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The text in 'Titled' is important because it signifies the semantic capacity of language and not just because of what it says per se. The supposed impartiality of language is exposed in a way that makes us acutely aware of the difference between the act of reading and the act of interpretation.

(This resembles Wittgenstein's Tractatus statement: "A proposition is a model of reality as we imagine it." From this premise, Kosuth was able to formulate a very particular perspective on the objects of art. Kosuth proclaimed art as ideas mediated ("approximated") in the form of objects, (although little aesthetic or material value was attached to these objects except for their importance as as surrogates). Kosuth was also eager to point out here that these 'models' are not ideals, Kosuth was certainly aware of the differential that frequently exists between the idealised trajectories of linguistic models and the rigours of real-time art production.

The idea of language as the ultimate means of definition found particular endorsement in works of Joseph Kosuth. Works such as Kosuth's 'Titled' (Art as Idea as Idea)[meaning]' (1967) proved to be highly influential in conceptual art's reworking of aesthetics and materiality.

'Titled' (Art as Idea as Idea)' consists of a white on black photographic enlargement of the dictionary definition of 'meaning' that is synonymous with art's own crisis of identity. 'Titled' presents object and language as a seamless entity that renders both signifier and signified inseparable from each other and highlights an interpretive predicament of meaning predicated upon language.

In his cogent essay 'Notes on Conceptual Art and Models', Kosuth declared:"...all I make are models. The actual works of art are ideas. Rather than 'ideals' the models are a visual approximation of a particular art object I have in mind...".

http://www.ubu.com/papers/powell.html

In the early stages of the twentieth century when the syntax of cinema was becoming established, a whole movement of artists including Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miro, Maurice Denis, and Piet Mondrian were pushing the idea that 2-dimensional picture painting or 3-dimensional sculpture could be far more than purely representational, that once you break out of the idea of restricting yourself to reproducing a real life object, you open up a whole new world of opportunities.

http://www.ubu.com/film/richie.html

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso, 25 October 1881
– 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor who lived most of his adult life in France.

Picasso demonstrated uncanny artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence; during the first decade of the 20th century his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortune throughout his life, making him one of the best-known figures in 20th century art.

He is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement, and for the wide
variety of styles that he helped develop and worked in. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during
the Spanish Civil War.

http://www.ubu.com/film/picasso.html

http://www.ubu.com/historical/de-stijl/index.html

De Stijl, Dutch for "The Style", also known as neoplasticism, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. In a narrower sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands. De Stijl is also the name of a journal that was published by the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), propagating the group's theories.

The remarkable success of the still-young karel appel is not to be explained only by his paintings, but above all by his dutch character and his strong creative personality. dutch is the hard, messaging rebelliousness with which he revolted against the hard, messaging mentality of his compatriots and their (his) culture. it is the same ruthless pursuit of absolute values - and powerful search for truth that urged on other great dutch painters. as a creative personality too appel is irresistible. not latin, playful, unceasingly producing things of beauty, like picasso, but dialectic, ever discovering new questions in every work that he produces and ever answering with a new painting. these qualities - dutch stubbornness and unfrustrated creativity - mathematically determined his place in our culture, yearning as it was for new, true values.