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Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Joseph Kosuth

Four Titled Abstracts, from S.M.S. No. 3

1968

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  • Artist Joseph Kosuth (American, b. 1945)
  • Title Four Titled Abstracts, from S.M.S. No. 3
  • Date 1968
  • Medium White print on black paper
  • Dimensions unframed | 20 x 20 in.
    framed | 21 15/16 x 21 15/16 x 1 3/4 in.
  • Credit line University purchase, 1990
  • Object number WU 1990.13.3 I.vii

Postwar Prints and Multiples: Investigating the Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 02/02/2018 - 04/16/2018

Models and Prototypes 2006

1990
Randall Galleries

Inscription 1990.13.3 I.iii ab·stract (ab-strakt’, ab’strakt), adj. [L. abstractus, pp./of abstrahere, to draw from, separate; ab(s)-, from +/trahere, to draw], 1. thought of apart from any particu-/lar instances or material objects; not concrete. 2. ex-/pressing a quality thought of apart from any particular/or material object: as, beauty is an abstract word./3. not easy to understand; abstruse; hence, 4. loosely,/theoretical; not practical 5. in art, characterized by/ design or form that is geometric or otherwise not/representational. n. (ab’strakt), 1. a brief statement/of the essential thoughts of a book, article, speech,/court record, etc.; summary. 2. that which is abstract:/as, the abstract fascinates his mind. Abbreviated abs./ v.t. (ab-strakt’), 1. to take away; remove 2. to/think of (a quality) apart from any particular instance/or material object that has it; form (a general idea)/from particular instances. 3. (ab’-strakt), to summa-/rize; make an abstract of. —SYN. see abridgment./ in the abstract, in theory as apart from practice. 1990.13.3 I.ix 1ab·stract \(‘)abz;trakt, Əbz’-, -ab’;st-, Əb’st-\ adj, sometimes/ -ER/-EST [ME, fr. L abstractus, past part. of abstrahere to/draw away, withdraw, fr. abs- (var. of ab- 1ab-) + trahere/to pull, draw — more at TRACE] 1 archaic : absent in mind/: ABSTRACTED 3 <~, as in a trance —John Milton> 2 [ML/abstractus, fr. L, past part.] a : considered apart from any/application to a particular object or specific instance :sep-/arated rom embodiment b : difficult to understand : AB-/STRUSE c : IDEAL d : in-/sufficiently factual : FORMAL <~ and doctri-/naire instruction> e of a unit or number : having no reference/to a thing or things — opposed to concrete 3 arcahic : drawn/away : REMOVED, SEPARATE 4 : expressing a property, qual/ity, attribute, or relation viewed apart from the other char-/acteristics inhering in or constituting an object 5 : dealing or tending to/ deal with a subject in the abstract: as a of a science : PURE,/ THEORETICAL — contrasted with applied b : IMPERSONAL,/ DETATCHED 1990.13.3. I.v ăb’străct1, a. Separated from matter,/practice, or particular examples, not con-/crete; ideal, not practical; abstruse;/(with the, as noun) the ideal or theoretical/way of regarding things (in the ~). Hence/~LY2 adv., ~NESS n. [ME. F. L abstractus/p.p. of ABS(trahere draw)] 1990.13.3 I.vii Ab’stract, 1 ab’strakt, 2 ăb’străct, a. 1. Produced by/ or resulting from abstraction: applied to an idea or/mental image when deprived of most of its individual fea-/tures; having the nature of a conception or general notion,/ Man and human are concrete; humanity is an abstract notion./ PORTER Intellectual Science pt. iii, ch. 2, p. 332. [s. 1871.]/2. Viewed apart from concrete form, individual ex-/ample, or actual practise: said of numbers, attributes,/qualities, etc.; general, as opposed to particular; theo-/retical, as opposed to practical./ The teachings of Christ are not abstract doctrines. A. P./ STANLEY in Thoughts that Breathe ccliii, p. 285. [D. L. CO. 1879.]/3. Withdrawn from contemplation of present objects;/abstracted; as, he had an abstract air. 4. Ideal; imagi-/nary; visionary; as, abstract piety: opposed to real, practical, rational. 5. Hard for the mind to grasp; ab-/struse; metaphysical; as, abstract speculations. a popu-/lar use. 6†. Separate; drawn or taken away (from)./[

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