When Joseph Kosuth’s practice began as an artist in the 1960s it was as one of the leading pioneers of a movement that would alter the trajectory of modern art.
Freeing the form of art from its reliance on the purely visual, Kosuth’s introduction of language into site-specific installations opened up new channels through which to explore the relationship between ideas and their physical expression, with a result that we understand better how meaning is constructed.
The rigour and acuity with which Kosuth has explored the making of meaning itself has gone on to influence generations to follow. Over the decades, Kosuth has never ceased probing art’s capacity to cut through to the essential questions of existence.
This survey of a continuing practice is testament to a legacy that still alters the way we see things today.
Public Lecture—Booked out
State Library Victoria
Thu 05 October at 6.30PM
Presented in association with Anna Schwartz Gallery and State Library Victoria
JOSEPH KOSUTH, b.1945
Joseph Kosuth’s investigations into the relationship between art and language, conducted over a period of more than 50 years, have taken the form of installations, museum exhibitions, public commissions and publications internationally, including his participation at five editions of Documenta in Kassel and four editions of the Venice Bienniale. His work is included in most museum collections in the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Kosuth has created several major public art and architectural installations for iconic edifices, including: the Musée du Louvre, Paris in 2009, which came a permanent work in 2016; Krona Center for Culture and Knowledge, Kongsberg, Norway in 2015; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris in 2012; Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria in 2015; Council of State of the Netherlands, The Hague in In 2016 he completed public art installations at Taipei Station, Taiwan; Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco and Miami Beach Convention Centre, Florida.
Awards include the Menzione d'Onore at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and the Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government in 1993. In 2003 he received the Austrian Republic’s highest honour for accomplishments in science and culture, the Decoration of Honour in Gold for services to the Republic of Austria. In 2012 he was inducted into the Royal Belgian Academy.
Presented in association with Anna Schwartz Gallery
IMAGE | A Conditioning of Consciousness, 1988
Blue neon mounted directly on the wall, framed black & white photograph
250 x 194 cm
