the titles of paintings and children's art

National Art Education Association

The Titles of Paintings and Children's ArtAuthor(s): Hope IrvineSource: Art Education, Vol. 36, No. 6 (Nov., 1983), pp. 14-17Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3192643 .

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Children's Art he title of a painting serves the same function as an illustration of a poem. Both provide a context in which to

share the imagery presented. While it may not be by the poet, an illustration is the embodiment of the illustrator's specific vision of the imagery presented by the words of the poem. The title of a painting is usually provided by the painter and serves to direct associa- tions triggered by the painting. It may make an implicit context more explicit or serve to underline what is obvious to a viewer.

Title and Context Consider an image most of us can call to mind ... the Statue of Liberty. Consider the differences in encounter- ing an ordinary postcard of it titled in the following ways: The Statue of Liberty (simple, straightforward, descriptive); Beside the Golden Door (relating to symbolic purpose, Emma Lazarus' poem at its base); You're welcome, I'm sure (unexpected, hum- orous, using a verbal cliche with a national symbol); No Wetbacks Allowed (disparate, suggesting political com- ment, satire); Bronze Goddess (referring to construction materials as well as the symbolic form they embody); The Hollow Promise (suggesting criticism, a play on words referring to the construction and the ideals symbolized through the image). In spite of its prominence as a national symbol and our familiarity with it, the Statue of Liberty can be viewed in different ways depending upon the context which the titles provide.

If asked to think of the titles of all the paintings we have ever seen, we would expect to find great complexity. But if one examines titles and paintings and sorts them into categories, one finds that there are relatively few. One such sorting produced eleven subcategories which comprise five categories: descriptive, narrative, directive, poetic, and arbitrary. These seem to be both appropriate and useful for classifying. These categories will be described, and examples chosen for

Hope Irvine

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Statue of Liberty National Monument.

"Encouraging children to title their

work will give viewers clues to the intent embodied in

the work and challenge the presup-

positions which adults may bring to

the viewing encounter."

their general familiarity will be given. Implications for children's art will follow the discussion.

TITLE CATEGORIES

Titles Which are Descriptive

Specific (Persons, Places, Things) When a painting describes a specific person, place, or thing in a representational way and the title reinforces it, our assumption is that the artist intends it to represent a view of a reality which, if we could appear in the time and place of the painting, we would find to be recognizably similar in ac- tuality. We assume that the artist was there looking at the subject and thought it important to name it specifically in the title. Examples of works in this category are: Self Portrait (of the artist); George Washington (Stuart, 1796); View of Haarlem (Von Ruisdael, 1670); Bowery and Pell Street, Looking North (Marsh, 1944); Arnolfini Marriage Portrait (Van Eyck, 1434).

General (Persons, Places, Things) When the title is of a non-specific nature and the painting is in a representational style, or at least has clearly recognizable images, we assume that the artist may have worked from real persons, places, or things but that the artist judges that the specific identity of who or where is not critical for the viewer. The Potato Eaters (Van Gogh, 1885); The Icebergs (Church, 1861); Fruit Bowl, Glass, and Apples (Cezanne, 1879-82); The Hare (Durer, 1592) are examples of works in this category.

Titles Which are Narrative

Actual Events When the title refers to a specific event, the artist assumes that a viewer will have a background of knowledge of the event, including the characters por- trayed and the historical context in which the event occurred. Even if the

Art Education November 1983

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artist has taken liberties, (with costume, for example) the painting is intended to be regarded as an instant of frozen time in an actual event of dura- tion. Even though the artist may not have been present, we are expected to regard the painting as if the painter were there recording it. Death of Socrates (David, 1787); The Anatomy of Dr. Tulp (Rembrandt, 1632); The Third of May, 1808 (Goya, 1814-15) exemplify paintings relating to what may have been actual events.

Imaginary Events In titling an imaginary event, the artist expects a viewer to have some knowledge of the event even if it is not real. The subject might be an imagined drama or classical allegory, from mythology, literature, or religion. Such an event may or may not ever have taken place. This category represents an artist's envisioning of what might have taken place had it actually hap- pened; we are expected to share the artist's envisioning of the "event." The Peaceable Kingdom (Hicks, 1830); The Abduction of the Sabine Women (Poussin, 1636-7); Crucifixion (Grunewald, 1515), and The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo, 1508-1512) belong in this category. The illustration of poetry or fiction would most often be included here, the text providing the references illustrated.

Titles Which are Directive This category includes titles which direct a viewer's attention to a specific aspect of a painting. There are three sub-categories: Image Clarification, Color Interest, and Form Interest.

Image Clarification Nude Descending a Staircase (Duchamp, 1912); Guitar, Fruit, and Pitcher (Braque, 1927); Three Musi- cians (Picasso, 1921); Lower Manhat- tan (Marin, 1920); I and the Village (Chagall, 1911) are examples of semi- abstract pictures which have "real" titles which help a viewer to pick out the "real images" which the painter has simplified, complicated, re-defined, or presented in a new way.

Color Interest When we look at many paintings, we are struck immediately by the color and light in them, regardless of the title. This category, however, includes

only those paintings in which the artist points out the color specifically in the title.

Although popularly it remains "Whistler's Mother," Arrangement in Black and Gray (the Artist's Mother) (Whistler, 1871) is a title which asks us to look at the color in spite of the recognizable subject. Shade and Darkness - The Evening of the Deluge (Turner, 1843) draws specific attention to atmospheric color. In paintings such as Black, Pink and Yellow over Orange (Rothko, 1951-2) and Midnight Blue (Newman, 1970) the titles simply describe the colors used, clearly in- viting a viewer to pay attention to them.

THE SCREAM, Edvard Munch, Lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,

Rosenwald Collection.

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Form Interest In Improvisation #30 (Kandinsky, 1913) and Composition (Miro, 1933) a viewer's attention is directed toward focussing on the forms as forms, as representations of themselves alone rather than things which remind a viewer of something else.

Titles Which Are Poetic The poetic category includes paintings about states of mind or feelings which may or may not use recognizable images. Emotive Silence (Redon, 1911; The Scream (Munch, 1893); Youth (Bougereau,

1875) exemplify paintings in which artists have attempted to portray or depict or personify abstract qualities, feelings, states of mind. Although recognizable subject matter may be evident, our attention is on the quality. These three paintings were not, after all, entitled, "The Silent Person," "The Screaming Boy," or "Young People at Play."

Fantastic Persistence of Memory (Dali, 1931) and The Certitude of the Never Seen (Tanguy, 1933) are titles which indicate that the artist expects that a viewer will shift to a dream world where strange combinations "make sense." There is often no seeming relationship between the mysterious title and the unexpected images, but they seem quite plausible for a dream-like state.

Titles Which are Arbitrary

Disparate When a title seems to make sense but doesn't help one "figure out" a painting, it falls into a category we may call "disparate"; the verbal image and the visual one seem to be at odds with each other. Reconciliation Elegy (Mother- well, 1978) and Cathedral (Hoffman, 1959) are examples of paintings for which viewers may never know why the artists chose the titles unless the artists tell them.

Absurd Ifafa II (Stella, 1964), Han-San Cadence (Poons, 1963), and The Liver is the Cock's Comb (Gorky, 1944) are similar in intent to titles such as "Opus" and "Composition" and "Untitled" but introduce more confusion for a viewer. The title names the painting, but since it does not make sense in itself, one must not only figure out the painting but the title as well. The title presents no context and does not seem to relate to the painting.

Summary If the title of a picture is an invitation to a viewer to share the point of view of the artist who created it, the title nur- tures communication through the art object which exists autonomously. The title stands in place of the artist's com- ments about the work and provides a context for viewing. If the categorization of titles presented here seems


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RECONCILIATION ELEGY, 1978, Robert Motherwell, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of the Collectors Committee 1978. k 1

reasonable, then there are at least eleven different contexts which the categories and subcategories suggest. If the titles which artists give their work do provide a viewing context, then encouraging children to title their drawings and paintings will provide context for viewing their work as well.

. . .AND CHILDREN'S ART Adults seem to have two predisposi- tions when viewing children's drawings and paintings: either they find them "just charming," or they see them as in- dicative of psychological states of mind. Neither assumption is adequate.

The "Charming" Presupposition On their own, or at the suggestion of a teacher, a child may draw "something scary." Adults looking at the picture may not find it at all frightening. The intent of the drawer may be to communicate something which is frightening, but skill with materials, motor coordination, and resulting visual imagery do not meet with the intent. Something which is frightening to a child may simply look charming to adults, especially if they expect to find it so. If a child has not provided a title, adults may not have a clue to what the child means to communicate.

The Psychological Presupposition There is no reason to assume that children make drawings for psychological reasons alone, nor that their decisions are made through emotive rather than cognitive or an aesthetic process.

Consider these titles which could all apply to the same picture.

The Dog (which is a general descriptive title) tells us that the child intends

us to see a dog. We notice that the dog is red. We don't know why. The child may or may not know that dogs are really not that particular color, or perhaps the red paint available is the closest color to an Irish setter the child has seen.

The Red Dog (which directs attention to the color) tells us what may be self-evident in the picture, but also that the child is drawing our attention to the color for some reason.

The Bad Red Dog (which directs attention to the color and indicates a judgment about this dog's character) may tell us: 1. "If a dog is bad, it should be red." (an emotive color choice: red equals bad); 2. "This dog is bad, and it happens to be red." (a cognitive color choice: "red" and "bad" are not related; "red" is in- cidental to "bad"); 3. "I like red because it's bright and shows up, so I used it to paint a bad dog." (anaesthetic color choice: red is a bright color chosen for impact, it is ir- relevant to "bad" or "dog");

Bad (which is poetic-emotive; red and dog may have been used to personify a quality) may tell us about a specific experience with a specific dog, but "red" does not necessarily equal "bad." The color may have been chosen for emotive, cognitive, or aesthetic reasons.

All of these are plausible interpreta- tions of the paintings and titles, yet none provides evidence of the psychological state of the child. Even the last example would require more information before one could conclude that the child had a "dog problem." But unless a child titles a painting, an adult may have no clues for interpretation and

may feel perfectly comfortable looking at it with "psychological presupposi- tions" which may actually work against interpreting it in the way it was intended by the child.

With titles as clues, adults can ex- amine a work in the suggested context as they would a work titled by an artist. Of course, if the artist were at your side, you might want to ask some questions to clarify the intent further. Parents and teachers may want to do the same with the child-artist at hand.

Titling and Reading We ask children to choose the best title for a paragraph or story when we teach and measure reading ability; they are expected to summarize the essential meaning. Appropriate titling of paragraphs and pictures are both in- dications that children are involved in the process of summarizing the essential intent of the communication through interpretation of the words or images available as evidence.

Eliciting Titles "What is it?" is a question which generates an answer which may be descriptive of the subject of the drawing but may not tell us what it is about the subject the child wishes to communicate.

"What do you want to say to me through this picture?" or "What is it about this picture you want me to notice especially?" are open questions based upon the assumption that a child has some reason for making the drawing or painting in the first place. They also suggest to children that the purpose of making art is to communicate something about something to a viewer.


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Using Titles to Develop Ideas With younger children, teachers should suggest topics appropriate for a variety of categories and encourage children to choose their own titles which will rein- force the picture ideas and expand the categories. For example. Descriptive-Specific (persons, places, things): Mommy at the Supermarket, My Ted- dy Bear. Descriptive-General (persons, places, things): A Dog, Some Boys Playing in the Snow. Narrative-Actual Event: I went to the Circus, My Birthday. Narrative-Imaginary Event: The Tooth Fairy Visited Me, I Flew on a Dragon's Back Directive-Image Clarification: Find the Cat!, The Car that looks like a Horse. Directive-Color Interest: My Favorite Color, Blue and Yellow Rabbits. Directive-Form Interest: Circle Picture, Triangular People. Poetic-Emotive: A Happy Day, A Scary Monster.

Younger children will handle emotive-expressive communication as it relates to actual events and things since they are not at an abstract thinking level. The Poetic-Fantastic and the Arbitrary categories should not be discussed until young people are past the concrete thinking stage since "inap- propriate" titles in these categories may confuse them.

Titles and Categorizing To introduce a consideration of titles in a more formal way, an art teacher may ask a high school class to sort and classify titles of paintings seen in a museum trip or of reproductions on hand. The categories derived by the students will parallel those presented here. Once the distinctions are clear, students should suggest their own for each category. For example: Descriptive-Specific (persons, places, things): Self Portrait, Entrance to our School. Descriptive-General (persons, places, things): Still Life with Bicycle, Hills at Sunset. Narrative-Actual Event: Roosevelt High School, 32: Madison High School, 14. Columbus Discovers America. Narrative-Imaginary Event: Odyseus Meets Cyclops, City of 2001. Directive-Image Clarification:

A Face Made of Angles, House of Squares. Directive-Color Interest: Shades of Red, Green Still Life. Directive-Form Interest: Ink Blot #1, Solid Shapes. Poetic-Emotive: Anger, Confusion Poetic-Fantastic: The Mystery of Time, Worlds in Wonder.

If introduced, the Poetic-Absurd categories should be carefully discussed in contrast to the other categories which relate to ;hoosing clearly understandable and appropriate titles for paragraphs. At the high school level students may have the sophistication to understand arbitrary titles, especially if presented as "con- ventions" of art popular with many contemporary artists.

Summary There is no reason to assume that even young children do not make the same kinds of choices artists make, although on a simpler level. Encouraging children to title their work will give viewers clues to the intent embodied in the

work and challenge the presupposi- tions which adults may bring to the viewing encounter.

Choosing titles as summaries of meaning in drawings and paintings provides practice which relates to writing and reading.

As young people become more ex- perienced, they will make up their own titles which will fall into the same categories as those of artists. They learn that the title not only suggests a context, but reinforces the meaning embodied in the work. For high school students the process of categorization and development can serve to expand ideas for paintings and provide a greater variety of approaches in studio courses.

Exhibiting the work of a young person and calling it "untitled" because a teacher has neglected to ask for one is not the same as if a young artist chose to call it Untitled. N

Hope Irvine is assistant professor and chairwoman, department of synaesthe- tic education, at Syracuse University.


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the titles of paintings and children's art

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