“Agnosia, an Illuminated Ontology,” currently on view at Sean Kelly gallery, might just look like an array of neon signage, but in it artist Joseph Kosuth intends to explore the role of language and meaning in art. The exhibit is comprised of over forty works and celebrates 50 years of engaging with this concept.
Through what appears to be notebook sketches and charts turned into neon signs covering the walls and ceiling of the gallery, Kosuth takes the viewer on a journey that aims to make them think. As a radical pioneer of conceptual and installation art, Kosuth’s ongoing investigations (that started in the 1960s) into language, perception, and the appropriated use of literature, philosophy, and psychology have formed into works that have defined his career.
Installation view of “Agnosia, an Illuminated Ontology” an installation by Joseph Kosuth at Sean Kelly, New York“Agnosia” includes early pieces, featuring one of the most important neon works of his ever made, Five Fives (to Donald Judd) (1965), of the written sequence of one to 25 in blue neon. It also features the “W.F.T” series (2008) that deals with word constructs, and the “Paradox of Content” series (2009) based off of Charles Darwin sketches.
November 7 – December 19, 2015The show coincides with Kosuth’s recently opened exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and runs through December 19.
