Art and art itself ---- Joseph Kosuth

The title might be a bit confusing, but this is what I feel when I see Joseph's art. I couldn't quite get what he wants to say until I read some related articles.

To me, he is more a philosopher then an artist, an art philosopher to be exact.

The reason why I couldn't get what he tries to tell is that I tend to search the inner meaning each time when I look at an art piece; since most of the art works are formed of different objects and colors within which the truth or idea lies. So that was what I did when I looked at this piece 'Five Words in Green Neon' made in 1965. Of course I was not successful, how could I find words within words? The piece itself is titled 'Five Words in Green Neon', it's written 'Five Words in Green Neon', and it shows itself 'Five Words in Green Neon'. It is simply a straight-forward statement the artist wants to show the viewers: 'art as an idea/a fact/or a sentence itself'.

His art is so confusing to me I found its very hard for my brain to analyze his logic. That is part of the reason I am not very into philosophy, because one tends to think too much and get trapped in his/her own brain and thinking pattern, and it's almost impossible to get oneself out of that illusionary world. The searching and questioning process is so tiring and to me useless and a waste of time because there is usually no 'correct' or 'standard' answer and most of the people pay little attention to what you are doing really and see little value in it.

To question art like this is like to ask 'what's the meaning of life?'. Why don't we just simply create art like our ancestors did in ancient times with forms and colors in order to create a visionary pleasantness, a simple idea or meaning just like how we should just enjoy our colorful life instead of spending time questioning, questioning, questioning on the existence of art and life itself.

On the other hand, his art philosophy art is part of the art itself, so there is nothing wrong in creating his own art. To him, it is a pleasure to question and to show his ideas. Though I usually find that no matter how much you think or question one thing, the simplest and happiest thing to do is to get out of yourself and your complex illusionary world and just live your life in reality and make your art in reality just like the rest of the world.