Formalism vs. Conceptualism

At the onset of my pursuit of a MFA degree I was very confused about Formalism vs. Conceptual-ism. Not because I had never heard the words but because I could not understand why the terms had to be mutually exclusive. I kept wondering could these terms be like the chicken and the egg story?

Some of my materials.

I took notes. This is how I have understand these things so far. I have a lot more to learn.

Formalism

• the way things are made
• process
• painting and sculpture
• technique
• structural design
• patterns
• form in isolation from concept
• aesthetic evaluation of formal characteristics

Conceptual-ism

• know the difference between concept and content
• the idea behind the work
• performance art
• strange looking stuff that is called art
• 1960's - 1970's origination
• how it looks or what materials are used is less important than the idea behind the work
• making a plan and executing it

The funny thing about all these terms is that we all could find art work that straddles either Formalism or Conceptual-ism. Even a child's drawing for his or her family could be both conceptual and formal. She/he used crayons to represent what she/he wanted her family to look at.

Formal:

use of crayons and paper

Conceptual:

any family drawn, not her/his own, because the idea is to draw a better/worse/different family

Alternately,

Conceptual:

crayon line drawn on the wall all the way around the room until the crayon ran out just to see how long it takes for the crayon to run out and to see what mommy will say or do

Formal:

the process of walking around the room with the crayon touching the wall