1. Conceptual Art

2. Language and Art Share this information with your students:
Language was an important tool for Conceptual artists in the 1960s. Many Conceptual artists used language in place of brush and canvas, and words played a primary role in their emphasis on ideas over visual forms.
MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

3. Joseph Kosuth. One and Three Chairs. 1965.
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Though text had been used in art long before this, artists like Joseph Kosuth were among the first to give words such a central role. The way the words look plays a role in Conceptual art, but it is language itself that has the ultimate significance.
In One and Three Chairs, Kosuth combined three different objects that represent the idea of a chair: a manufactured chair, a photograph of a chair, and a copy of a dictionary entry for the word “chair.”
How do the photograph and the dictionary definition function differently than the chair itself?
Is one representation of the chair—visual or written—more accurate?
How might your interpretation of this work have differed if Kosuth had selected an ornate chair? 
Joseph Kosuth. One and Three Chairs
Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of "chair," chair 32 3/8 x 14 7/8 x 20 7/8" (82 x 37.8 x 53 cm), photographic panel 36 x 24 1/8" (91.5 x 61.1 cm), text panel 24 x 24 1/8" (61 x 61.3 cm).
Larry Aldrich Foundation Fund
Joseph Kosuth. One and Three Chairs
MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

4. John Baldessari. I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art. 1971
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I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art was my response to Nova Scotia College of Art and Design to do an exhibition there… As there wasn’t enough money for me to travel to Nova Scotia, I proposed that the students voluntarily write “I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art” on the walls of the gallery, like punishment. To my surprise they covered the walls.” – John Baldessari
We all agree that the word “art” signifies art, but everyone has a different interpretation of what the word art means.  While one person may consider a work of art boring, another may find it brilliant, and still another might not consider it art at all. Do you consider I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art a work of art? Why or why not?
John Baldessari. I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
Lithograph, composition: 22 3/8 x 29 9/16" (56.8 x 75.1 cm); sheet: 22 7/16 x 30 1/16" (57 x 76.4 cm).
John B. Turner Fund
John Baldessari. I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art. 1971
MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

5. Let’s compare each artist’s approach to making art.
Share this information with your students:
How is Baldessari’s role in making I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art similar to Kosuth’s role in making One and Three Chairs? How is it different?
John Baldessari. I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
Lithograph, composition: 22 3/8 x 29 9/16" (56.8 x 75.1 cm); sheet: 22 7/16 x 30 1/16" (57 x 76.4 cm).
John B. Turner Fund
Joseph Kosuth. One and Three Chairs
Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of "chair," chair 32 3/8 x 14 7/8 x 20 7/8" (82 x 37.8 x 53 cm), photographic panel 36 x 24 1/8" (91.5 x 61.1 cm), text panel 24 x 24 1/8" (61 x 61.3 cm).
Larry Aldrich Foundation Fund
John Baldessari. I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art. 1971
Joseph Kosuth. One and Three Chairs
MoMA What is Modern Art?

6. “I think the wonderful irony about this piece is that it's text
“I think the wonderful irony about this piece is that it's text. But in fact it is a painting, because it's done with paint on canvas. So I'm really being very slyly ironic here in saying, ‘Well, this is what painting is.’”
– John Baldessari
Share this information with your students:
Though text had been used in art long before this, artists like Joseph Kosuth were among the first to make art using words only. The way the words look plays a role in conceptual art, but it is the language itself that has the ultimate significance. Baldessari didn’t make this work of art, he found the definition for painting and had a sign letterer paint the words on the canvas. Should Baldessari be considered the artist of this work since his only role in its making was to provide the idea and instructions? If the artist’s hand isn’t present, does that mean the work of art isn’t art at all?
John Baldessari. What Is Painting. 1966–68.
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 67 3/4 x 56 3/4" (172.1 x cm).
Gift of Donald L. Bryant, Jr. © 2012 John Baldessari
John Baldessari. What Is Painting. 1966–68.
MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

7. Share this information with your students:
Serra began experimenting in the mid-1960s both with nontraditional materials like fiberglass, neon and rubber, and with the language involved in the physical process of making sculpture. The result was a list of action verbs—"to roll, to crease, to curve"—that Serra compiled, listed on paper, and then enacted on the materials he had collected in his studio. This work, made from discarded rubber recovered from a warehouse in lower Manhattan, is a result of the rubber's unique response to the artist's enacting of the action verb "to lift.”
How does the title of this work contribute to your understanding of it? Would it mean the same thing if the sculpture was untitled?
Richard Serra. To Lift
Vulcanized rubber, 36" x 6' 8" x 60" (91.4 x 200 x cm). Gift of the artist.
© 2012 Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Richard Serra. To Lift
MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme