Occult Conceptualism

This thesis explores and defines the term “Occult Conceptualism.” The term questions past models for Conceptual Art, in particular those rooted in Benjamin H. D. Buchloh’s 1990 text, “Conceptual Art 1962–1969: From the Aesthetic of Administration to the Critique of Institutions,” and Joseph Kosuth’s safeguarding of Conceptual Art in part two of his text “Art after Philosophy,” in which a number of artists (John Baldessari, Douglas Huebler, amongst others) are excluded from his canon. Arguing for a new approach to certain strains of conceptualism, this paper refutes the perspective that the conceptual movement was grounded only in theoretical and rationalist thought, by examining artists and works steeped in mysticism and intuition, aspects that have historically been considered to be outside the canon of Conceptual Art