Understanding Conceptual Art.....Or Not

 

The definition of "conceptual art" is: art in which the idea or concept presented by the artist is considered more important than the finished art object. I tried to keep that in mind while viewing the most recent work of conceptual artist Charles Gaines at the Phoenix Art Museum.  

This exhibit is called Numbers and Trees, the Arizona Series.  Gaines used photographs of Arizona cottonwood trees.  The trees were then plotted with specific colors and a numbered grid based on the colors was placed over the trees.  I don't pretend to understand it but it was both interesting and beautiful to see.

The exhibit also included this work called "Greenhouse" which is a massive enclosure containing three stainless steel trees.  The trees are enveloped with smoke as adjacent monitors track historical and real-time temperature patterns of global warming. As it does this, the light inside the structure changes based on the temperatures being represented.

In this photo you can see the monitors on the wall to the right.  This is another concept that I don't really understand.  However, it is a fascinating exhibit with a lot to see and to think about. These works make me think that Gaines has a scientific mind as well as an artistic nature.

There is another part of this exhibit that coveres Gaines' work between 1992 and 2023.  It contained a variety of pieces that while still conceptual, are completely different from the work I've shown here.  I'll show you one of them tomorrow.