In his 1967 Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, Sol LeWitt stated that Conceptual Art should be dry, as an "emotional kick" would "deter the viewer from perceiving this art". Ever since, Conceptual Art has been either praised or contested for its supposed intellectual sternness and quasi-scientific rigour. But why would an "emotional kick" inevitably deter from perceiving the Conceptual? Could it not be quite the opposite: that charging a concept with an emotional investment, or the conceptualization of emotions, might focus rather than distract? The exhibition Romantic Conceptualism at Kunsthalle Nuremberg includes works by 23 international artists of different generations that stand witness to the fact that the reflection on the Romantic is not just a negligible, minor aspect of the Conceptual, but central to it. The exhibits – from early 1960s works to exclusive new productions – bring into play a partly emphatic, partly critically humorous perspective onto romantic motifs (desire, melancholia) and methods (the fragmentary, ephemeral and processual). They thwart the conventional opposition between romantic inwardness and conceptual rationalism.
The exhibition project is curated by Jörg Heiser, critic and co-editor of frieze magazine. It is co-organised by Kunsthalle Nuremberg and BAWAG Foundation, Vienna (14 September-1 December 2007). An extensive catalogue (German/English) will be published early June by Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld, including contributions by Jörg Heiser, Susan Hiller, Collier Schorr, and Jan Verwoert.

left:
Rodney Graham, Halcion Sleep, 1994,
video still, Courtesy the artist

top right:
Tacita Dean, The Russian Ending, 2001,
photogravure, Sammlung Schmidt-Drenhaus, Dresden/Cologne

down right:
Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono performing "Lighting Piece" at Sogetsu Art Center Tokyo, 1962,
BW photograph, Courtesy Lenono Photo Archive