Question 5. Using at least two examples examined in detail, discuss why and how Conceptual artists set out to destroy or undermine the value of visual pleasure in art's making and reception.

Conceptual Art describe as a concept or an art movement that appeared about the 1960's as a reaction towards formalism. In art theory, formalism is a concept that one artwork or work's entire artistic value is based just on its form and visual aspects. One of the first and most significant things they tried to question was the common expectation that the task of the artist was to create significant kinds of material objects. This essay will discuss as to why and how did Conceptual set out to destroy or undermine the value of physical pleasure in art's making and reception. Marcel Duchamp, a French artist who spread the way for conceptualists even before the actual movement ever started in the 1900's.

'One and Three Chairs' (1965), by the U.S. artist,...

left to right: Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, and...

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912) by Marce...

His most famous work the Fountain (1917) of a urinal basin was part of his work readymades and was refered in annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York, however it was rejected. In cultural art history, a popular object such as a urinal cannot be said to be art because it is not made by an artist or with any intention of being art, nor is it unique or hand-crafted. However with the mergence of conceptual artists such as Joseph Kossuth, a far more radical interrogation of art than was previously done began. As a teenager, Duchamp worked in a fauvist style, this style has been affected by artists such as Andre Derain and Matisse but then decided to move onto a more cubist approach. His depiction of cubism was not the same as the other examples of...