Conceptual Art – is idea art. Here the idea that the artist is exploring is worked out in the most appropriate medium available, such as performance, found materials, land-art, photography, words, or actions, it really can be made of anything! The movement of conceptual art developed in the 1960’s and broke away from traditional forms of art where an artist captures their ideas in a preconceived traditional medium such as sculpture or painting. The idea of what art can be in conceptual art links to Duchamps Fountain from 1917. Artists include Joseph Beuys, Gilbert and George and Richard Long. It mainly refers to art of the 1960’s & 1970’s but is still being used by artists today. As with the idea of Fluxus the artists were trying to by pass the commercial art gallery and stress that the value in their work was through the thought process and methods of production, rather than the finished end object. This makes the work difficult to be bought or sold, or viewed in a formal gallery setting, thus relating to Ephermeral Art and Land Art.
Ephermeral Art – is short lived works of art, that only exist for a fleeting moment in time and includes things like earth sculpture or performance art. It started to develop in the 1960’s along with the fluxus movement that was seeking to create art outside of commercial galleries.
Fluxus – an avant garde movement lead in the 1960’s by George Maciunas (inspired by the musical work of John Cage). The movement was more about an attitude towards art. The manifesto developed by Maciumas suggested “promote a revolutionary flood and tide in art, promote living art, anti-art.” The flux is a word collected to flow (think flux used in soldering) and the art created occurred in the moment (like performance and music events). Artist involved included Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, (Wilson and Lack, 2008). The movement challenged traditional academic art and music, was open to all, and artists looked to use what was available to hand to create their work. Collaboration between artists was encouraged. Fluxus stirred up the definition of art and what it could be and is related to conceptual, performance and has roots in Dada (Berlin 1920’s).
Land Art (or Earth Art) – This is where an artist works directly with the Earth, moving, or making interventions in the landscape, or simply just being there. They may work with organic natural materials, such as mud, rocks, boulders, pebbles, wood, branches, twigs, leaves, grasses, ice, snow, river beds or experiment with natural processes such desiccation cracks in dried mud. The scale of the work can be monumental and domineering man managed such as spiral jetty 1970 by Robert Smithson or much more subtle like Richard Long (although he doesn’t consider himself to be a Land Artist.)
The work of Land Art can be ephermeral like Andy Goldsworthys work, or as conceptual art as an action such as a purposeful walk. In this case the work can not exist within a gallery space or be shared easily with a viewer therefore artists document their work, which in itself can become works of art, such as photography, text work, maps, prints, documents, art books.
Performance Art – is when an artists acts out an idea, the Tate (2017) art definition puts it simply as “Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted.” Along with conceptual art, and fluxus in the 1960’s performance art explores non-traditional art works moving away from the set ways of painting and sculpture, and embraces a more non-material way of art.
References
Tate. (2017). Conceptual art – Art Term. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/conceptual-art [Accessed 26 May 2017].
Tate. (2017). Ephemeral art – Art Term. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/e/ephemeral-art [Accessed 26 May 2017].
Tate. (2017). Fluxus – Art Term. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fluxus [Accessed 17 May 2017].
Tate. (2017). Land Art – Art Term. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/l/land-art [Accessed 26 May 2017].
Tate. (2017). Performance – Art Term. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/performance-art [Accessed 26 May 2017].
Wilson, S. and Lack, J. (2008). The Tate guide to modern art terms. 1st ed. London: Tate Publishing.
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