photo: SAIKI Taku
The Polar Bear and the Tiger Cannot Fight
| Artist | Joseph KOSUTH |
|---|---|
| Year | 1994 |
| Material/ Technique | WARM WHITE NEON |
| Size/ Duration | H12 × W225 × D5cm |
| Copyright Notice | © JOSEPH KOSUTH STUDIO NEW YORK |
| Year of acquisition/ donation | 2003 |
| Description | Born in Toledo, USA in 1945. Lives and works in New York, USA and Rome, Italy. A conceptual ar tist whose work demonstrated various developments in the 1960s and 1970s. He rejects any attachment to form, color, and other elements that have been considered essential to the visual arts, instead viewing grasping the relationship between things as the most urgent matter in art, leading him to create artworks based on words. He often references texts by philosophers such as Ludwig WITTGENSTEIN, Friedrich NIETZSCHE and Sigmund FREUD, encouraging contemplation and awareness on the part of the viewer. "The Polar Bear and the Tiger Cannot Fight" is a work consisting of neon tubes that spell out the words (in Japanese) of the title. The text is a quote from Sigmund Freud’s "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life". The translucent light of the neon tubes suspends the meaning of the quoted words in midair, leaving the viewer searching for their subtext. Between the original meaning in Freud’s book and the meaning produced in the viewer’s consciousness, diverse relationships proliferate. |
NOTES
This Collection Data page contains the works and materials in the collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, as of April 1, 2018.
Artists are listed alphabetically by artist’s surname.
Works and materials by the same artists are listed according to the date of the work in principle.
Works whose dates are unidentified are listed at the end of each item. Some works are not listed according to the date of work due to their relations.
The data of works and materials are listed in order of title, production year, material/technique/form, dimensions, donor’s name, copyright holder and credit for photograph.
Dimensions are given by height (H) x width (W) in centimeters for plane work, and height (H) x width (W) x depth (D) in cm for 3-D work. Diameter (Ø) is used for circular work.
For the name of country or city, the name currently used in English is listed in principle.