I've read two good ways of explaining what conceptual art 'is' recently, possibly both in the same interview: it's not a style but rather a strategy (or set of strategies), and it's not simply art that has a concept but more particularly is art that is interested in the concept of art. And while conceptual art and contemporary art - the latter being the purview of these two large format books (A-K and L-Z) - aren't the same thing, they certainly overlap quite a lot.
Across these 100, there are:
Of the new ones, a few who I flagged as particularly interesting for one reason or another, and possible follow up. With the book's selected quotation from each artist:
Doug Aitken. The question for me is how can I make time somehow collapse or expand, so it no longer unfolds in this narrow form.
Peter Doig. Often I am trying to create a 'numbness.' I am trying to create something that is questionable, something that is difficult, if not impossible, to put into words.
Gunther Forg. For me, abstract art today is that what you see, and nothing more.
Won Ju Lim. I am interested in my work referring to multiple things simultaneously. I am also interested in my work slipping from one reference to another.
Wangechi Mutu. I can act out the victimizer or the victim; I can perform the role of the manipulator of the image but also the manipulated. I think art can carry those two positions at the same time, and it can complicate how people see things.
Chris Ofili. So my painting starts off very, very pale and then proceeds towards darkness. In the end, you get the feeling that the light is coming from within.
Thomas Struth. When you work with photographs, it's almost natural to long for slowness because the intention is to grasp something, to present a work that expresses a broader range of meanings, that is intense and capable of offering a shared experience with other people.
Across these 100, there are:
- a few whose work I'd say I know at least moderately well, as these things go: Banksy, Olafur Eliasson, Andreas Gursky, Anish Kapoor, Yoshitomo Nara
- others who are part of the landscape but into whose art I haven't penetrated as deeply: Ai Weiwei, Matthew Barney, Maurizio Cattelan, Thomas Demand, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall
- a few more who I know basically by name and from perhaps a handful of specific works: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tracey Emin, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Tony Oursler (entirely from that terrifying hissing lightbulb in an ACCA exhibition a while back), Raymond Pettibon, Pipilotti Rist
- plenty of others who were new to me.
Of the new ones, a few who I flagged as particularly interesting for one reason or another, and possible follow up. With the book's selected quotation from each artist:
Doug Aitken. The question for me is how can I make time somehow collapse or expand, so it no longer unfolds in this narrow form.
Peter Doig. Often I am trying to create a 'numbness.' I am trying to create something that is questionable, something that is difficult, if not impossible, to put into words.
Gunther Forg. For me, abstract art today is that what you see, and nothing more.
Won Ju Lim. I am interested in my work referring to multiple things simultaneously. I am also interested in my work slipping from one reference to another.
Wangechi Mutu. I can act out the victimizer or the victim; I can perform the role of the manipulator of the image but also the manipulated. I think art can carry those two positions at the same time, and it can complicate how people see things.
Chris Ofili. So my painting starts off very, very pale and then proceeds towards darkness. In the end, you get the feeling that the light is coming from within.
Thomas Struth. When you work with photographs, it's almost natural to long for slowness because the intention is to grasp something, to present a work that expresses a broader range of meanings, that is intense and capable of offering a shared experience with other people.
