Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

jects waiting to be turned into an art object—as was the case with Land art—their references
are instead unspecified events or processes.
Following Georg Jappe’s formula, one could say that Conceptual art substitutes the
object-like (“verdinglichte”) final work by a creative process. This implies, to be sure, a recourse
to subjectivity, a rediscovery of an individualistic gesture without fixed meaning. However, to
see in this only a new version of the subjective structures of Art Informel means to ignore the
completely different structural perspective through which the subjective gesture can obtain a
universal, that is, procedural, meaning.
Since the sketch replaces the final work of art, art does without its traditional finalized
form and, therefore, assigns a new role not only to the artist, but also to the viewer. The artist
gives only a hint, an indication or general direction, and the viewer is no longer reduced to
merely perceiving the finalized work and to interpreting what he sees. He is exposed to the
necessity and, at the same time, the possibility, to reflect upon the indications the sketch provides
him with following his own ideas and associations. In the case of Conceptual art the
creative process does not end with a final product, but stays within the field of open forms,
representing an ongoing process.
Independent of the individual idea in a concrete conceptual design and notwithstanding
the fact that one may judge a concrete conceptual design as meaningful or nonsensical, one
thing is sure: a new procedure becomes visible within this form of art that has the potential for
entirely new artistic developments, even if they will lead to different artistic practices than the
ones represented in present Conceptual art. In this understanding, present Conceptual art is
neither perceived as the paradigmatic contemporary art form nor is it promoted to represent
any transcendent meanings or aspirations; however, by understanding Conceptual art as a new
artistic procedure, its significance lies in being something like a theoretical art.
This text served as the introduction for the catalogue to the exhibition “Konzeption/Conception,”
organized by Rolf Wedewer and Konrad Fischer and staged at the Städtischen Museum in Leverkusen,
October-November 1969. Translated by Nora M. Alter, this is its first publication in
English.
rolfwedewer introduction to konzeption/conception 143