Kosuth One And Three Chairs

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Joseph Kosuth – Shifting Art from "How" to "Why"

By Shira Wolfe

"The actual works of art are the ideas." – Joseph Kosuth

Joseph Kosuth is one of the pioneers of installation art and conceptual fine art, a movement which emerged during the 1960s and 1970s and redefined the notion of the art object. Kosuth was among the starting time artists to use appropriation strategies, language-based works, photography, installations and public media. He too wrote some of the earliest theoretical texts supporting these approaches. Throughout his career, Kosuth has continually explored the production and role of language and meaning in fine art.

Joseph Kosuth "water" — Joseph Kosuth, 'Titled (Fine art as Idea as Thought)' [Water], 1966. Courtesy Guggenheim

Joseph Kosuth, New York and Conceptual Art

Kosuth, built-in in Toledo, Ohio in 1945, moved to New York in 1965 where he enrolled in the School of Visual Arts. He quickly abandoned painting in favour of conceptual works, which he first showed in 1967 at the exhibition space he co-founded, known as the Museum of Normal Art. That year, Kosuth organised the exhibitions Nonanthropomorphic Art and Normal Art, where he and Christine Kozlov showed their works. Significantly, in his notes accompanying the exhibition, Kosuth wrote: "The actual works of art are the ideas." That aforementioned year, he exhibited the serial Titled (Fine art as Idea as Thought). This series consisted of words that were at the core of the argue surrounding the condition of mod art, rather than of visual imagery. The words at the core of the exhibition included "meaning," "object," "representation" and "theory." In 1969, Kosuth had his first solo prove at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, and became the American editor of the Art and Language journal.

Art After Philosophy

In 1969, Kosuth published his seminal essay "Fine art After Philosophy," which argued that traditional fine art-historical discourse had reached its end. He proposed a radical investigation of the fashion in which art acquires its cultural significance and its status every bit art. Kosuth stated: "Being an artist at present ways to question the nature of art. If one is questioning the nature of painting, one cannot exist questioning the nature of art… That's because the discussion 'art' is general and the give-and-take 'painting' is specific. Painting is a kind of fine art. If y'all make paintings you are already accepting (not questioning) the nature of fine art." During this of import determinative menses in his piece of work, Kosuth followed through with what Marcel Duchamp had proved with his readymades: art presupposes the existence of an artful entity fulfilling the criteria of what should be art. As was the case with Duchamp'due south readymades, he alleged them to be fine art and they became fine art. Kosuth used a linguistic approach to explore these issues of the presentation and definition of art.

Joseph Kosuth and the Philosophy of Language

Between 1971 and 1972, Kosuth studied anthropology and philosophy at the New School for Social Research, New York. There, he was particularly influenced by the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose writing on the philosophy of language strongly influenced Kosuth's work betwixt the belatedly sixties and mid seventies. He began to devote his work to exploring the employ of words instead of visual imagery, as well as the human relationship between ideas, words and images. He borrowed the term 'Investigations' for his art in that menstruation from Wittgenstein, believing that philosophy could only survive through existence art. 'Investigations' were like a protection of the activity of art, a protection from art becoming decoration, manner, or office of the art market place, which was quite pervasive in the 1960s. Kosuth believed, similar Duchamp, that art was an intellectual activity.

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965 — Joseph Kosuth, One and Iii Chairs, 1965. Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery New York

"What I feel my work introduced – or conceptual art in general – was a shift from "how" to "why." – Joseph Kosuth

Iconic Works

1 and Three Chairs (1965)

One of Kosuth's all-time-known works is One and Three Chairs (1965), which is his visual expression of Plato's Theory of Forms. The piece features a wooden chair, a photograph of the chair, and a lexicon definition of the discussion "chair." According to Plato's theory, non-material abstract forms (or ideas) are the most fundamental kind of reality, as opposed to the physical globe. In this piece, Kosuth investigates this theory by representing a chair in these three different ways.

Joseph Kosuth, Five Words in Blue Neon, 1965. Courtesy the creative person and Sean Kelly Gallery

5 Words in Blue Neon (1965)

Joseph Kosuth uses color to demonstrate the limits of language. In his words: "What is improve for demonstrating the limits of language than the definition of a colour? No text is more tortured in such a concise way, in that location really is no ameliorate place to experience the limits of language." This tin can be seen is his famous work "Five Words in Blue Neon," which consists only of blue neon lights spelling this phrase. When Kosuth created this work, he intended to branch out beyond the canvas, creating something that is arresting, something that grabs one's attending.

The word "definition" - Art as Idea as Idea — Joseph Kosuth, Titled (Fine art every bit Idea as Idea) The Word "Definition" 1966-68. Courtesy MoMA

Fine art every bit Idea as Thought (1966-1968)

In his series Art as Idea as Thought, all objects and images are removed in favour of definitions taken from dictionary entries. In doing so, Kosuth attempts to emphasize how language has the potential to purely convey meaning. He believes that any traces of the artist'southward hand should be eliminated from the production of art, so that ideas may be expressed directly, immediately and wholly. The work of art, for Kosuth, is the definition of the given word. For the purpose of presentation, Kosuth asks that his original cut-out lexicon entry is photographically enlarged to a specific dimension, each time the piece of work is exhibited.

Double Reading (1993)

For a 1993 exhibition at the Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles, Kosuth exhibited a serial in which he worked with cartoons. He took cartoons like Blondie, Wizard of Id, and Calvin and Hobbes, blew them up and silk-screened them on laminated glass with neon. He then added quotes to each of the works by philosophers like Leibniz and Kierkegaard, matching the right cartoon with the right philosopher. When he arrived at the opening, a few Hollywood lawyers who were his collectors rushed upward to him, asking whether he had obtained permission to use the cartoons. Kosuth answered: "No, no, I didn't. And I didn't become permission from Kierkegaard either. I pointed to the drawing and I said, 'That's not my piece of work.' And then I pointed to the quote and I said, 'That's not my work either. Those are props. My work is the gap between the two. It's the surplus significant that goes together to create.'

Joseph Kosuth'due south immense influence on the art world is best summed up in the creative person'due south own words: "What I feel my work introduced – or conceptual fine art in general – was a shift from "how" to "why." – Joseph Kosuth

Relevantsources to learn more

Artland Joseph Kosuth Bio

Guggenheim

Interview Mag

Artland: Conceptual Art

Sean Kelly Gallery