WHEN THE IDEA TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER THE MATERIAL FORM

With the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the events of 1968, the exhibition seeks to revisit a fascinating period calling into question artistic conventions and which has radically changed creation through to the present day.

A return to conceptual art, a major movement of the 1960’s and 70’s, with a tour through the collection of the MAMC+. The conceptual artists, heirs to Marcel Duchamp, gave precedence to the idea over the material form. They contested the traditional rules of production and diffusion of works of art, while developing new original processes.

The exhibition presents some sixty emblematic works produced by thirty artists, along with a collection of publications. The thematic circuit is organized around the four principle methods particular to conceptualism: language, seriality, identity and programme.

Curator

Alexandre Quoi
Art Historian
Senior Lecturer at AMU-CNRS, UMR TELEMME

Artists presented

Eleanor Antin, Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, Ian Burn, John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Bernd et Hilla Becher, Marcel Broodthaers, stanley brouwn, Alighiero Boetti, Victor Burgin, Hanne Darboven, VALIE EXPORT, Dan Graham, Douglas Huebler, Yves Klein, On Kawara, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, François Morellet, Olivier Mosset, Tania Mouraud, Bruce Nauman, Roman Opalka, Mel Ramsden, Ed Ruscha, Claude Rutault, Philippe Thomas, Niele Toroni, Bernar Venet

“In conceptual art, the idea or the concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, this implies that everything has been defined and decided beforehand, the execution being a mere formality. The idea becomes a machine for making art."
Sol LeWitt, "Paragraphs on conceptual art", 1967.

Sixty emblematic works

Thirty international artists