Representation, Concept, and Formalism: Gadamer, Kosuth, and the Dematerialization of the Art Object

Joseph Kosuth’s arguments for supporting Conceptual Art take for granted, and merely invert, the very categories of Formalism which are the critical target of his proposal. That is due to a narrow notion of truth, understood as adequatio or as (formal) tautology. A subjectivist and internist conception of the work of art is an unexpected consequence of this view. A different conception comes out if we follow Gadamer in adopting a hermeneutic view regarding the identity of the work, which considers the material conditions of its manifestation.