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Joseph Kosuth

Joseph Kosuth is recognized as one of the foremost pioneers of Conceptual Art and installation art. Since the 1960s he has developed groundbreaking language-based works and appropriation strategies, exploring the relationship between language, meaning, and artistic production. Over more than fifty years, his practice has taken the form of installations, museum exhibitions, public commissions and publications across Europe, the Americas and Asia. He has participated in seven editions of documenta and eight Venice Biennales, including presenting Zeno at the Edge of Known World (1993) in the Hungarian Pavilion.

Kosuth’s career has been acknowledged with numerous international awards, among them the Cassandra Foundation Grant (1968), the Brandeis Award (1990), the Frederick Wiseman Award (1991), an Honorable Mention at the Venice Biennale (1993), the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France (1993), the Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich in Austria (2003), the Wen Xin Award from the Ministry of Culture in Taiwan (2019), the Grand Prix for Lifetime Achievement from the Osten Biennial (2022) and the Medal of Honor from the National Arts Club in New York (2022). He has also received honorary degrees including a Laurea Honoris Causa in Philosophy from the University of Bologna, a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana (2015), and a Laurea Honoris Causa in Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts from the Albertini Academy in Turin (2025).

Among his major permanent and public works are Material of Ornament at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice (1997; permanent 2020), Ni Apparence Ni Illusion at the Louvre (2009; permanent 2014), Causa Sui for the Council of State in The Hague (2011), W.F.T. at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (2016), Inventing Relations for Ca’ Foscari University in Venice (2016), One Field to the Next at Taipei Main Station (2018), La Signification at the Magritte Museum in Brussels (2019), and Located World at the Miami Beach Convention Center (2019).

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Kosuth studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, the School of Visual Arts in New York, and the New School for Social Research. He taught for many years at the School of Visual Arts (1967–85) and later at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart, the Kunstakademie Munich and IUAV Venice, where he returned in 2023. He has been a Visiting Professor and Guest Lecturer at Yale, Cornell, NYU, UCLA, Oxford, the Sorbonne and many other institutions. He currently lives and works in New York and Venice.

  • Biography

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  • Bibliography

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Gallery exhibitions

Museum exhibitions

Selected press