Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Abstract
By paying more attention to “concept” of artwork in Postmodern and Contemporary Art, and with the advent of Hermeneutic and Intertextual topics in art, attentions to “title” effects on transferring and turning of concept have increased. Conceptual Art has concerned with these effects more than the other movements because, “concept” is its central pillar. The “title” has an important and undeniable value in visual conceptual artworks due to “language” and “writing” importance in these works. The authors have based Edward Lucie Smith definition of Conceptual Art for identifying visual conceptual art. Although basic and traditional art categories are out of date in Conceptual Art, but in this study the authors have drawn a presumptive boundary and separated the artworks that are mostly based on basic art media like painting, sculpture and photography from the others. This part of Conceptual Art has been considered as the research domain. The purpose of this study is identifying of “title” function in visual conceptual art and its role in forming and transferring of these works “concept”. The article has been conducted on the basis of Analytical-Descriptive method. In the first step the researchers have studied “title” qualitatively and then subdivided conceptual artworks into 3 categories: Entitled by the Author, Untitled, Without Title-Entitled. In the second step, they have considered “title” functions in these 3 categories of visual conceptual artworks on the basis of Bahman Namvar Motlagh thoughts. In the third one, they have inspected “title” effects by deleting it from conceptual artworks. The researchers have studied both of Persian and foreign visual conceptual artworks “titles”. In this study, 3 important keywords in conceptual art which are “title”, “idea” and “concept” have been defined in order to avoid mixing their meanings. The results show that “title” in a visual conceptual artwork is considered the part of a work itself and it’s not something separate from it. Furthermore, “title” involves in forming and transferring visual conceptual artworks concept and can change their concept. The results also prove that “title” can be appeared as a factor of “conceptualizer” in some conceptual artworks so that changes an object or a visual artwork into visual conceptual art and if the “title” be deleted from a visual conceptual artwork, it may go out of Conceptual Art circle and fall down to ordinary object or common artwork. Language has been used as one of the two mechanisms in Conceptual Art and has been applied in two kinds in visual conceptual art: first, using text in own of artwork, Second, using title. “Title” plays last role in completing the refer circle of artwork to itself in some visual conceptual artworks which made based on Tautology. As Bahman Namvar Motlagh has introduced three basic functions for titles of artworks which are “artwork identifier”, “advertising and making relationship for artwork”, “first step of making relationship between artwork and audience”, the authors in this research have added one more function for title to previous ones which called “effect on forming of final concept of artwork.
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