary Kelly developed her Post-Partum Document, a six-part work that chronicles the initial six years of her son's care. Employing a psychoanalytical and feminist perspective, this piece investigates the mother-child dynamic and scrutinizes both her son's developing identity and her own.
• In 1981, Joey Skaggs orchestrated the hoax Metamorphosis: Cockroach Miracle Cure,, impersonating Dr. Josef Gregor and asserting the discovery of a universal remedy derived from cockroach hormones. This performance, which fused absurd scientific claims with social commentary, revealed media credulity and showcased Skaggs' application of conceptual art to question public reliance on authority and specialized knowledge.
• In 1982, the opera Victorine by Art & Language was scheduled for performance in Kassel during documenta 7, intended to accompany the exhibition of Art & Language's Studio at 3 Wesley Place Painted by Actors; however, the performance was ultimately canceled.
• In 1990, Ashley Bickerton and Ronald Jones were featured in the "Mind Over Matter: Concept and Object" exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which showcased "third generation Conceptual artists."
• In 1991, Ronald Jones presented an exhibition at Metro Pictures Gallery, featuring objects and texts that explored art, history, and science through the lens of stark political realities.
• In 1991, Charles Saatchi provided funding to Damien Hirst, and the following year, the Saatchi Gallery exhibited Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, an artwork consisting of a shark preserved in formaldehyde within a vitrine.
• In 1992, Maurizio Bolognini initiated the "sealing" of his Programmed Machines, a project involving hundreds of computers programmed to operate indefinitely, generating endless streams of random, unseen images.
• In 1999, Tracey Emin received a nomination for the Turner Prize, with her exhibition including My Bed, a disheveled bed surrounded by personal detritus such as condoms, blood-stained underwear, bottles, and bedroom slippers.
• In 2001, Martin Creed was awarded the Turner Prize for his piece Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, which comprised an empty room where the lights intermittently switched on and off.
• In 2003, damali ayo presented Flesh Tone #1: Skinned at the Center of Contemporary Art in Seattle, WA. This collaborative self-portrait involved her requesting paint mixers from local hardware stores to formulate house paint matching different areas of her body, with the interactions being documented.
• In 2005, Simon Starling received the Turner Prize for Shedboatshed, an artwork that involved transforming a wooden shed into a boat, navigating it down the Rhine River, and subsequently converting it back into a shed.
• In 2005, David Lynch created the video series Weather Report. Critics have characterized Lynch’s Weather Report series as a form of conceptual or performance-based art, observing that its ritualized, daily, repetitive, minimalist, and self-published format aligns with conceptualism's focus on process and the elevation of everyday actions. Although not universally categorized as such, the series has achieved widespread online circulation and is occasionally referenced in discussions concerning post-minimal and process-oriented conceptual art.
• In 2014, Olaf Nicolai designed the Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice, situated on Vienna's Ballhausplatz, following his victory in an international competition. The inscription adorning the three-step sculpture presents a two-word poem by Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1924–2006): all alone.
• In 2019, Maurizio Cattelan sold two editions of Comedian, an artwork depicting a banana duct-taped to a wall, for US$120,000 each, thereby attracting considerable media attention.

