I was passing this sculpture in Burbank the other day. The sculpture consisted of a series of multi-colored beams that resembled a rainbow. It was beautiful. It was elegant. It was inspired...
...it was "untitled."
Now, I'm not saying this beautiful sculpture piece didn't have a title.
No, no, no... the title was, "UNTITLED."
What is that?!?
There was obviously great care taken in the sculpture as well as the wonderfully engraved plague that proudly displayed the artist's name right below the inane title "UNTITLED."
This is one I have never understood: why would any artist, be it a sculptor, painter, musician, poet, etc., ever create an amazingly inspired piece of work (which, let's be honest, was inspired by something) and then not give the work a name...???
It's kind of pretentious; don't you think?
I feel like the artist is saying to me, "I'm too inspired by this incredible piece of art to even finish the mundane task of giving such brilliance a name, so I will simply call it, 'Untitled'." Come on! You took a mundane moment to give it a nameless name!
Take, for instance, this rainbow-looking sculpture I saw in Burbank. How about "Rainbow", Mr. Artist? Or "Promise"? Even "After The Rain" would do. How about "Reflections Of Oz"? Anything other than "Untitled"...
To me, Mr. Artist, do you know what your saying? You are saying that your piece of work is not worth my time.
That's right! I looked up "untitled" at www.thesaurus.com to see a few of the synonyms for "untitled." Do you know what they are, Mr Artist?
"Unacknowledged. Uncelebrated. Undistinguished. Unfamed. Unsung. A Whatchamacallit."
There you have it, Mr. Artist. If you can't even take a moment to come up with a simple name for your art, then your art will be forgettable.
Come on! Give it a title. Or leave it non-titled. Don't call it "untitled." I need a title. I feel I'm entitled!
Totally agree! That's too funny!
ReplyDeleteWow. I feel bad now. My band is called 'thebandwithnoname'. Thanks alot Mr. Amsden. And it's my birthday tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteYou know what? Whatever. I think your little RANT here is pretentious. All through the Bible, we find Jesus identifying himself with the unacknowledged, the uncelebrated, the undistinguished, the unfamed, the unsung, the wathamacallits.
Not mocking them. Not shouting at them and calling them 'Mr. Artist'. Is that what Jesus would do? I think somebody needs a time out. (wink, wink)
Merry Christmas!
What kind of guy would title his blog post "Untitled"?
ReplyDeletePerhaps he named it "Untitled" so the onlooker could view it as something that had meaning to them alone. You know, "I saw THIS in that sculpture, that painting, that drawing, that work of art and it said, to me, what I felt it should say. I have actually looked at sculptures and paintings, etc. and wondered why the artist called it a certain thing, when I felt so differently about. OH WELL. Have your rant.
ReplyDeleteAt first I too thought the title to be pretentious. Every creation is an expression of the creator and thus has meaning. It seemed that the artist was trying to claim no expression. However, then I thought that “untitled” itself was an expression of the artist. Perhaps the artist feels that he does not really know who he is or what the purpose of his life is. Perhaps he was communicating exactly how he feels. Maybe I am giving the artist too much credit. But, whether or not he is expressing uncertainty of self it is obviously there and that is really sad... no matter how beautiful the piece is.
ReplyDeleteUntitled may mean not yet named, inviting us to share in the creativity of the piece to celebrate and bring glory to it. Yes, it's always nice to know the authors original intent of interpretation so that we are aware when our understandings of the piece are deviating from it. However,in some ways from the beginning God hasn’t even afford us with the convenience of always knowing the title of his creations. He took pleasure in allowing Adam to participate in creation by giving names to all his "untitled" animals after the fact that God saw it was good, said it was finished, and went on Sabbat(h)ical.
ReplyDeleteBaby’s are delivered all the time without a plague. The responsibility of deciding the name on the birth certificate is delegated to the caretakers of the creation. Even though our parents generally name us we know from the Bible that God has secret names for us picked out, but not yet revealed. Untitled is generally the name the curator of the gallery gives the piece when an artist does not provide a name. That doesn’t mean there is not a name, or several names the artist uses to refer to their work. They may simply want others to share in the creativity of an unbiased experience of their piece naming it something that holds personal meaning.
Something interested to consider too, is that the "God with no name" who Moses met at the burning bush eventually did stoop to define himself for our finite minds with “I am” -the equivalent of an artist signing his name as “The one who is” (responsible for making this thing.) He eventually did give us several names we can only pretend to fully understand, many of which we gave him, and then He said amen to by acknowledging as his own. Including the God of Abraham (Isaac, and Jacob).
Great job. Your a great writer, fantstic.
ReplyDelete