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How has Joseph Kosuth raised questions about the nature of art in his composition One and Three Chairs?
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∙ 7y ago
I wasn't familiar with this piece until I looked it up. It is a chair, a life-size photo of that chair, and an enlarged dictionary definition of the word "chair." If your gallery is displaying this work, you don't get the chair, the photo or the definition; you get a copy of the definition, a drawing explaining how to set it up, and instructions to get a chair, photograph it and blow the photo up to full size, create the poster with the definition on it (all of which is much easier now that we have big inkjet printers, than it was when Kosuth devised this piece) and hang it in a certain fashion.
Kosuth asks, is a concept valid if its realization changes every time it's executed?
My feeling of this piece is, it only displays its full power as a collection, perhaps in a book or a web page. If you see one installation of One and Three Chairs you think, "so what?" In isolation, this is a very boring work. Only when you see how a number of people have executed Kosuth's concept does this make sense.
Gaston Adams
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What is Joseph Kosuth's birthday?
Joseph Kosuth was born on January 31, 1945.
When was Joseph Kosuth born?
Joseph Kosuth was born on January 31, 1945.
How old is Joseph Kosuth?
Joseph Kosuth is 66 years old (birthdate: January 31, 1945).
When did Joseph Kosuth die?
He seems to be still alive.
Which artist explored semiotics in his works?
Joseph Kosuth
How has artist Joseph kosuth raised questions about the natures of his art in his Composition one and the three chairs?
I wasn't familiar with this piece until I looked it up. It is a chair, a life-size photo of that chair, and an enlarged dictionary definition of the word "chair." If your gallery is displaying this work, you don't get the chair, the photo or the definition; you get a copy of the definition, a drawing explaining how to set it up, and instructions to get a chair, photograph it and blow the photo up to full size, create the poster with the definition on it (all of which is much easier now that we have big inkjet printers, than it was when Kosuth devised this piece) and hang it in a certain fashion. Kosuth asks, is a concept valid if its realization changes every time it's executed? My feeling of this piece is, it only displays its full power as a collection, perhaps in a book or a web page. If you see one installation of One and Three Chairs you think, "so what?" In isolation, this is a very boring work. Only when you see how a number of people have executed Kosuth's concept does this make sense.
How did Joseph Kosuth become an artist?
he became an artist because he was very good at art and he would like to show people how he did it
When was Gabriel Kosuth born?
Gabriel Kosuth was born on April 29, 1958, in Bucharest, Romania.
What is difference between Sol Lewitt and Joseph Kosuth?
Joseph Kosuth made things that articulated and played with ideas. Sol Lewitt made ideas that articulated and created things. Kosuth's things were objects, lights, boxes, utilitarian, iconic, resonant. Lewitt's things were lines on walls placed according to plans. Whether the lines were drawn or not the idea existed somewhere else. With Kosuth, the idea existed between the object and the viewer. With Lewitt the idea existed as knowing. Lewitt's artworks created a knowing of something. Kosuth's artwork created a reflection about something. And questions about knowing. Lewitt's something was knowing itself, and the enjoyement of objects with nothing to say but much to tell, but neither saying or telling had value in and of themselves. They were dumb, made plane, and standing thwarted in the light of some kind of absolute or supreme knowledge. And thus we experience in Lewitt the sublime. The sublime of Barnett Newman or Rothko, but not through expression or colour or composition or balance, but through knowledge of concept, execution and conceit -- transcended. In Kosuth saying and telling are contradicted and thus in an eternal infernal loop of transgression and cancellation and rebirth in reflection, and thus phoenix-like rising and returning to the impossibility of resolution that is at the heart of each of Kosuth's creations. So similarly Kosuth establishes in his work through the impossible resolution of intent in one place, in one location of beholding -- in the work, in the gallery space, in the catalogue notes, in our understanding of how he made these things, why and how, in our reflections, in the space of our own apprehension and apprehending (we are grasped by the works and we grasp them, we are seized by the experience but we cannot seize the experience(s) and take them away) -- a sense of the sublime. In Lewitt we witness and behold the sublime. In Kosuth we 'know' it. And the ideas? They are everything and nothing in both. It's conceptual art, both, not concepts, not conceptual alone. But art. They are art. By different lights and pathways. (Duncan Thompson, July 2013)
What are some good examples of conceptual art?
Some examples of conceptual art include "Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp, "One and Three Chairs" by Joseph Kosuth, and "My Bed" by Tracey Emin. These works challenge traditional notions of art by focusing on the ideas and concepts behind the piece rather than the physical craftsmanship.
What has the author Joseph Kosuth written?
Joseph Kosuth has written: 'Letters from Wittgenstein, abridged in Ghent' 'Guide to contemporary art' -- subject(s): Conceptual art, Exhibitions, Guidebooks, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Site-specific installations (Art) 'Art after philosophy and after' -- subject(s): Aesthetics, Conceptual art 'Tekst/Kontekst' 'Terra ultra incognita' -- subject(s): Conceptual art, Installations (Art), Exhibitions 'Writing, curating and the play of art' 'The play of the unmentionable' -- subject(s): Art, Art and society, Art and state, Brooklyn Museum, Censorship, Exhibitions 'Bedeutung von Bedeutung' -- subject(s): Art, Conceptual art, Exhibitions, Philosophy 'Letters from Wittgenstein' 'A Grammatical Remark/Eine Grammatische Bemerkung'
