Conceptualism and Materiality
Matters of Art and Politics
Published on 29. August 2019
Book
Hardback
346 pages
978-90-04-37283-2 (ISBN)
Description
Conceptualism and Materiality. Matters of Art and Politics underscores the significance of materials and materiality within Conceptual art and conceptualism more broadly. It challenges the notion of conceptualism as an idea-centered, anti-materialist enterprise, and highlights the political implications thereof.
The essays focus on the importance of material considerations for artists working during the 1960s and 1970s in different parts of the world. In reconsidering conceptualism's neglected material aspects, the authors reveal the rich range of artistic inquiries into theoretical and political notions of matter and material. Their studies revise and diversify the account of this important chapter in the history of twentieth-century art - a reassessment that carries wider implications for the study of art and materiality in general .
The essays focus on the importance of material considerations for artists working during the 1960s and 1970s in different parts of the world. In reconsidering conceptualism's neglected material aspects, the authors reveal the rich range of artistic inquiries into theoretical and political notions of matter and material. Their studies revise and diversify the account of this important chapter in the history of twentieth-century art - a reassessment that carries wider implications for the study of art and materiality in general .
Reviews / Votes
"Berger's edited volume of eleven chapters is a welcome addition to the literature on conceptual art and one that begins a necessary dialogue between this and materialist methodologies. [...] [It] challenge[s] certain easy equations between conceptualism and idealism, or between conceptualism and a focus on 'dematerialized' language. [It] will also challenge those who see a 'return to objects' as necessarily materialist."John Thompson, Art History 45, no. 1 (February 2022)
"The relationship between art and material is of great relevance-not only under the impression of the digital. [...] A tense relationship to the material (first and foremost in the sense of the material of a work) is generally attributed to Conceptual Art, whereby the emphasis on the (artistic) idea-a topos-is understood as a criticism of materiality. The debate here has been and continues to be about whether material is a prerequisite for art and its transformation an original task of artists. The rich, challenging and insightful conference volume Conceptualism and Materiality. Matters of Art and Politics is dedicated to this topic."
Michael Rottmann, Hochschule fuer Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW Basel in Texte zur Kunst
"A solid repertoire of subtle strategies of analysis, brilliant ideas and bibliographical paths, this volume is a valuable point of departure for further studies in materiality and it contributes to look at Conceptualism through new lenses."
Filippo Bosco, in sehepunkte
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
905 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-37283-2 (9789004372832)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Christian Berger, Ph.D. (2013), Freie Universitaet Berlin, is a lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz and currently a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London. His scholarship focuses on conceptualism and on artistic materials and techniques.