Joseph Kosuth

Biography

Toledo, Ohio, 1945

Joseph Kosuth is an American conceptual artist, known as one of the pioneers and main exponents of conceptual art. His work focuses on the exploration of language, meaning and the role of art itself.

Kosuth became famous with the work "One and Three Chairs" (1965), in which he presents a real chair, a photograph of himself and a dictionary definition of the word "chair", questioning the relationship between object, representation and word.

Strongly influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy of language and structuralist thought, Kosuth argues that art should be concerned with the concept, rather than the aesthetic or material object. His works are often made with text, neon, photographs and definitions, and reflect an analytical and theoretical approach.

He also wrote important theoretical texts, including the famous essay "Art After Philosophy" (1969), in which he states that conceptual art represents a reflection on the essence of art itself.

Today, Joseph Kosuth is considered a central figure in the evolution of contemporary art and his works are present in the collections of the most important international museums. He lives and works between New York and Venice

Contributions

One of Kosuth's most important cycles is the "Cathexis." The word "Cathexis" derives from ancient Greek and meant a stable or controlled mental state. Philosophy also referred to the term "Cathexis" and referred to a stable disposition of the soul or body.

The concept was taken up by Freud to indicate an "investment" of psychic energy in a person, an idea, or an object—that is, when mental energy is retained by an object or something.

Kosuth used the concept to emphasize that art is also about seeing what lies behind an object, that is, the idea from which it arises and its meaning—that is, how much mental energy the artist expends to create a work and how much mental energy the viewer expends to be fascinated by it, beyond the aesthetics of the representation or its value.

Kosuth conceived the idea for the Cathexis in 1981 as a reaction to the critical push for a return to figurative art. A common feature of these works is their large size and the inverted representation of the images. All the works are from 1981-1982 and are numbered from 1 to 48 according to the American custom of numbering, i.e. #12, #25, etc.

Joseph Kosuth - Conceptual Art

The Conceptual Art sets out to overcome painting-painting in favor of idea-painting or conceptual painting. In other words, in Conceptual Art it is more important the gestation of the work and the programming of its execution. It is therefore an art thought, reasoned rather than felt. Execution becomes a fact of pure assembly of objects that form the work. Of course the visual aspect does not disappear completely as traces of painting are often found among the authors, but they are traces of painting put in a certain order that springs from the artist's thought. A precursor of Conceptual Art is considered Marchel Duchamp with his famous "urinal". At moment among the great artists of Conceptual Art we put Joseph Kosuth and Emilio Isgrò with yours Erasion.gs: Art Conceptuel - Emilio Isgrò - effacement - Joseph Kosuth