Four colours – four words

Mediums: panel, neon, transformer.
Location: private collection.

One of Joseph Kosuth’s first innovative installations is similar to another work of the same period, «Five Words in Five Colours”. Words written in bright orange, violet, green and blue neon letters correspond to the colours that they denote. This is how the author simultaneously demonstrates two realities – visible and descriptive. Kosuth prompts the viewer to wonder how and why their functioning differs. The work that the artist performed while studying at the School of Fine Arts in New York signals that the author was ready to offer ideas embarrassing with their literality, which are not so unambiguously obvious. Throughout his subsequent career, he sought to demonstrate that the “artistic” component is not in the image of any object but the concept-idea. This installation was sold in 2013 for $ 201,000 at Christie’s London.