Barbara Kruger asserts that her art may not be social commentary but simply ‘observation’. Intentional or not, it comes across as commentary to most people – and pretty pointed commentary at that. The artist has, over the years, addressed many issues including women’s reproductive rights, how development squeezes out lower income people, etc., etc. Our [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Conceptual Art category.
Strength in Delicacy – the works of Christiane Loehr
I recently came across the works of Christiane Loehr at an exhibit supposedly focused on renewable energy held at MACRO – a museum of contemporary art in Rome. Loehr is a German artist that constructs complex and beautiful structures using natural materials – often seeds or flowers. These structures are generally small – the one [...]
High Art or Drivel? The Environmental Art of Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) was maybe one of the more influential artists of the 20th century. His was a strong belief in the power of art to transform society. He believed that art had an important social, cultural and political function and was confident in the power of art to bring about revolutionary change. “Only art [...]
Damien Hirst and Sustainability – What?
Damien Hirst – love him or hate him – is probably today’s wealthiest artist. Some say that he is a symbol of bad art and senseless consumption. To my mind, he has probably done more than any other single artist to mock the very art world itself, turn its pretentions to his own personal advantage [...]
A Monument To Nature Destroyed
Painstakingly over more than a decade, Israeli artist Shai Zakai has created a monument to man’s interaction with his environment and the consequences – overwhelmingly negative – of that interaction. “Forest Tunes: The Library” is an installation consisting of collected items, photographs, video, text and a book. The centerpiece of The Library is a collection [...]
A Long White Line
The beauty of conceptual art is that it sheds the fixation with the ‘art object’ and embarks on art as the exploration of an idea. Many conceptual artists have taken this further to create meaningful social interventions through their art. Eve Mosher is one such artist. Last year, she embarked on HighWaterLine – a conceptual [...]
