Post-conceptual, postconceptual, post-conceptualism or postconceptualism is an
art theory that builds upon the legacy of
conceptual art in
contemporary art, where the
concept(s) or
idea(s) involved in the work takes some precedence over traditional
aesthetic and material concerns.[1] The term first came into art school parlance through the influence of
John Baldessari at the
California Institute of the Arts in the early 1970s. The writer Eldritch Priest, specifically ties John Baldessari's piece Throwing four balls in the air to get a square (best of 36 tries) from 1973 (in which the artist attempted to do just that, photographing the results, and eventually selecting the best out of 36 tries, with 36 being the determining number as that is the standard number of shots on a roll of
35mm film) as an early example of post-conceptual art.[2] It is now often connected to
generative art and
digital art production.[3]
Conceptual art focused attention on the idea behind the art object and questioned the traditional role of that object as the conveyor of
meaning. Subsequently, those theories cast doubt upon the necessity of materiality itself as conceptual artists "de-materialized" the art object and began to produce time-based and
ephemeral artworks. Although total
dematerialization of the art object never occurred, the
art object became flexible –
malleable – and that malleability, coupled with
semiotics and
computer processing, has resulted in the post-conceptual art object.[12]
The idea of post-conceptual art was clearly articulated by
Tricia Collins and
Richard Milazzo in the early 1980s in New York City,[16] when within their
Collins & Milazzo Exhibitions they brought to prominence a new generation of conceptual artists through their copious writings and curatorial activity.[17] It was their exhibitions and writings[18][19] that originally fashioned the theoretical context for a new kind of neo (or post)
conceptual art; one that argued simultaneously against
Neo-Expressionism and
The Pictures Generation.[20]
British philosopher and theorist of conceptual art
Peter Osborne makes the point that "post-conceptual art is not the name for a particular type of art so much as the historical-
ontological condition for the production of contemporary art in general...."[21] Osborne first noted that contemporary art is post-conceptual in a public lecture delivered at the Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Villa Sucota in
Como on July 9, 2010. Osborne's main thesis is that the convergence and mutual conditioning of historical transformations in the ontology of the artwork and the social relations of art space make contemporary art possible.[22]
^“This creation of an inaccessible space between Real and Virtual displays the self-positing nature of Virtuality from the void, and a potential arena for reframing the emptiness of the subject. Bolognini’s position 'at the crossroads of conceptual art and generative art' (Bolognini 2012) can be associated with the post-conceptual practice Peter Osborne identifies as 'the fictional presentness of the contemporary' favouring presentation over representation.” G. Benjamin, The Cyborg Subject. Reality, Consciousness, Parallax, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2016, p. 86.
^Gaiger, Jason (2004). "Post conceptual painting: Gerhard Richter's Extended Leave-taking in themes in contemporary art". In Perry, Gillian; Wood, Paul (eds.).
Themes in contemporary art. New Haven: Yale University Press in association with the Open University. pp. 89–135.
ISBN0-300-10143-0.
OCLC56191165.