Analysis of the interconnected components of modern and pre-modern art in conceptual art

Background: If the originality and unexpectedness of the work of art were principles that modernism paid great attention to, the formalist post-painting exhibitions held in the fifties were extremely repetitive. Gradually, modernity fell out of fashion. Stylism, the invention of new forms, and the purity and purism that had been the preoccupation of painters and modernism for years no longer flourished. An era that had spent years trying to establish a historical identity for itself was now disappearing and disappearing before the astonished eyes of everyone. Thus, conceptual art, in the general sense of the word, took on meaning in reaction and opposition to formalism, which, to its extremes, considered content, idea, and concept to be of little importance. This art was the product of successive and successful rebellions against the four characteristics of art: material objectivity, media expression, visuality, and independence, which modern art at its peak had proposed as the main foundations of art. However, conceptual art took into account some components of schools such as Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Constructivism that had emerged between the two world wars, and even changed or enhanced their meaning. In fact, art is not a concept that has suddenly become a part of the art and thought that preceded it. Rather, in critical thought, it has been the heir of the past and its continuation in other forms; but in other respects, it is negative, contradictory, indifferent, and in contradiction with the past. These characteristics make this research unrelated to theories that propose that postmodernity is anti-modern.
Objectives: This study aims to extract and explain the continuous components of conceptual art, considering this rupture and classification of the types of negations that formed conceptual art. The question is, what continuous components have existed in conceptual art from the modern and pre-modern eras, and what developments and transformations have they undergone?
Method: The present research is of a qualitative type, using a descriptive-analytical method and library resources. The method of analysis in the present research is based on propositional induction, and the content analysis method in this research provides an analytical typology and the necessary skills for qualitative analyses through data classification and finding input and output patterns. Content analysis is a method by which the required concepts can be extracted from the text and organized into regular categories. This method assumes that by analyzing linguistic messages, it is possible to discover the meanings and ways of understanding texts. In fact, the goal of conventional content analysis is to help generate research findings by paying attention to dominant and common themes in the data in a way that provides extensive, concise textual information and a precise and clear relationship between the research questions and the findings. Therefore, relying on the inductive content analysis method, first, all texts that deal with conceptual art were collected and then non-randomly, to identify the characteristics and features of conceptual art in the text, sampling was conducted and a checklist was taken. Then, specific patterns were discovered, relying on the connected components that have perpetuated the relationship between modern and pre-modern art and conceptual art.
Conclusion: However, with the emergence of contemporary art from the 1960s onwards, which developed as postmodern art, the rules of modern art and aesthetics were subjected to fundamental criticisms of critical thought, and the concept of art, from the depths of negation and denial, such as rebellion against the work of art as an object of art, the specificity of the medium of art, the role of the cogito in art, the commodification of art, the inner gaze, quality, stylistic distinction, and the uniqueness of the work of art, made its existence clearer and more definitive. But the aspect of contemporaneity in conceptual art was not reduced solely to these rebellions and negations, but rather the transition from modern to postmodern religion (or, as Kekelen argues, from the religion of consumption to the religion of communication) was accompanied by associated components that developed and emerged within conceptual art from both the pre-modern and modern eras and sometimes emerged with changes and developments. Among them was representation in art, which had always been present in art in various ways, but this time it took on a new form and, with the dissolution of the boundaries between art, the art object, and the object of life, became identical to each other. It went even further and figurative art also transformed. In a way that man and sculpture, life and self-representation, were also assimilated pragmatically. Another connected component is the long-standing function of language in art, which also appeared in a transformed way in conceptual art. Before that, the Dadaists had used language in their works by playing with the rules of language in the field of art and also by using linguistic qualities such as humor, satire, allusion, imitation, and mockery. But in conceptual art, especially the art and language group, the artist, with the decline of the inherent tools of art criticism, took the position of the critic and thus stepped into the field of language and philosophy clearly, and the work of art also became a response to the essence of art and was in line with the definition of art. The tradition of English romantic landscape painting is another continuous component in conceptual art that was manifested in Land Art and, by subverting the limitations of painting, expanded the area of ​​the painting canvas to the surfaces of the earth and fulfilled the desire of the landscape painter about the presence of the audience in the landscape through the painting canvas. Also, some works of Land Art emphasize in some way the historical-mythical tradition of cultivation and the art of packaging.