No Number #1 (Not On Color/Violet)
No Number #1 (Not On Color/Violet), 1991
Joseph Kosuth (1945- )
Violet Neon Transformer
Fine Art Ordinance Obligation
Joseph Kosuth was one of the pioneers of the Conceptual Art movement that emerged in the late 1960s. Conceptual Art dictates that idea takes precedence over form, but Kosuth seems to inquire how ideas take shape, that is, what forms communicate thoughts - and how thoughts about form manifest. Logically enough, language is one of Kosuth's principal media. But, as this piece demonstrates, even something as purely visual as color has a conceptual component. The words, in violet neon, read: "visual space has essentially no owner."