White neon mounted directly on the wall
Collection of the artist
Courtesy of the artist

A renowned tautological work from 1965 ‘One and Eight – A Description’, exemplifies Kosuth’s investigation into the production and role of language and meaning within art.

This text-based installation describes its own physical and conceptual components, its materials, structure, color, and essence, allowing the artwork to exist exactly as it is defined.

Each word functions both as a descriptor and as a part of the object, creating a closed, self-referential system in which meaning emerges through language rather than representation, a logic further reinforced by the title itself.

Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Kosuth highlights the limits of language while using neon, a material appropriated from public and popular signage, to connect art with everyday visual culture.

Mounted photograph
Private collection
Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech Gallery

This work is part of The First Investigation series Kosuth began in 1966 using a series of negative photographic enlargements featuring dictionary definitions and etymological entries.

These were intended as a reproducible ‘form of presentation’ designed to strip away the ‘aura’ associated with traditional painting.
By neutralizing the physical object, Kosuth sought to redirect the viewer’s focus toward fundamental questions regarding the nature of art and language. Regarding the title of the work, in the artist’s own words: «‘Art as Idea’ was obvious; ideas or concepts as the work itself…The addition of the second part, ‘Art as Idea as Idea’, intended to suggest that the real creative process, and the radical shift, was in changing the idea of art itself.»

Mounted photograph
Private collection
Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech Gallery

This work is part of The First Investigation series Kosuth began in 1966 using a series of negative photographic enlargements featuring dictionary definitions and etymological entries.

These were intended as a reproducible ‘form of presentation’ designed to strip away the ‘aura’ associated with traditional painting.
By neutralizing the physical object, Kosuth sought to redirect the viewer’s focus toward fundamental questions regarding the nature of art and language. Regarding the title of the work, in the artist’s own words: «‘Art as Idea’ was obvious; ideas or concepts as the work itself…The addition of the second part, ‘Art as Idea as Idea’, intended to suggest that the real creative process, and the radical shift, was in changing the idea of art itself.»

28 typewritten labels
Framed Collection of the artist Courtesy of the artist and Castelli Gallery

’The Fifth Investigation’ (1969) is part of Kosuth’s broader Investigation series (1969–1970) and a key transitional moment in his conceptual practice. Kosuth utilized radical delivery methods such as typed labels affixed to walls or notebooks displayed on tables in order to ensure a neutral presentation and to avoid
traditional aesthetic readings.

This work consists of twenty typewritten index cards presenting logical and context-based puzzles. Edited and appropriated by Kosuth, these problems require reasoning rather than factual knowledge, encouraging abstract thinking. Drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘language games’, Kosuth demonstrates that meaning is not inherent, but rather determined by the specific rules and context of an environment, in this case the context of art.

Four mounted photographs and clock
Collection Lia Rumma
Courtesy of Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano/Napoli

This work expands the Proto-Investigations series by exploring the relationship between objects, language, and the abstraction of time. By combining an ordinary clock, its photographic documentation, and dictionary definitions, the work shifts our attention from the physical object to its conceptual construction.

Unlike the static chair in ‘One and Three Chairs’, the clock introduces a temporal dimension, prompting viewers to reflect on how art, language, and images shape our understanding of reality.

Offset printing
Courtesy of the artist

Produced and designed by Kosuth on occasion of the 37th Venice Biennale in 1976, for the International Local collective the artist was part of together with Sarah Charlesworth and Anthony McCall, the work functions as a critical reflection on the social and political dynamics of the art world, a question still relevant today.

The poster invites the viewer to position themselves as Producer (artist), Intermediary (curator or dealer), or Consumer (public). The labyrinth within the manifesto presents a self-reflexive journey through language, identity, and the specific positioning of the viewer.

PRENDI UNA COPIA / TAKE A COPY

20 framed original photographs
Photographs Collection of the artist Courtesy of Spruth Magers Gallery

‘Text/Context’ (1979) was developed by Kosuth for his retrospective at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and later presented in various locations across Europe, the United States, and Canada.

The work consists of paragraphs written by the artist to be read in two public contexts: the street and the art space. Initially displayed anonymously on billboards within an advertising realm, the texts were later transferred as wallpaper into museums or galleries.

Through this shift of context, Kosuth reveals how meaning depends on cultural frameworks and invites viewers to reflect on the structures through which mass culture produces and interprets meaning.

Banner in public space
Dimensions variable
Collection Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano (FAI)
Courtesy the artist and collection FAI-Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese

‘The Seventh Investigation (A.A.I.A.I.) Proposition One’ was originally installed as a banner in Turin, Italy and as a billboard in New York City’s Chinatown and is currently installed on the façade of Palazzo Malipiero, overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice.

The text is appropriated from Kurt Goldstein and Martin Scheerer’s groundbreaking work on the “abstract attitude”which described a mind that could operate beyond what was concretely available through the senses. Kosuth’s placement of the text in several different linguistic contexts including billboards, newspapers, banners, and exhibition spaces challenges the viewer to make the act of thinking itself the subject of the work.

As in Kosuth’s other investigations, the viewer must participate in order to complete the work. However, the last line of the text: “to detach our ego from the outer world” is paradoxical in that the viewer is prompted to separate themselves from the context in which they find themselves, a busy street; a pedestrian bridge; a heavily trafficked canal.