What are those "untitled-untitled" works of art expressing?

What do Manhattan women, a series of light bulbs, color block splicing and stereoscope have in common? They are all works of art without titles. Or, they all have the same title: "Untitled".

Do artists really need to sign their works of art? On this controversial topic, Picasso insisted that he didn't know how to name his works. Although many of his works are named by gallery owners and dealers, he prefers to let his works speak for themselves. "After all, what's the use of explanation?" He once said, "Painters have only one language." For Picasso and many other artists, their works are more visual.

Perhaps the most famous work of the famous photographer Cindy Sherman is her untitled photography series called "Unfinished Movie Stills". This is a series of black and white photos that she pretended to be. They look like stills taken directly from the set of Holly movies in 1950s and 1960s. Here, the untitled nature of these films is still very important. Sherman's goal is to achieve a certain degree of blur in these portraits. She doesn't want these to be anything concrete or any recognizable movie characters. She hopes that these photos can express the universal and stereotyped representation of women in the film, so as to highlight the single dimension and interchangeability of these roles.

Another example of deliberately using "untitled" as an artistic title is the artist-Felix Gonzá lez Torres. Many of his works are untitled, but there are poems in brackets, such as untitled (perfect lover), untitled (shooting) and untitled (last light). In all these works, the titles in brackets are symbolic, providing the audience with the clues represented by these works of art.

However, many works of art in history have no traditional or descriptive titles, which is said to be partly because many arts before19th century came from portraits, religions, myths or literary traditions. Before18th century, most paintings also had no titles. However, due to the gradual development of the art market and public art exhibitions, as well as the criticism of newspapers, artists find it beneficial to name their works, because the name can represent a symbol, which makes people more impressed and better seated, just like taking an unforgettable and impressive name.

Here is an interesting example. A painter named Judy sent her self-portrait to the gallery one day. For the convenience of arrangement, the gallery will give artists a name, such as Judy. A few months later, Judy got a call from the gallery and said on the phone:

? A client is interested in one of your paintings.

"which one"

"The girl sitting on the cane chair"

"Oh, you mean Judy?"

"Oh, God, can you describe it in more detail?"

"Well, she is a girl with long hair."

"Can you send me a picture?"

Finally, the painter Judy received an email. This painting is not called Judy, but a painting by Judy. It can be seen that when the gallery keeps in touch with the artist, it can sort out the title of the book and give it a' feature', but when it loses contact, the simplest solution is to name it' untitled' to facilitate memory and corresponding seating, or find out the corresponding obvious features from the works to name it for collectors to identify and buy. For example, a painting by Matisse was once called "a woman with green stripes on her nose". In the end, the name of this painting was named Madame Matisse with Green Stripes, which has a strong "language" symbol feature-green stripes, Madame Matisse.

Headlines are important because they will affect our thinking and the background we see. Perhaps all these paintings are to depict entrances, gates and doorways. In an art world shaped by institutions and driven by language, Yezel pointed out that even works without titles can be accompanied by huge and lengthy words and pages of academic criticism and writing. From this perspective, language-seems to be really inevitable.

Clyfford Still, an artist who often does this, has many unnamed series of works. Because almost all his works are composed of color blocks, without titles, the audience can pay more attention to the color and composition itself. You may think that it is just a mosaic of several color blocks, which are randomly divided in the middle. Or you may see it as a barren and desolate mountain range, or you can look at it from an emotional and philosophical point of view. Maybe it also symbolizes something dark and depressing, such as the fire of hell or death.

In fact, the work titled Untitled is not limited to the art of painting, but also includes installations and images. Robert Morris, an artist, created a space of human consciousness by minimalist creation-a mirror cube made by the medium of mirrors. Apart from the minimalist nature of the image, one of the reasons why this work of art is so open is that it has no title. The artist chooses not to tell us what it is or what he is thinking. In this case, naming it untitled or lacking a title enables us to look at it in our own way and establish our own background.

Morris said: "When the audience walks around four cubes, their mirrors will produce complex and changeable interactions between the gallery and the audience. When a person realizes his body, he will also realize the' situation' of this work. "

So, why did he choose the untitled main title? You might ask. Well, it's hard to say. Maybe he is laughing at modern art in vain? Maybe he just wants you to pay attention to the title. Is this his way of attracting you? Perhaps the works he represents can be subtle and ordinary, but they also represent powerful and concrete ideas. But marcel duchamp said, "Title is an invisible color"-it is a color, no matter good or bad, even the most irresistible works of art, given the language of words, will become vacillating.