L'écrit comme oeuvre : un point de vue littéraire sur la "dématérialisation de l'art" chez les artistes conceptuels

• Published in: Histoire de l'art pp. 117 - 124
• Main Author: Bel, Auriane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01.12.2012
• ISSN: 0992-2059

Published in the same year as Michel Butor's "Les mots dans la peinture," the article "Art After Philosophy" by Joseph Kosuth promulgated a new genre of language use in art : language as art. While literature devotes itself to creating texts as works of art, conceptual artists, when they use language instead of traditional materials, produce art that more closely resemble literary works. Consequently, by adopting a literary perspective on these conceptual works, one can begin to reevaluate particular approaches that have been used by art critics and art historians. In particular, the thesis of the dematerialization of art, once defended by American criticism, only partially resists a literary approach, since language based works of conceptual art are singularly material. Conversely, conceptual art's use of language similarly prompts literature to recognize the nature of its materiality. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]