Concept as material: a materialist analysis of the concept in Anglophone Conceptual Art 1965-72
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Date
2025
Authors
Thompson, John M.
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Publisher
University College Cork
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the notion of the concept as material, articulated first by Henry Flynt and later found, in order to be dismissed, in accounts of conceptual art. In scholarship the idea of a concept as material is rejected in favour of accounts which focus on conceptual art as the questioning of what art is (Kosuth) or upon the dematerialisation of the art object thesis (Lippard). While, as Paul Wood notes, it is correct that there was no actual empirical historical link to be found between Flynt’s term and the practice of the early conceptual artists, I argue that this notion - the concept as material - should be taken seriously as a tool with which to talk about conceptual art. However, in order to do this the thesis must consist of a series of arguments for the theoretical presuppositions necessary for analysis utilising such a tool. The thesis thus focuses on accounts of materials, materiality and materialization in philosophy, art history and theory in order to ascertain a model capable of speaking of the concept as material. Accounts of the history of thought upon the concept of concept are then given. Here, it is argued that each model of the concept is a valid type of concept and as such that these types of concept can be chosen as a material in art. In specific an analytical model of the concept, where tautological definition plays a prominent role will be seen to be utilised in conceptual art. Other aspects of the materiality of the concept are highlighted utilising Deleuze and Guattari’s conception of the concept as event. The thesis further grounds the origin of the concept in the practice of society via the concept of real abstraction. The relation between concept, word and image in conceptual art is then analysed as taking on aspects of the model of the diagram, as contrasted to the ideogram or calligram. Finally, the thesis grapples with the notion of abstraction in the work of conceptual artists, arguing that where we find conceptual artists talking about abstraction or developing their practice based on a move towards a form of greater abstraction we find them grappling with the concept as material. The conclusion sums up the findings of the thesis by including a brief account of the concept as a material in the style of an entry in a handbook of artists' materials.
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Keywords
Conceptual art , Art history , Materialism , Philosophy , Joseph Kosuth , Adrian Piper , Wittgenstein , Deleuze , Sohn-Rethel , Contemporary art
Citation
Thompson, J. 2025. Concept as material: a materialist analysis of the concept in Anglophone Conceptual Art 1965-72. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.