Joseph Kosuth bathes gallery in sig­na­ture neon for first Aus­tralian survey

Tim Stone
The Art Newspaper, 16 October 2017

Exhi­bi­tion brings high priest of con­cep­tu­al­ism to Mel­bourne Inter­na­tion­al Festival

The first sur­vey in Aus­tralia of work by the US artist Joseph Kosuth opened this month at the Anna Schwartz Gallery in Mel­bourne. The show includes 19 works select­ed from across Kosuth’s career. 
Joseph Kosuth was a mere 24 years old when he penned the influ­en­tial Con­cep­tu­al art text Art After Phi­los­o­phy (1969). Its pub­li­ca­tion cat­a­pult­ed the US artist into a van­guard that includ­ed Sol LeWitt, Don­ald Judd, Robert Mor­ris and Daniel Buren. 
In the late 1960s the US was deeply divid­ed. Anti-Viet­nam War ral­lies were a reg­u­lar occur­rence, and an entire gen­er­a­tion demand­ed wide­spread social change. Clement Green­berg, the con­ser­v­a­tive art crit­ic, became a tar­get for up-and-com­ing artists. 
Green­berg reduced every­thing but for­mal­ist art to nov­el­ty art. Yeah, well, who wouldn’t be angry? It was stu­pid and it was wrong,” Kosuth tells The Art Newspaper. 
In Art After Phi­los­o­phy, Kosuth railed against the for­mal qual­i­ties of the art object and cham­pi­oned an art-as-idea argu­ment. The impact was imme­di­ate and far-reach­ing. When Clement Green­berg came to Saint Martin’s [art school in Lon­don] to give a lec­ture, there were some stu­dents that fixed some speak­ers on the roof and read my text over his lec­ture,” Kosuth says. Kosuth sensed he was on to some­thing, and in 1969 insert­ed Con­cep­tu­al art text pieces in sev­er­al news­pa­pers around the world, includ­ing The Her­ald in Melbourne. 
Joseph Kosuth’s Self-Defined Object [Orange] (1966)

The exhi­bi­tion, part of the Mel­bourne Inter­na­tion­al Art Fes­ti­val, of which Kosuth is a guest, takes up two floors of Anna Schwartz Gallery. Sev­en­teen works in neon and one light­box buzz away in a large white-walled down­stairs gallery, while a sin­gle wall-mount­ed neon work from his Ety­mo­log­i­cal Series — W.F.T. #1 [Yel­low] (2008) — occu­pies the entire upstairs gallery. 
The three ear­li­est works in the exhi­bi­tion — Neon (1965), Five Fives (to Don­ald Judd) [Ruby Red] (1965), and Self-Defined Object [Orange] (1966) — are among Kosuth’s first for­ays into the com­mer­cial light­ing medi­um of neon for which he is now best known. 
Neon, a gas in con­stant flux that is unable to bond with oth­er mol­e­cules, is a near-per­fect medi­um for Kosuth’s art. The propo­si­tion that art is a ques­tion that can nev­er be answered has afford­ed Kosuth a seem­ing­ly end­less inves­ti­ga­tion into what art is: The ques­tion about art is about why, not how,” he adds. Pic­tured: Joseph Kosuth, Self-Defined Object’ [Orange] (1966) and W.F.T. #1′ [Yel­low] (2008). Photog­ra­phy: Zan Wim­ber­ley. Cour­tesy of Joseph Kosuth and Anna Schwartz Gallery.
• Joseph Kosuth: A Short His­to­ry of My Thought, until 25 Novem­ber, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Mel­bourne, Australia
Filter

Su san Cohn | Pre­sent­ing the 3rd Engel­horn Jew­ellery Lecture

Ear­rings are for Lis­ten­ing. An Engel­horn Lec­ture at Die Neue Samm­lung3 March 202411amDie […]

Read More

Vivi­enne Shark Lewitt | 18th Ade­laide Bien­ni­al of Aus­tralian Art: Inner Sanctum

18th Ade­laide Bien­ni­al of Aus­tralian Art: Inner Sanc­tum1 March to 2 June, 2024Art Gallery of […]

Read More

Natal­ie King | Cura­tor of the first Tim­or-Leste Pavilion

The first-ever Tim­or-Leste Pavil­ion, which coin­cides with the 25th anniver­sary of the nation’s independence […]

Read More

Maria Madeira | 60TH Inter­na­tion­al Venice Biennale

Kiss and Don’t Tell 20 April – 24 Novem­ber 2024 Tim­or-Leste Pavil­ion at 60th […]

Read More

MIKE PARR | SUN­SET CLAWS | PART 2

An exhi­bi­tion in 3 parts Part 2: Mem­o­ries of Under­de­vel­op­ment 16 — 25 Novem­ber 202 […]

