The Operational Politics of "Untitled"
Naming Authority and Meaning Distribution in Modern and Contemporary Art
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62161/revvisual.v18.6326Keywords:
Untitled, Naming Authority, Titling Practices, Contemporary ArtAbstract
“Untitled” is ubiquitous in modern and contemporary art, yet scholarship has treated it as a homogeneous category signifying openness or resistance. This article argues that “Untitled” functions not as the absence of naming but as an active operational strategy that redistributes naming authority across the art world. Drawing on case studies of four modern and contemporary artists, the analysis identifies three interlocking mechanisms: semantic resistance, perceptual intensification, and institutional recoding. The article also introduces two new analytical concepts within institutional recoding: deferred titling and naming authority transfer. The findings demonstrate that “Untitled” redistributes rather than eliminates naming power, moving authority from artists to institutions, markets, and audiences through distinct but related processes.
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