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Press Release

'Aren't you sure of what you're saying? Are you going to change yet again, shift your position according to the questions that are put to you, and say that the objections are not recall directed at the place from which you are speaking? Are you going to declare yet again that you have never been what you have been reproached with being? Are you already preparing the way out that will enable you in your next book to spring up somewhere else and declare as you're now doing: no, no, I'm not where you are lying in wait for me, but over here, laughing at you?
'What, do you imagine that I would take so much trouble and so much pleasure in writing, do you think that would keep so persistently to my task, if I were not preparing- with a rather shaky hand- a labyrinth into which I can venture, in which I can move my discourse, opening up underground passages, forcing it to go far from itself, finding overhangs that reduce and deform its itinerary, in which I can lose myself and appear at last to eyes that I will never have to meet again. I am no doubt not the only one who writes in order to have no face. Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same: leave it to our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order. At least spare us their morality when we write.' Michel Foucault, 1969 'a labyrinth into which I can venture (a play of works by guests and foreigners).'

Sean Kelly Gallery is delighted to announce a major exhibition by Joseph Kosuth, the most recent addition to his twelve-year series of 'Guests and Foreigners' installations. Constructed as an enormous labyrinth, using spaces in the gallery previously unseen by the public, the installation is a self-reflexive discourse on the artist's own history, including many works never before seen in the United States. 'Quoted' and embedded as part of the installation, are key early works through to new work created specifically for the exhibition which over all function as part of the text of Kosuth's labyrinth. 'Guests and Foreigners' has been staged at institutions worldwide: Kunstlerhaus in Oslo; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; The Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; The Chiba Museum, Japan, and The Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, Boston, among others.

Checklist

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Function' , 1970
85 framed works on paper
9 1/2 x 7 inches (24.1 x 17.8 cm) each
Inv# JK-109

This work was first published as part of a series of books, which Germano Celant and Pierluigi Pero edited for Gian Enzo Sperone in the early 1970's. The book itself was based on Kosuth's work and part of the artist's '6th Investigation', a body of work that centered around games and logic, and their relationship to language. The appropriated text used by the artist was a treatise on logic written by Lewis Carroll. The exhibited form of the work is established in relation to the architecture of the exhibition, with the spaces between the framed elements variable.

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'No Number Twice (+216, After Augustine's Confessions) III' , 1991
2 part work, silkscreen and aluminum
48 x 48 inches (122 x 122 cm)
19 1/4 x 19 1/4 inches (49 x 49 cm)
Inv# JK-71

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Whistler's Warning (c.c.c.c.)', 2003
19 white neon elements
variable dimensions
Inv# JK-116

This work was part of Joseph Kosuth's Centennial project 'Artist, Curator, Collector: James McNeill Whistler, Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner - Three Locations in the Creative Process' commissioned for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 2003. This specific work refers to a text from Whistler's controversial 1885 'Ten O'Clock lecture' and is a play on the notion of collector, and a commentary on the institutionalization of museums, formed by the observation of a practicing artist during Gardner's time and constituting a kind of admonition for the future.' For each word or phrase, a separate element was positioned on the exterior façade of the brick wall surrounding the Museum on the east perimeter of Fenway Court.

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Say: I do not know' , 1994
12 free standing plinths
58 x 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches (147.3 x 31.8 x 31.8 cm) each
Inv# JK-110

This work was exhibited as a two-part installation together with 'The (Ethical) Space of Cabinets 7&8' installed, and now a permanent work, in the Voltaire Room of the Taylor Institution at Oxford University. Conceived for and exhibited at the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library, the texts used in the work play upon the relationship between the writings of Voltaire and John Locke, utilizing and recontextualizing material located in the respective libraries.

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Zero & Not #15' , 1986
white neon text with bar attached on top, transformer
overall dimensions: 4 x 161 inches (10.2 x 408.9 cm)
Inv# JK-104

JOSEPH KOSUTH
Ein Schiller Labyrinth , 1993
ink on paper
unframed: 23 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches (60.3 x 50.2 cm)
AP1/10
Signed, stamped and dated, recto
Inv# JK-101

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Word, Sentence, Paragraph [Z & N]', 1986
neon, vinyl text
56 1/2 x 101 inches (143.5 x 256.5 cm)
Inv# JK-108

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) [Define]', 1967
certificate of authenticity: printed definition glued to board, pencil
form of presentation: mounted photograph, 48 x 48 inches
certificate: 5 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches (13.3 x 11.4 cm)
mounted photograph: 48 x 48 inches (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Inv# JK-115

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'The Sublime II' , 2006
sandblasted stone, steel shelf
stone: 43 1/4 x 43 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches (110 x 110 x 4.4 cm) each
overall dimensions: 47 1/4 x 91 1/2 x 7 inches (120 x 232 x 18 cm)
Inv# JK-105

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'L' essence de la rhétorique est dans l'allegorie' , 1997
3 framed silk screen prints
framed: 39 1/4 x 49 1/2 inches (99.7 x 125.7 cm) each
Paradox,Description,Representation
Inv# JK-4a,b,c