Read More

Intro­duc­ing | Grace Dav­en­port Selth | Direc­tor of Anna Schwartz Gallery

Anna Schwartz is excit­ed to announce the appoint­ment of Grace Dav­en­port Selth as Director […]

Read More

Lim­it­ed places avail­able. Peo­ple enter at their own risk and in com­pli­ance with gallery […]

Read More

Amri­ta Hepi | Plan­e­tary Gestures

Plan­e­tary Ges­tures26 Sep­tem­ber – 3 Novem­ber 2023Walk­er Street Gallery and Art Cen­tre Plan­e­tary Ges­tures is an […]

Read More

Daniel von Sturmer | Elec­tric Light (facts/​figures/​haydens)

Elec­tric Light (facts/​figures/​haydens)23 Sep­tem­ber – 7 Octo­ber 2023Hay­dens Gallery Elec­tric light (facts/​figures) con­tin­ues Daniel von Sturmer’s […]

Read More

LAU­REN BRIN­CAT | BENEATH THE SUR­FACE, BEHIND THE SCENE

Beneath the Sur­face, Behind the Scene­Un­til 22 Octo­ber 2023 Hei­de Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, Melbourne […]

Read More

MIKE PARR | SUN­SET CLAWS | PART 1

An exhi­bi­tion in 3 parts Part 1: Dirty Blan­ket 28 Sep­tem­ber – 8 Novem­ber 2023 Anna […]

Read More

MUT­LUERKEZ | AUDI­TIONS FOR AN UNWRIT­TEN OPERA

Audi­tions for an Unwrit­ten Oper­aUn­til 8 Octo­ber 2023 Staatliche Kun­sthalle Baden-Baden The exper­i­men­tal exhi­bi­tion format […]

Read More

ANGEL­I­CA MESI­TI | TREMBLEMENT

While explor­ing the cor­ri­dors of the Coupole at Galeries Lafayette, I was cap­ti­vat­ed by three […]

Read More

AMRI­TA HEPI | BANKSIARRR

Amri­ta Hepi with Vanes­sa Mor­ris Dis­cussing Straight torque, twin series on Banksia, RRR Amri­ta Hepi joins […]

Read More

Vivi­enne Shark LeWitt | Sine Proprio

Sine Pro­prio7 Sep­tem­ber – 10 Decem­ber 2023Castle­maine Art Muse­um The wind blows where it will […]

Read More

The vast and uncom­pro­mis­ing prac­tice of Mike Parr assumes mul­ti­ple forms through a con­fla­tion of draw­ing, print­mak­ing, sculp­ture and performance.

Half Way House, 2021 dual-chan­nel video, 16:9, 4K, colour, sound 3 hours 18 min­utes Per­former: Mike Parr. Cinematographer […]

Read More

DAVID NOO­NAN | VIVI­ENNE SHARK LEWITT | JEN­NY WAT­SON | Thin Skin

Jen­ny Wat­son White Horse with Tele­scope, 2012 syn­thet­ic poly­mer paint on rab­bit skin glue primed cot­ton 20 […]

Read More

Lau­ren Brin­cat | Per­for­mances on the Quay

Per­for­mances on the Quay 25 — 27 August 2023The Opera House Podi­umPre­sent­ed by MCA & Sydney […]

Read More

Emi­ly Floyd | Cir­cles of dialogue

Cir­cles of dia­logue 15 August — 5 Novem­ber Latrobe Art Insti­tute This exhi­bi­tion takes as its […]

Read More

DAVID NOO­NAN | VIVI­ENNE SHARK LeWITT | JEN­NY WATSON

Thin Skin,Monash Uni­ver­si­ty Muse­um of Art (MUMA) 20 July – 23 Sep­tem­ber, 2023 Thin Skin […]

Read More

ROSE NOLAN | CEN­TRAL STATION

All along­side of each oth­er, 2023 Cen­tral Sta­tion, Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. The pub­lic art­work All alongside […]

Read More

Night­shifts at Bux­ton Contemporary

night­shifts 26 May – 29 Octo­ber 2023 Bux­ton Con­tem­po­rary night­shifts con­sid­ers the impor­tance of […]

Read More

Su san Cohn | Pieces of Peace | Per­for­mances | NGV Mel­bourne Design Week

Su san Cohn​’s exhi­bi­tion Pieces of Peace at Anna Schwartz Gallery from 20 May […]

Read More

Re-Invent­ing Piet. Mon­dri­an and the Con­se­quences | Joseph Kosuth

On view at Kun­st­mu­se­um Wolfs­burg, Ger­many until 16th July 2023, Re-Inven­t­ing Piet. Mon­dri­an and […]

Read More