Glass (one and three) (1965)
Kosuth, Joseph

collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

In 'Glass (one and three)', dated 1965, conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth explores the nature of art while he seeks to ’de-objectify’ the object. In this installation, referred to by the artist as an ’object definition’, the matter ’glass’ is depicted by the material itself in the form of a large glass plate, by language in the form of the dictionary definition of glass and by image in the form of a photograph of the same glass plate in the installation. Photography is clearly used here to solely generate an image of the object. The art making process shows how little the artist has to do with the materialization of the work. At the end of 1976 a sheet of glass was delivered to the person who purchased the work, a little later a photographer appeared to take a picture of it standing on the white-tiled floor of the living-room, leaning against the wall. That life-size photograph was hung beside the sheet of glass, together with an enlarged photograph of the definition of the word ’glass’ in an English-Dutch dictionary. At Visser's the photograph showed the very white tiles on which the piece itself was installed as well, making it as transparent an image as possible.

150 x 350 x 12,5 cm
KM 112.078
Conceptual Art