Joseph Kosuth, One in Three Chairs, 1965.
Joseph Kosuth, Titled (Art as Idea as Idea), 1966.
Joseph Kosuth,'Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) [Water]', 1966.
J Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965
Who decides what should be displayed? Who gets to speak in the name of ‘Art’, ‘the public’ or ‘the nation’?
What are the processes, interests and negotiations involved in the construction of an exhibition or museum display?
And most importantly what, as a result, is silenced or left out?
Artists use the museum as a medium in order to investigate cultural production and knowledge, provoking the idea that museums always involve cultural, social and political negotiations and value-judgements when constructing an exhibition.
These negotiations and value-judgements must by nature have political, social and cultural implications.
In the case of Joseph Kosuth there is a strong drive to explore and question the production of meaning in the nature or realm of art.
It is hard to surmise each individual piece in Kosuth’s exhibitions due to the size and complexity of the displays so instead I’d rather point out some of their underlying issues and themes.
A lot of Kosuth’s exhibitions look at the role of the curator and museum as a business that pronounces the importance of certain practices and art objects as belonging to the ‘proper’ realm of Art. He questions the way in which museum exhibitions choose and display art works and the effect this has on the audience.
Kosuth’s practice is also influence by the writings of 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Wittgenstein’s theories on language arise from the principles of symbolism and the essential relationships between ‘words’ and ‘things’ in any language.[1] In the text Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Wittgenstein is concerned with, among other things, Accurate Symbolism. Accurate Symbolism is a concept of symbolism in which a sentence of things means something rather definite.
This notion of accurate symbolism can be seen expressed in Kosuth’s work, primarily those like One in Three Chairs 1965, in which an ordinary wooden chair, a photograph of the ordinary wooden chair and a dictionary definition of the word ‘chair’ are displayed side-by-side in a gallery space. Not only does this work question what is by definition ‘real’/ authentic or inauthentic, but its process of display also undermines the business of the curator and museum/institution. The curator of the exhibition displaying One in Three Chairs must follow the instructions stipulated by Kosuth, whereby the curator is to a degree made powerless. Instead of sending his completed work to be installed, as seen fit by the curator or director of the museum, Kosuth sends off a brief and succinct description of how the work must be completed and displayed.
One in Three Chairs has been displayed numerous times with the only things that remain constant being the Instructions for construction and display and the Photographic enlargement of the dictionary definition of ‘Chair’.
In a work that appears so formal and restricted by rules and guidelines, its inconstant nature would seem surprising. Yet it is exactly the syntax of the language of these instructions that Kosuth is playing with. For Kosuth an artwork must always involve a test and in this case he is testing the construction of art through language[2]. Although each curator is given the exact same copy of instructions and enlargement of the dictionary definition, each curator is still inherently unique in time and place.
Which bring us back to Kosuth relationship to the ideas on logic of Wittgenstien. Wittgenstein proposes two problems with the logic of symbolism; the conditions for sense rather than nonsense in the combinations of symbols and the conditions for uniqueness of meaning or reference in symbols or combinations of symbols[3].
This is not to say that the curator is given back his curatorial power, it is merely that each time the work is set up the language of the instructions and the completed work is understood in a different way. The work suggests the problematic relationship between language, image and referent and causes the viewer to question representation, definition, reality and above all form.
Kosuth reiterates these points in the works such as Leaning Glass, in which five foot sheets of glass with one word printed in black lettering on the surfaces are leant casually against the wall and designed to be direct description of themselves.
Other works like Art as idea as idea also explores, through direct visual language, the status of art and the definition of an art object.
Kosuth creates a non-confrontational dialogue between the audience, the art object and 'Art' to suggest that one must also look analytically and realistically when gazing upon a museum/institution display and to think about the what the concealed message being projected may be.
Kosuth’s exhibitions to some extent denounce the trust we put in the role of the institution and assert that the concreteness of art-historical museum displays leave gaps in the total entity of art[4]. Whereby kosuths works can be seem as a pleading or coaxing of the audience to make assessments of truth based of self-understanding and practical consideration.
Images;
1. Joseph Kosuth, One in Three Chairs, 1965. Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of "chair", Chair 32 3/8 x 14 7/8 x 20 7/8" (82 x 37.8 x 53 cm), photographic panel 36 x 24 1/8" (91.5 x 61.1 cm), text panel 24 x 24 1/8" (61 x 61.3 cm). Image reproduced from MOMA. http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3228&page_number=1&template_id=1&sort_order=1
2. Joseph Kosuth, Titled (Art as Idea as Idea), 1966. printed definitions glued to board form of presentation: six mounted photostats. photostats: 48 x 48 inches (121.9 x 121.9 cm) each overall: 48 x 303 inches (121.9 x 769.6 cm) image reproduced from Sean Kelly Gallery. http://www.skny.com/exhibitions/2008-10-25_neither-appearance-nor-illusion
3. Joseph Kosuth, Leaning Glass, 1965. Glass sheets with printed words, 60x60 inches. Image reproduced from Sean Kelly Gallery http://www.skny.com/exhibitions/2008-10-25_neither-appearance-nor-illusion
4. 'Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) [Water]', 1966. Photostat, mounted on board, 48 x 48 inches (121.9 x 121.9 cm). Image reproduced from Guggenheim, New York. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search='Titled%20(Art%20as%20Idea%20as%20Idea)%20%5BWater%5D'&page=&f=Title&object=73.2066
5. Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965 Installation: chair out of wooden and 2 photographs 200 X 271 X 44 cm. Image reproduced from Centre Pompidou. http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ENS-ArtConcept/image03.htm
[2] Stuart Morgan, ‘Art as Idea as Idea – An interview with Joseph Kosuth’, Freize no.16 (May 1994): 2.
[4] Stuart Morgan, ‘Art as Idea as Idea – An interview with Joseph Kosuth’, Freize no.16 (May 1994): 4.
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