Conceptual Art, Ideas, and Ontology

Peter Goldie and Elisabeth Schellekens have recently articulated the Idea Idea , the thesis that “in conceptual art, there is no physical medium: the medium is the idea .” But what is an idea, and in the case of works such as Duchamp's Fountain , how does the idea relate to the urinal? In answering these questions, it becomes apparent that the Idea Idea should be rejected. After showing this, I offer a new ontology of conceptual art, according to which such artworks are not ideas but artifacts imbued with ideas. After defending this view from objections, I briefly discuss some implications it has for the ontology of art in general.