By Nicole M. Crawford
A new exhibition at the University of Wyoming Art Museum titled Language as Art: The Art Museum Collection presents artworks that include words, lettering or text as subject or design.
“What does it mean?” is a common question when looking at art. Occasionally artists will literally tell you by including words in their artwork. However, words, letters and sentences can also challenge the viewer to decipher the meaning and add another layer of interpretation.
In the early 20th century, the cubists began using words in their work, and other artists quickly adopted this innovation. Words restored the nature of an object in cubist paintings in which objects were deconstructed and reassembled in an abstract form. The words did not function as visual elements but were used as more of a conceptual device. Oronzo Gasparo, for example, included words or fragments of words on the sides of objects in his still lifes that added more questions than answers. This reinforced his idea that the inclusion of letters and words helped move the work toward a conceptual interpretation, where the audience members are no longer simply viewers but instead become readers.
Although text has been included in art long before pop art, these artists were among the first in the mid-1950s to give words a central role. By utilizing imagery from popular and mass culture—such as recognizable advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects—these artists appropriated the words from logos and product labeling to challenge the tradition of fine art. During the 1960s, words became more important than the images, and for some pop artists such as Ed Ruscha, the words replaced images altogether. Words effectively became the images. The words, phrases and sentences often refer to popular culture and act as verbal puzzles to employ philosophy and semiotics, and for political and social commentary.
Graphic artists further embraced the inclusion of words as a vehicle to create objects. Bernard Solomon created a series of “graphic poems” that are made up of only words, and those words form the object to which they are referring. As a result, the poems are made more accessible and generate collaboration between text and art. Contemporary artists such as Kenny Scharf continue the tradition to connect art to the everyday world by including abstract elements and familiar pop culture imagery with words, phrases, logos and newspaper headlines that contribute to the composition.
Word-imbued artworks often reveal strange, unsettling, humorous and subversive results
when words escape from the traditional confines and begin to infiltrate the visual
arts. Explore Language as Art: The Art Museum Collection at the museum from Jan. 31 through May 16, 2015. Visit uwyo.edu/artmuseum to learn more.