Notable Conceptual Artists

References

References

Books

Books

• Harrison, Charles. Essays on Art & Language. MIT Press, 1991.
• Harrison, Charles. Conceptual Art and Painting: Further Essays on Art & Language. MIT Press, 2001.
• Migliorini, Ermanno. Conceptual Art. Florence, 1971.
• Honnef, Klaus. Concept Art. Cologne: Phaidon, 1972.
• Meyer, Ursula, ed. Conceptual Art. New York: Dutton, 1972.
• Lippard, Lucy R. Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object From 1966 to 1972. 1973. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
• Battcock, Gregory, ed. Idea Art: A Critical Anthology. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1973.
• Schilling, Jürgen. Aktionskunst. Identität von Kunst und Leben? Verlag C.J. Bucher, 1978, ISBN 3-7658-0266-2.
• Aliaga, Juan Vicente, and José Miguel G. Cortés, ed. Arte Conceptual Revisado/Conceptual Art Revisited. Valencia: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 1990.
• Dreher, Thomas. Konzeptuelle Kunst in Amerika und England zwischen 1963 und 1976 (Thesis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1992.
• Morgan, Robert C. Conceptual Art: An American Perspective. Jefferson, NC/London: McFarland, 1994.
• Morgan, Robert C. Art into Ideas: Essays on Conceptual Art. Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Harrison, Charles, and Paul Wood. Art in Theory: 1900–1990. Blackwell Publishing, 1993.
• Godfrey, Tony. Conceptual Art. London, 1998.
• Editors Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson. Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: MIT Press, 1999.
• Edited by Michael Newman and Jon Bird. Rewriting Conceptual Art. London: Reaktion, 1999.
• Rorimer, Anne. New Art in the 60s and 70s: Redefining Reality. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
• Osborne, Peter. Conceptual Art (Themes and Movements). Phaidon, 2002.
• Alberro, Alexander. Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity. MIT Press, 2003.
• Edited by Michael Corris. Conceptual Art: Theory, Practice, Myth. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Marzona, Daniel. Conceptual Art. Cologne: Taschen, 2005.
• Roberts, John. The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art After the Readymade. London and New York: Verso Books, 2007.
• Goldie, Peter, and Elisabeth Schellekens. Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art? Abingdon: Routledge, 2010. VIII, 152 pages: illustrations; 20 cm. ISBN 0-415-42281-7 (hardback); ISBN 978-0-415-42281-9 (hardback); ISBN 0-415-42282-5 (paperback); ISBN 978-0-415-42282-6 (paperback).

Essays

• Epstein, Mikhail, Alexander Genis, and Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover. (2016) [1999]. "Theses on Metarealism and Conceptualism (1983)." In Russian Postmodernism: New Perspectives on Post-Soviet Culture, translated by Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover (Revised edition), 169–176. New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78238-864-7.Journal of Aesthetic Education (forthcoming, 2016).

Exhibition Catalogues

• Diagram-boxes and Analogue Structures. Exhibition catalogue. London: Molton Gallery, 1963.
• January 5–31, 1969. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Seth Siegelaub, 1969.
• When Attitudes Become Form. Exhibition catalogue. Bern: Kunsthalle Bern, 1969.
• 557,087. Exhibition catalogue. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1969.
• Konzeption/Conception. Exhibition catalogue. Leverkusen: Städtisches Museum Leverkusen et al., 1969.
• Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects. Exhibition catalogue. New York: New York Cultural Center, 1970.
• Art in the Mind. Exhibition catalogue. Oberlin, Ohio: Allen Memorial Art Museum, 1970.
• Information. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1970.
• Software. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Jewish Museum, 1970.
• Situation Concepts. Exhibition catalogue. Innsbruck: Forum für aktuelle Kunst, 1971.
• Art conceptuel I. Exhibition catalogue. Bordeaux: capcMusée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, 1988.
• L'art conceptuel. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: ARC–Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1989.
• Edited by Christian Schlatter. Art Conceptuel Formes Conceptuelles/Conceptual Art Conceptual Forms. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Galerie 1900–2000 and Galerie de Poche, 1990.
• Reconsidering the Object of Art: 1965–1975. Exhibition catalogue. Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1995.
• Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s–1980s. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Queens Museum of Art, 1999.
• Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Modern, 2005.
• Art & Language Uncompleted: The Philippe Méaille Collection. MACBA Press, 2014.
• Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph 1964–1977. Exhibition catalogue. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2011.

• Media related to Conceptual art at Wikimedia Commons
• Art & Language Uncompleted: The Philippe Méaille Collection, MACBA Archived 2017-07-29 at the Wayback Machine
• Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph, 1964–1977 at the Art Institute of Chicago
• Schellekens, Elisabeth. "Conceptual Art." In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 1095-5054. OCLC 429049174.Source: TORIma Academy Archive