Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions. This method was fundamental to LeWitt's definition of Conceptual art, one of the first to appear in print: This quotation highlights a key difference between a traditional work of art and a conceptualist installation: in one instance the hands-on skills of the artist are paramount; in the other they are not.

Tony Godfrey, author of "Conceptual Art," asserts that conceptual art questions the nature of what is understood as art. At inception in the 1960s, the term referred to a strict and focused practice of idea-based art, which, in its presentation as text, often defied traditional visual criteria associated with the visual arts . However, through its association with the Young British Artists and the Turner Prize during the 1990s, in popular usage, particularly in the UK, "conceptual art" came to denote all contemporary art that does not practise the traditional skills of painting and sculpture.

To address this common confusion, it might be said that one of the reasons why the term "conceptual art" has come to be associated with various contemporary practices far removed from its original aims and formal properties, might be a problem defining the term itself. As the artist Mel Bochner suggested as early as 1970, in explaining why he does not like the epithet "conceptual", it is not always entirely clear what "concept" refers to, and it runs the risk of being confused with "intention." Thus, in describing or defining a work of art as conceptual it is important not to confuse what is referred to as "conceptual" with an artist's "intention."

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