Conceptual Art, Ideas, and Ontology

Abstract

Peter Goldie and Elisabeth Schellekens have recently articulated the Idea Idea, the thesis that “in conceptual art, there is no physical medium: the medium is the idea.” But what is an idea, and in the case of works such as Duchamp's Fountain, how does the idea relate to the urinal? In answering these questions, it becomes apparent that the Idea Idea should be rejected. After showing this, I offer a new ontology of conceptual art, according to which such artworks are not ideas but artifacts imbued with ideas. After defending this view from objections, I briefly discuss some implications it has for the ontology of art in general.

Can There Be Conceptual Dance?

“…But it is not clear that the objecthood of conceptual artworks dissolves as completely as the idea idea indicates, nor that the ontological position which maintains that artworks are ideas is sustainable. One might, on the one hand, probe the ontology of ideas to question whether artworks can indeed be ideas (Cray ; Cray and Schroeder ). On the other hand, one might question the assumption that the different mode of appreciation required by conceptual art in comparison with traditional art necessarily also implies a distinct ontology (Dodd ).…”

In Advance of the Broken Theory: Philosophy and Contemporary Art

“…According to the idea idea, “in conceptual art, there is no physical medium: the medium is the idea ” (Goldie and Schellekens : 33) . As we shall see in Section , they say little about what ideas actually are, but a promising account has it that ideas are, in fact, physical entities: namely, spatially discontinuous systems of contentful mental state tokens (Cray , 237). On this construal of ideas, even a medium of ideas is a physical medium.…”

Reconsidering the exhibitionWhen Attitudes Become Formcurated by Harald Szeemann: form versus “anti-form” in contemporary art

“…However, Wesley D. Cray disagrees with the authors of idea idea, rejecting their thesis stating, "in conceptual art, there is no physical medium: the medium is the idea" and arguing that "without offering something to say about what ideas are, it is hard to know what to make of such claims". 19 Wesley D. Cray demonstrates a row of views showing somewhat unsure attitude of art critics and artists to the meaning of "non-perceptual idea" in contemporary art. For example, Timothy Binkley's suggestion that, "to know the art is to know the idea", and Joseph Kosuth's saying that "the 'art idea' (or 'work') and art are the same" followed by Robert C. Morgan pointing out that, "[to] say that art is about ideas is a problematic and misleading assertion.…”