Time (Spoken)

'Ian Wilson is one of the mythical figures of conceptual art. In 1968 he decided to take his ideas about visual abstraction into the invisible abstraction of language, along with a number of other artists such as Lawrence Wiener, Joseph Kosuth, Robert Barry and Art & Language. But Ian Wilson went furthest in the dematerialization of art. He wanted to speak instead of make things.' (Oscar van den Boomgaard’s interview with Ian Wilson, 2002).

Ian Wilson was the inaugural artist exhibited by Kunstverein when it opened its doors in 2009. This choice was seen as fitting, both at the time and in the years that followed, as his work resonated deeply with Kunstverein's mission to explore the relationships between the observed—or discussed—and the viewer, emphasizing the topical urgency of such interactions. The catalogue raisonné "IAN WILSON - THE DISCUSSIONS," featuring works by Ian Wilson spanning the period from 1968 to 2008, was published with the support of our imprint KV Publishing.