Concept

Jiyoo Jye and Caitlin Morris
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Time Lapse of Lewitt's drawing at the Carnegie Museum of Art

LeWitt believed that the artist was a generator of ideas, that the idea itself could be the work of art. LeWitt’s created “instructions” which became the works themselves. According to The Art Story, LeWitt thought:

"Like an architect who creates a blueprint for a building and then turns the project over to a construction crew, an artist should be able to conceive of a work and then either delegate its actual production to others or perhaps even never make it at all."

“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work…all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution of the work is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” (Sol LeWitt, Paragraphs on Art)


R. Mutt, 1917 "Fountain"

 “Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view—created a new thought for that object.”  


Claes Oldenberg, "Statement"  1961

I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.
I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all, an art given the chance of having a starting point of zero.
I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap and still comes out on top.
I am for an art that imitates the human, that is comic, if necessary, or violent, or whatever is necessary.

I am for the art that a kid licks, after peeling away the wrapper.
I am for an art that joggles like everyone’s knees, when the bus traverses an excavation.
I am for art that is smoked like a cigarette, smells like a pair of shoes.

I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is.
I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street.

I am for the art of the washing machine. I am for the art of a government check. I am for the art of last war’s raincoat.