From Conceptual Art To Social Art

Peter Benson watches this ‘art movement’ with raised eyebrows.

- Peter Benson

Conceptual art is art where the artistic aspect is considered to reside in the concept alone, not in any of its sensory qualities (if it has any). For many years now conceptual art has formed the dominant strand of contemporary art – at least according to that network of galleries, critics and collectors who decide what should be considered important among the range of current artistic production. Now, however, it’s beginning to be displaced by a new contender for our attention, which I propose to call ‘social art’. I’ll explain what I mean by this soon. First, I want to consider the general question of how specific art-forms rise to prominence.

The Institutional Theory of Art

Philosophers have asked the question ‘What is Art?’ as far back as Plato in the fourth century BCE. But the question has seemed to acquire a new urgency in response to the bewildering diversity of objects and activities which in the twentieth century have been claimed to have the status of ‘art’.

Faced by this situation, the American philosopher Arthur Danto wrote a highly influential essay in 1964 entitled ‘The Artworld’. This was the first clear statement of the ‘Institutional Theory’ of art, later developed further by George Dickie and others. Danto was unusual among philosophers of art in that he was actually interested in contemporary art. He was a regular visitor to galleries and wrote reviews for art magazines as well as philosophy. His essay was prompted in part by seeing Andy Warhol’s exhibition that year at the Stable Gallery in New York. This was the first public display of Warhol’s