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Tautologies

 


Tautological self-reference


The tautology is the conceptual equivalent of the monochrome. It is the proposition which is necessarily true; stating its truth thus conveys no information. (In Kantian terms: a tautology expresses an analytic judgment.) Prototypical tautologies are the truths of logic and mathematics.

A circular statement may be tautological in that its very form guarantees its truth. ("Dit is Nederlands." "This sentence consists of six words.") Such self-referentially true statements are sometimes presented as visual artworks: painted verbal descriptions which state one or more self-evident properties of the painting itself.

In conceptual art, this strategy is used so often that it is sometimes taken to be the defining characteristic of this artistic genre. Commenting on On Kawara's Date Paintings, Gudrun Inboden asserts: "Dass die einzelne Arbeit nichts mitteilt, was über den ablesbaren Tatbestand hinausginge, und nichts außer sich selbst verkörpert (hier ihre an einen bestimmten Tag geknüpfte Entstehung), ist das spezifische Merkmal von Konzeptkunst." [Cf. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart: On Kawara.]

Self-referential statements need not be tautological. They may be contingently true, contingently false, or paradoxical. The latter case arises when a statement implies its own falsehood; i.e., its circularity is vicious. (The prototype example is the liar paradox: "I am lying." ) Paradoxical statements constitute a distinct subgenre of conceptual art; we anthologize it on a separate page.
    

René Magritte:
La Trahison des Images, 1928-29

René Magritte:
Ceci est un morceau de fromage, 1937

René Magritte:
Ceci n'est pas une pomme, 1964

 



Gerhard Rühm: Ein-wort-tafel, 1955

Timm Ulrichs: Bild, 1972

 



Ben Vautier: Art, 1958


Roy Lichtenstein: Art, 1962


ART

Joseph Kosuth:
Nine Paintings with Words as Art, 1966

Jean-François Bory, 1974

 

Ben Vautier: Rouge, 1958



Sol LeWitt: Red Square, White Letters, 1962

 

Joseph Kosuth: Wittgenstein's Color, 1989

 

  
This piece
is its name.
     


Tony Conrad, 1961

On Kawara:
Nothing, Something, Everything, 1963.


herman de vries, 1990

 


Ben Vautier: Toile, 1965



Yannis Kounellis:
Untitled ("Paint"), 1965

PAINTING

Joseph Kosuth:
Nine Paintings with Words as Art, 1966

CANVAS

Joseph Kosuth:
Nine Paintings with Words as Art, 1966


Erik Dietman: "Pain", 1967



Mel Ramsden: 100 % Abstract, 1968

 

Derek Jarman:
Light Sculpture

Joseph Kosuth:
"Neon", 1965

Bruce Naumann:
"none sing / neon sign", 1970


Mathieu Mercier:
"Caractères", 2001

 

Jenny Holzer:
"Scrivendi sui muri di notte", 2003

Tracey Emin:
Red, White & Fucking Blue, 2004

 

Reynald Drouhin: Keyword, 2006

 


Ben Vautier, 1966


Mel Bochner: Measurement Room, 1969 (detail)

 



William Anastasi, 1967



Arman: Accumulation, 1973 (detail)

herman de vries, 1991

Fred Eerdekens: The image as distance between name and object, 1991.
      



Lawrence Weiner:"A translation from one language to another / Een vertaling van de ene taal naar de andere", 1996.



Ceal Floyer:
Reserved/Reversed, 2005

 

Stefan Brüggemann:
"Looks Conceptual", 1999

Annika Stroem:
"This work refers to Joseph Kosutt", 2004

 

 

 


Contingently true self-reference


Bordering on the tautological, there are self-referential artworks which express contingent (but plausible) properties that normally would not be viewed as constitutive for the identity of these works.
    

 


Billy Apple:
For Sale, 1960

Bjarne Melgaard:
Untitled, 2004

Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux:
"Profitez-en – l'art est encore en vente libre!", 2005

Matthieu Lorette:
"Let's make lots of money", 2005

Annika Ström:
"This piece is made to support me"

 

 

 

 

Robert Morris:
Box with the sound of its own making, 1961

 

John Baldessari:
A painting that is its own documentation, 1968

 

Roy Lichtenstein: Masterpiece, 1962

Pieter Engels: Well painted, 1996.

Simon Moretti: Fame, 2005

Wout Vercammen:
"Made In Belgium. Toujours En Retard"

 


Lewis Carroll: "the country itself, as its own map".

“That’s another thing we’ve learned from your Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?”

“About six inches to the mile.”

“Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!”

”Have you used it much?” I enquired.

“It has never been spread out, yet,” said Mein Herr: “the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, 1893 [Chapter XI: The Man in the Moon.]

 


Idio-semiosis.


An art object that represents itself is a "tautological" artwork: it performs a denotational operation which is trivially correct. This kind of vacuous mimesis is displayed by Marcel Duchamp's readymades, Aleksandr Rodchenko's monochromes, and Jasper Johns' flags. (The tautological constitutes the most parsimonious interpretation of these works. Noting that the very emptiness of these works invites hallucinatory over-interpretation, we decline the invitation.)

Joseph Kosuth acknowledged the connection between pop and conceptual art: "And in Jasper Johns' work – such as his 'Target' and 'Flag' paintings and his ale cans – one has a particularly good example of art existing as analytical proposition." ("Art after Philosophy, Part II." Studio International, November 1969, p. 161.)

 

Cornelis Gijsbrechts:
Canvas, 1670

Marcel Duchamp:
Porte-bouteilles, 1914

Aleksandr Rodchenko:
Pure Blue Color, 1921

René Magritte:
La Belle Captive, 1931

Jasper Johns:
Flag, 1954-55



Robert Indiana: Zero, 1964

Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin:
Map of an area of dimension 12''x12'' indicating 2.304 1/4" squares (Map of itself), 1967 (detail).


This 'map' has no correspondence with anything else but itself in terms of the spatial indices. It is 'the country itself'.

Michael Baldwin, Charles Harrison, Mel Ramsden:
Art & Language in Practice. Vol. 1. Illustrated Handbook.
Catalogue Fundació Antoni Tàpies. Barcelona, 1999.
 

 

 

 


Tautology in Software Art

Patrick May: Lightswitch, 2000. A self-documenting web-page.

RiXtA (3SC): Self Disassembler, 2000. A program which prints out its own code.
(Assembly code for MSDOS. Download here.)
   




More tautological works by:

      René Magritte

      Ben Vautier

      Jasper Johns

      Robert Indiana

      William Anastasi  

      On Kawara

      Joseph Kosuth

      Mel Bochner

      Stefan Brüggemann

Tautology: Related genres

      Measurement Pieces

      Mirrors     

      Readymades       

      Redundant Photography  

      Redundant Video


Is all art tautological?

      Discussion at the end of the Kosuth page



Compiled by Remko Scha, 2002-2008

Jochem van der Spek suggested one of the links.