Wor(l)d of Art: Inscriptions of the Page, obscure Poetry in Conceptualism

Abstract

In the 60s and 70s, Conceptual Art emerged as ground-breaking tendency when making of verbal language one of its most sigfnificant instruments of creation. Taken off the intimacy of paper, words were put in evidence shaking artistic categories with works that stood between images and letters. In an environment of de-mythification of the imagetic value, Conceptual Art appeared in an impetus to disfigure the solid tenets of Fine Arts by proposing a textual turn and showing both the material presence of language and its inconsistencies as source of meanings. Conceptual written artworks suspended the stricteness of the sign turning their texts into obscure and enigmatic even if making use of very simple statements.Written artworks were brought into the field of literature to be approached under literary and semiotc theories. Conceptual Art literature bears a thoughtful contribution on narrative, authorship and reception. Artists often refused the taxonomy of poets, for their literature was to promote new readings ahead of artistic demarcations. The presence of words emphasized the opacity of language in two ways: in both its plastic, solid characteristics and the amplitude textts could reach. Language in Conceptual Art also contributed to the questioning of the long-lasting art object; it suggested a less alienated social function of art and artists, and it turned viewers/readers into active participants in the reading of art.Thus, language became a revolutionary tool in Conceptualism having an important effect in the to come.