Artist of the Month: August

By: V. Tamayo

Our artist of the month this August is: Joseph Kosuth. 

This month the chosen artist is different from the ones chosen in the past. A member of the conceptual art movement, Joseph Kosuth is an American artist who began exploring art from the basis of Marcel Duchamp. Inspired by ready made, french structuralism and language theories from the 60s, Kosuth incorporates this "linguistic turn" as a part of his artworks. 

From the images above, One and three chairs (1954) is his first conceptual installation. In it there is a chair, a picture of a chair and a definition of a chair. The chair itself does not have much meaning, but once the picture of the chair is introduced, the idea each person has of it varies, even though its function is the same. Finally, the definition of the chair restricts the concept of what can be considered to be that object. For those fans of John Green and "The Fault In Our Stars" this might remind you of the shirt Hazel wears that says: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". And as she explains in the movie, it is not actually a pipe but a drawing of a pipe that is shown. 

Kosuth is  definitley an artist you should read more about if you are interested in any of the ideas mentioned above. His introduction of "concepts" as well as the use of industrial and innovative materials as part of his artworks make him our artist this month.