Concept Art

A core tenet of Conceptual Art is that “the idea is the art.” From Duchamp to Warhol to Hirst, artists have been challenging the notions of art as a representational medium. What began as an intellectual challenge has taken over the art world. Nothing gains traction in today’s art “market” without having the idea as its primary driver. Concept is king. Technical skills and emotional resonance are secondary.

I used to view this with contempt. To me, art is valuable when the person who created it has learned and practiced technical skills—then developed that into a style and message that resonates with the viewer. It tells a story, communicates a message, evokes a feeling. It either succeeds at what it set out to do, or it doesn’t—and you can tell by looking at it, by how it looks and feels. Like poetry or music or dance. It requires practice in the art form to create convincing works.

As a non-artist friend once said, “if I can make it, it’s not art.”

Think of the banana taped to the wall that recently sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s. That is concept art at its apex.

It’s often a private intellectual exercise, a diary of doodles, an elitist sneering at lesser mortals who don’t get it. A money-making ploy that cracks a joke at everyone’s expense. Or an investment in an unregulated commodities market, or an easy way for cartels and terrorists to launder money.

I met some of the early concept and pop artists when I worked at Gemini Graphics Editions Limited in LA in 1988-1990—Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, Elsworth Kelly, Daniel Buren. Certain personal experiences left a bad taste in my mouth for contemporary art and the market side of things. So, I decided to make money from commercial design and illustration and pursue my own painting without exposing it to the art market.

But as a lifetime of expressionist paintings have piled up, and my commercial work has been dwindling (Covid, AI, aging), I’ve begun to rethink the ideas underlying my work. I’m old enough now to realize that if I see a bias in my mind, it’s usually a signal to question it. Can I approach Concept Art differently, and what can I learn from it? Especially in this age of AI, which is rapidly transforming how we think, work, create, and make money (no AI was used in the writing of this newsletter, by the way).

All art begins with a concept, an idea, a guiding principle that sparks the creation. In that sense, we are all Concept Artists.

I’m curious, if you’re familiar at all with my art, what do you think is the Concept behind my work? Like all of us, I have blind spots when it comes to seeing myself clearly. I welcome your perspective!

Art Heals

In contrast to the banana on the wall, L.V. Hull's use of mundane objects in art was intimate, spiritual, and communal. I came across this review of an exhibition of her work at the Mississippi Museum of Art. She spent over thirty years transforming her home and garden into a living, breathing art installation. She welcomed visitors and invited neighbors to stop by anytime. She had no designs on the art world, and instead made her living as a domestic worker, and created things to express joy and connection.

With love and light,

Maggie