Have you ever been in an art exhibit and read the title of an artwork simply labeled “untitled”? You see the concept; you get what the artwork means, what the artwork says. You recognize the artist’s inspiration. You recognize the artist’s influence and message. Sometimes if one is art inclined or gifted it’s even easy to put a “title” on an “untitled” artwork. But instead you still wonder why the artist chose not to label it with one.
Have you ever been in an art exhibit and almost felt the strokes of the artist/s? That even when you saw the painting in a picture beforehand, you realize seeing it with your own two eyes face to face with the artwork, it seems different because of the artist’s strokes? You get to feel the weight of their brush, how expressive they have performed the stroke, how gentle they controlled their emotions and let it play on the canvas. Other artists even surprise you, because sometimes when you see the artist, you look at them and you see them looking like a drummer in a heavy metal band. Which would often lead to a person looking like he has big broad arms, body piercing, tattoos and whatnot. But the surprise part comes when you see their artworks, see and analyze their strokes and feel their strokes to be gentle as cotton’s kiss, gentle as the morning Christmas air. And you wonder again, how is it possible. And then you realize that these strokes tell more about the artist and tell more about how he sees and how to approach his artwork in his eyes.
UNTITLED STROKES features the artworks of artists that in having first glances at their work not only show a very promising group but also tells you a story that they wish to portray even before you get to see the show. Their exhibit title is again, Untitled Strokes, it is as if their saying that titles means so little, that you’d have to see their artworks up front, close and personal. They wouldn’t label their strokes for us, what style or technique they are aiming for. They want us to feel their strokes, not label them.
Everyone has a name, everything is called something, but not every painting should have a title, not every painting should have an identifying class of which style or genre or feel it belongs to. The artist is the only one who can determine that. They have freedom to identify their strokes or style simply be unidentified, unlabelled.
There is an interior design Zen saying, “More is Less” painters also have something similar, “Nothing is Everything”. Have you ever played the word game Scrabble? It’s the game where you outwit your opponent with the words you can construct with the limited letters you possess. You are given a number of letters in a half an inch plastic square, letter per letter. One letter per half an inch of plastic square, yet also in the game gives you a blank square, a half an inch plastic square which give the player the power to proclaim whatever letter he desires to get an advantage in the game.
Nothing is Everything. A blank canvas possess endless of possibilities, what more paintings with Untitled Storkes? It possesses a meaning of endless of meanings, not to be tamed in words but to be unleashed in mystery and more on the emotion and connection with the artist to the audience. Titles on their paintings yes, but their strokes remain silent, the strokes remain untitled.
Image: Julmard Vicente
Texts: Marius Black
