What does joseph Cossus do?

Joseph Cossus (1945-) is one of the most famous conceptual artists in the world. 1965 He copied a chair, an enlarged photo of the chair and the explanatory text of the word "chair" in the dictionary, and displayed them side by side, entitled "A chair with three chairs". This is a typical conceptual art work, with photos symbolizing people's thinking in images and words symbolizing people's logical thinking in language.

Chinese name: joseph Cossus.

Nationality: USA

Date of birth: 1945

Occupation: conceptual artist

Main achievements: the founder of American "conceptual art" defined conceptual art as "art after philosophy"

Representative works: one chair and three chairs, created in 1965.

Artistic feature

Joseph Cossus, the founder of American "conceptual art", defined conceptual art as "art after philosophy", and began to examine the role and position of art and the hidden things behind the meaning people gave to works of art, exploring the boundary of communication and the internal identity of existing visual language, trying to measure the influence of art.. We pay more attention to conveying an idea rather than making "eternal" works of art, and we are also concerned about the institutional limitations of artistic creation: how works of art become a vassal of this increasingly decadent commodity society, and then become a symbol of elegance or so-called "civilization". The core idea that Cossu wants to express is that the reason why a work of art becomes a work of art is not all its constituent materials, nor is it aesthetic integrity or presentation. Chair, an objective object, can be reproduced by photography or painting and become an "illusion", but both the physical chair and the "illusion" of the chair reproduced by artistic means have led to a final concept-the concept chair, that is, the definition of the chair in words.

As a pioneer of conceptual art and installation art, joseph Cossus never stopped challenging the existing fixed thinking. He opposes giving a certain media (such as oil painting) a specific meaning, and hates that the impact of art only comes from visual effects, trying to establish a "non-visual" relationship between man and the world in an artistic way. Finally, he found the language-for more than 40 years after the 1960s, he tirelessly showed the world his exploration of the relationship between language and art in the form of installations, exhibitions and publications.

Among all his works, one and three chairs is the most representative one, which was written in 1965. This work consists of a real chair, a photo of this chair and the definition of the word "chair" extracted from the dictionary, which directly expresses contempt for visible forms and attaches importance to internal information, ideas and meanings. The core idea that joseph Cossus wants to express is that a work of art is not the sum of all its constituent materials, nor its aesthetic integrity or presentation. The objective object (physical object) of the chair can be reproduced by photography or painting, and become an "illusion" (the photo of the chair), but both the physical chair and the "illusion" of the chair reproduced by artistic means lead to a final concept-the conceptual chair (the definition of the chair in the text).

Artistic viewpoint

In an article published in 1969, Cossus defined conceptual art as "art after philosophy". He wrote: "The so-called modern art seems to be all about form. When Duchamp's ready-made products appeared, the focus of art shifted from form to content. This means that the essence of art has changed from a morphological problem to a functional problem. This change, from appearance to concept, is the beginning of contemporary art and also the beginning of conceptual art. All art forms since Duchamp are conceptual, because art only exists in concepts. " Cossus mentioned an important figure-Duchamp, whose "ready-made products" are regarded as the earliest conceptual art works ... Duchamp's artistic thought became the source of conceptual art, and he emphasized that the value of art lies in creativity, not whether the objects finally displayed have aesthetic feeling. In this sense, Duchamp foresaw some problems raised by conceptual artists in the late 1960s as early as 50 years ago.

In addition, Cossus is opposed to giving a certain media a specific meaning. He denied that the impact of art only came from visual effects, and tried to establish a "non-visual" relationship between man and the world through artistic means. Since the 1960s, he has been tirelessly demonstrating his exploration of the relationship between language and art in the form of installations, exhibitions and publications. In order to show the inner world of the subject as comprehensively as possible, conceptual artists usually show the specific process of creation and the results of behavior to the audience. In their view, art, in essence, is the language expression or communication behavior of a certain idea or profound thought. The manifestations of conceptual art can be written proposals, photographs, documents, tables, maps, movies and so on. Since 1970s, conceptual art has had a great influence on contemporary art.

representative works

Joseph Cossus's One and Three Chairs shows a photo of a folding wooden chair, a printed description of a chair, and a wooden folding chair. Obviously, this is a conceptual expression similar to Duchamp. So, what does he want to express? "Authenticity", the "authenticity" of everything. For example, this chair, language expression and simulation are not physical ontology. Photos symbolize the thinking of images in people's minds, and text interpretation symbolizes the logical thinking in language. However, these two statements are one-sided, untrue and full of misunderstandings relative to the entity of the chairman present. Everything is the same. For example, a person, today he is not yesterday, it can be said that he is not a complete person at any moment. Moreover, whether you associate with him or know him, you can only grasp his present fragments. Figuratively speaking, "one can't step into the same river for the second time." There is only one reason why the lovely lover of first love becomes a tasteless wife. You killed her conceptually with experience and memory. Today's she is not yesterday's she, she died yesterday. No matter what she did to you yesterday, whether it was hurt or considerate, today she is as brand-new as the sun. You must start getting along with her again. Without memory and prejudice, your feelings will always be fresh.