Conceptual Art

An upheaval in art occurred early in the 20th century when Marcel Duchamp decided that the artistic act lay not in the fabrication of an artwork but in its designation as art—if he picked up a bottle rack, he maintained, and called it a sculpture, it was so. The artists in this collection continue in Duchamp's legacy, placing the weight of their efforts on the thinking behind their works, with the visual manifestations being mere clothing on an idea.