Conceptual Art

(since 1960s)

a movement that prizes ideas and concepts over the actual visual components of art.
took various forms, such as performances, happenings, and ephemera.
completely rejected standard ideas of art. Their chief concept - that the articulation of an artistic idea suffices as a work of art - implied that concerns such as aesthetics, expression, skill and marketability were irrelevant. Art is not an object, but a concept. So art is in the form of an idea and the playing of the 'concept' of art itself.
So drastically simplified, it might be considered by many people to be not "art" at all
a succession of avant-garde movements (Cubism, Dada, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, etc.) that succeeded in self-consciously expanding the boundaries of art.
Conceptual artists link their work to a tradition of Marcel Duchamp, whose Readymades had rattled the definition of art. Like Duchamp, they abandoned beauty, rarity, and skill as measures of art.
To recognize that all art is essentially conceptual, Conceptual artists reduced the material presence of the work to an absolute minimum – also known as the "dematerialization" of art.
Unlike Minimalism, Conceptual art insists art need not look like a traditional work of art, or even take any physical form at all.
One belief pursued by many conceptual artists is that if the artist began the artwork, the gallery and the audience in some way completed it. This is known as 'institutional critique,' which can be understood as an emphasis of cultural values of art in society at large.
Much Conceptual Art is self-conscious or self-referential. Like Duchamp and other modernists, they created art that is about art, and pushed its limits by using minimal materials.