Joseph Kosuth.

Joseph Kosuth's art strives to explore the nature of art. It focuses on ideas at the fringe of art rather than on producing art. This means that his art is self-referential.

"The 'value' of particular artists after Duchamp can be weighed according to how much they questioned the nature of art."

This is one of Kosuth's most famous works - One and Three Chairs. It is a visual expression of Plato's concept of The Forms. The piece consists of a physical chair, a photograph of that chair and the dictionary definition of a chair. The photograph is a representation of the physical chair situated on the floor. The definition, on the wall to the right of the physical chair, explains in words the concept of the chair in it's various incarnations. In this work, Kosuth forwards tautological statements, where the works literally are what they say they are.

Kosuth argues that art is the continuation of Philosophy, which he saw at an end. Kosuth linked Formalism to Conceptualism, saying that it 'limits the possibilities for art with minimal creative effort put forth by the Formalist'. Kosuth further argues that the "change from 'appearance' to 'conception' was the beginning of 'modern art' and the beginning of 'conceptual art'."