With my second major being studio art, I have an interest in images. I stumbled upon this article and found it interesting. Overall, this article discusses how artists use words in their pieces of artwork. In the past few decades, artists have increasingly used works in conjunction with visual images. A quote that I was interested in was, “The forms in which words and language fragments are presented in visual formats are as various as the types of art, but they are united by the fact that the words serve to increase the image’s potential for meaning.”
Overall, the article discussed that the visual and verbal signs were in the images to heighten potential for meaning. Or sometimes, artists use words to confuse the reader. Artists used a variety of techniques to bring a play between what is more real- the object, word, or painted surface. My favorite example is Jasper Johns’ False Start, he labeled actively painted color areas with names of hues other than those represented: “Red” on blue, “blue” on red, “white” on yellow, and so on. Much of John’s work is concerned with “the definition of art and non-art: “real” objects and “art” objects. Again, working with the connection between what is real by using language and words. I think this article relates to our class discussions because language can be about people’s perceptions and I believe that art too is based on other people’s perceptions. With art, art can be subjective and I think that language too can be. I find it interesting that while communicating, people use a variety of methods to stress what they are saying and that artists can also do this with words in their images.
http://library.allegheny.edu/ERes/art112/Words.pdf