Is this art?

One and Three Chairs. 1965.
Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of "chair",
chair 32 3/8 x 14 7/8 x 20 7/8" (82 x 37.8 x 53 cm),
photographic panel 36 x 24 1/8" (91.5 x 61.1 cm),
text panel 24 x 24 1/8" (61 x 61.3 cm).
Larry Aldrich foundation Fund. © 2008 Joseph Kosuth / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York.

This is one of famous work by Joseph Kosuth, an artist born in Toledo, Ohio, 1/31/1945. He moved to New York in 1965 and attended the School of Visual Arts there until 1967. The philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein influenced the development of his art from 1965 to 1974. During this period, he explored the idea that language possesses meaning only in relationship to itself, as in the series One and Eight - A Description (1965), in which eight words in neon signify only the elements that compose the work; for example, Neon Electrical Light English Glass Letters Red Eight. He founded the Museum of Normal Art in New York in 1967 and his first solo show took place there that year. For more info about J.Kosuth, please click here



Usually when you go to an art gallery, you will see beautiful paintings or sculptures. But Joseph Kusoth use objects that we can find in our own rooms, for example chairs, lamps, etc. Instead of decorating them, he show the chair together with an enlarged picture of the chair itself & a dictionary definition of chair. Why?
My opinions are; because an object can change due to many things such as, weather & earthquake, he put the picture there to capture and freeze the time of the chair. Secondly art can be interpret into many different meaning and that is why he put the definition there to tell that this is just a chair.... or just to confuse people =)


Now let me read your opinions about this artwork by Joseph Kusoth.