An important difference between conceptual art andmore “traditional” forms of art-making goes to the question of artistic skill. Although it is often the case that skillin the handling of traditional media plays little role in conceptual art, it is difficult to argue that no skill is requiredto make conceptual works, or that skill is always absentfrom them. John Baldessari, for instance, has presentedrealist pictures that he commissioned professional signwriters to paint; and many conceptual performance artists(e.g. Stelarc, Marina Abramović) are technically accomplished performers and skilled manipulators of their ownbodies. It is thus not so much an absence of skill or hostility toward tradition that defines conceptual art as an evident disregard for conventional, modern notions of authorial presence and individual artistic expression.