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'#II 20. (On color/white)', 1991
white neon, transformer and certificate of authenticity
overall dimensions: 6 1/2 x 168 inches (16.5 x 426.7 cm)
Inv# JK-111

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Cathexis #39' , 1981
altered photograph with text
framed: 70 1/2 x 52 1/2 inches (179.1 x 133.4 cm)
Inv# JK-52

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'The Sixth Investigation, Proposition 7' , 1970
text on glass
58 x 48 inches (147.3 x 121.9 cm)
Inv# JK-99

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Passagen-Werk (Documenta Flânerie) #B 9', 1992
text on cloth
36 x 36 inches (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Inv# JK-107.B9

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Passagen-Werk (Documenta Flânerie) #B 10', 1992
text on cloth
23 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches (59.7 x 74.9 cm)
Inv# JK-107.B10

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Passagen-Werk (Documenta Flânerie) #B 24', 1992
text on cloth
19 x 25 inches (48.3 x 63.5 cm)
Inv# JK-107.B24

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Passagen-Werk (Documenta Flânerie) #B 53', 1992
text on cloth
31 1/2 x 40 inches (80 x 101.6 cm)
Inv# JK-107.B53

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Passagen-Werk (Documenta Flânerie) # B 54', 1992
text on cloth
39 x 40 inches (99.1 x 101.6 cm)
Inv# JK-107.B54

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Jasper Johns [A.A.I.A.I.] #2' , 1968
certificate of authenticity: printed definition glued to board, pencil
form of presentation: mounted photograph, 48 x 48 inches
certificate: 5 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches (13.3 x 11.4 cm)
mounted photograph: 48 x 48 inches (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Inv# JK-100

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Un Aleph, Ex Libris (para J.L.B.) element #1', 1991
granite, steel shelf
stone: 51 1/2 x 51 1/2 x 1/4 inches (131 x 131 x .6 cm)
overall dimensions: 51 1/2 x 51 1/2 x 5 inches (131 x 131 x 13 cm)
Inv# JK-113

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'P.F.A.S.P.' , 1990
silkscreen on 4 glass sheets, with metal shelves
4 sheets of glass:
7 x 56 inches (17.8 x 142.2 cm)
21 1/2 x 59 1/2 inches (54.6 x 151.1 cm)
26 1/2 x 56 inches (67.3 x 142.2 cm)
51 x 40 3/4 inches (129.5 x 103.5 cm)
overall dimensions: height tbd x 119 1/2 inches (tbd x 303.5 cm)
Inv# JK-114

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Self Defined Subject [white]' , 1966
white neon, transformer and certificate of authenticity
overall dimensions: 4 x 72 inches (10 x 182.9 cm)
Inv# JK-102

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Seeing Reading [white]' , 1979
white neon, transformer and certificate of authenticity
overall dimensions: 4 x 280 inches (10 x 711 cm)
Inv# JK-103

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Five Recent Details', 1988
5 framed black and white photographs
framed: 21 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches (54.6 x 44.5 cm)
overall dimensions: 21 1/2 x 92 inches (54.6 x 233.7 cm)
Inv# JK-3.a-e

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Essays #2' , 2000
Fujiflex photograph mounted to Plexiglas
47 1/4 x 79 3/4 inches (120 x 202.6 cm)
edition of 2 (#2/2)
Inv# JK-26.2

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Mondrian's Work II' , 2006
silkscreen on glass
96 1/4 x 92 inches (244.5 x 233.7 cm)
Inv# JK-106

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'One and Three Photographs [Ety.]', 1965
vintage photograph, photograph of a photograph, photographic
enlargement of dictionary definition of 'photograph', original
photo-certificate
photograph: 30 3/4 x 37 inches (78.1 x 94 cm)
vintage photograph: 30 3/4 x 37 inches (78.1 x 94 cm)
definition: 23 7/8 x 30 inches (60.6 x 76.2 cm)
overall dimensions: 30 3/4 x 108 inches (78.1 x 274.3 cm)
JK-119

JOSEPH KOSUTH
Where are you standing?
Venice poster
framed: 56 1/8 x 40 1/2 inches (143 x 103 cm)
Inv# JK-117

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'0&A/F!D! (To I.K. & F.G.) #7', 1987
framed photograph
framed: 84 1/2 x 64 1/2 inches (214.6 x 163.8 cm)
background text: 102 1/2 x 91 1/4 inches (260.4 x 231.8 cm)
Inv# JK-97

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'the Thing-in-itself is found in its Truth through its immediacy XX', 1993
8 photographic prints on cloth
overall dimensions: 34 1/2 x 226 inches (87.6 x 574 cm)
Inv# JK-118

JOSEPH KOSUTH
'Zero & Not (Whitney Museum installation fragment)' , 1987
6 framed silkscreen on paper
framed: 58 1/2 x 52 inches (148.6 x 132.1 cm) each
overall dimensions: 117 x 156 inches (297.2 x 396.2 cm)
Inv# JK-98