No words needed: the untitling of modern art

For one hundred years almost to the date, artists have titled their works “untitled.” This essay will look at where and why this practice emerged, what it means in terms of the aesthetics of visual art, and will attempt to characterize the status of the term in contemporary art. The essay will argue that the practice emerged as a form of resistance to the art market during periods of rising consumer demand for modern art. It will also locate the practice in a specific period in the history of aesthetics when artists equated truth and authenticity with silence, absence and negation. The essay will conclude with an analysis of the earliest preserved discussion of the term and its meaning that the author has been able to find. Through this, the author hopes to show that a simple and ubiquitous word, found on countless contemporary works of art, carries a very complex history, at times subversive, at times controversial.