[CONCEPTUAL ART IN TURKEY] Sanat olarak betik. Texts by Carl Andre, Sükrü Aysan, Robert Barry, Joseph Kosuth, Sol Lewitt, Robert Morris, Bernar Venet.

SANAT TANIMI TOPLULUGU [i.e. THE DEFINITION OF ART GROUP]: (SÜKRÜ AYSAN, SERHAT KIRA, AHMET ÖKTEM with ALPARSLAN BALOGLU AND ISMAIL SARAY).

Sanat Tanimi Toplulugu / Istanbul Devlet Güzel Sanatlar Galerisi, Ist., 1980.

Paperback. 4to. (27,5 x 20 cm). In Turkish. 32, [30] p., color and b/w ills., serigraph and mimeograph printing on paper and fabric, 1 folded plate (Ismail Saray's photo). This very interesting and rare book includes the texts on the first 32 pages. Some texts were translated from English and French languages by Sükrü Aysan, Nazli Damlaci, and Faruk Ulay. Articles in the first 32 pages: Kavramsal sanat [i.e. Conceptual art] by Sükrü Aysan.; Felsefenin sonu sanatin baslangici [i.e. The end of philosophy and the beginning of art] by Joseph Kosuth.; Kavramsal sanat üzerine paragraflar [i.e. Paragraphs on Conceptual Art] by Sol Lewitt.; Kavramsal sanat üzerine tümceler [i.e. Sentences on Conceptual Art] by Sol Lewitt.; Not, by Bernar Venet.; Giris notu, by Joseph Kosuth, and Inekleri düzene sokmak için bir yöntem [i.e. A Method For Sorting Cows] by Robert Morris. They're the first and the earliest translations (and for some only) in Turkey on the Conceptual Art. The Definition of Art Group is an original Conceptual Art approach. Conceptual Art was founded to research the structure and nature of art. Conceptual artists question the structure of art through a progression of work that refers to the concept of art. What is being considered is a work or an idea directed towards the analysis of all the facets of and contradictions within the concept of art. Sol LeWitt said, "this type of art is related to all intellectual processes". Impressionism and Cubism gave the first formulas for questioning art. Later, as a result of Duchamp's systematic operations about art's boundaries, function, language, and its being, art again became an intellectual process. Today, the subject of art itself and its place in the universe has reached a stage where its effort is directed towards understanding existence. The stages of this change make twentieth-century art history. Only an art audience informed about the development of art can comprehend contemporary work. To be able to understand today's artistic endeavors, it is necessary to make a conceptual history of art. Pure Conceptual Art by taking this situation to its extreme point, accepts no other audience or observer than the ones actively participating in the making of the work. Thus, art transforms into a state as serious as a science that needs no audience. When using the term, Conceptual Art or its more characteristic name, Analytical Art, in referring to a specific period in the history of Conceptual Art as an approach to art, one is speaking of art that has completely eliminated the production of objects and all plastic art forms. But if one considers the broader understanding of conceptualism, within our twentieth-century art, in addition to the side that verifies by analyzing itself, there is also a logical and philosophical dimension directed towards the comprehension of its structure. In other words, a strongly intellectual art continues its hegemony today. In our time, art without an idea can not be effective. (Source: Official site of Sanat Tanimi Toplulugu). In 1961, philosopher and artist Henry Flynt coined the term "concept art" in an article bearing the same name which was appeared in a proto-Fluxus publication An Anthology of Chance Operations. Flynt's concept art, he maintained, devolved from his notion of "cognitive nihilism," in which paradoxes in logic are shown to evacuate concepts of substance. Drawing on the syntax of logic and mathematics, concept art was meant jointly to supersede mathematics and the formalistic music then current in serious art music circles. Therefore, Flynt maintained, to merit the label concept art, work had to be an object-critique of logic or mathematics via linguistic paradox, a quality which is absent from subs... The use of pure Turkish language in this book is pointed to and this book was printed for an exhibition held between 'March 22 - April 5, 1980'. Printed to only 200 copies and all copies were numbered. This is 49 no. (49/200). Extremely rare.