Conceptual Art

Question 1: On page 517, Buchloh quoted Joseph Kosuth’s assertion that “Art before the modern period is as much art as Neanderthal man is man.” So all art works before modernity are “works” and only post modern art are completed works? Is that what Kosuth mean when he call “conceptual work of art” contradictory? I do not quite understand the purpose of this strong assertion.

Question 2: Buchloh said that “It is a recognition that materials and procedures, surfaces and textures… are always already inscribed within the conventions of language and thereby within institutional power and ideological and economic investment.” On page 529. In this case, for the artist to offer institutional critique, they must either apply unconventional materials, procedures and etc or not building the piece like the 3rd parameter in the linguistic definition on manners of use?