Conceptualism and Materiality. Matters of Art and Politics

Oct 10-11, 2019, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Paper titled “Notation, Aspiration, Science, and Labour in Early Conceptual Art in Poland” delivered at a conference that celebrated the publication of Conceptualism and Materiality: Matters of Art and Politics (ed. by Christian Berger, Brill, 2019).

The aim of this conference and publication is to underscore the significance of materials and materiality within Anglo-American Conceptual art, as well as conceptualism more broadly. The conference challenges the notion of conceptualism as an idea-centred, anti-materialist enterprise, and highlights the political implications thereof.

The contributors focus on the importance of material considerations for artists working during the 1960s and 1970s in different parts of the world. In reconsidering conceptualism’s neglected material aspects, this group of international scholars will gather in London to reveal the rich range of artistic inquiries into theoretical and political notions of matter and material. They revise and diversify the account of a decisive moment in the history of twentieth-century art—a reassessment that carries wider implications for the study of art and materiality in general.

The conference is organised by Dr Christian Berger, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz/Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow, The Courtauld Institute of Art. Supported by The Centre for American Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art.