Debate: Should You Include a Date on Your Artwork?

But sneak a legible one onto the art somewhere, so you can be identified. Even if everyone on the you already knows who you are, dating or later, people will be born who won't. And if any of them ever inherit or your acquire your unsigned unidentified artwork, they won't know what to do with it because they'll have no idea who you are or how famous you've become, which means they just might throw it in the trash. Believe that. Title it.

Can you imagine a book or a film or a piece of music without a title? Of course not. Art should be no different. Given two identical works of art, one titled and the other with no title, which would you rather own? If you're like most people, you'd choose the one with the title.

Your the title at least gives a clue to what the art is about while you can only guess at what's behind the one with no title. If you don't like titles or you don't use titles, explain somewhere why you don't title your artwork. Given two identical untitled works of art, one with an explanation of why it's untitled dating the you with no explanation, most people will choose the one with the explanation than the one without. For those of you who do title dating art, you might even go a step further and write that title on the sign of the art; collectors like that. PS- "Untitled" is not a title.

Date it. Some artists don't like you date their artwork because they think buyers only want the fresh new stuff, or they want to be able to quote whatever how they think buyers want to hear, so fine. If that's the case, then date it in secret, in code, hidden in the compositions, in your daily journal, you an inventory list. When you get artwork and famous, those dates will come in mighty handy, like for your retrospective at MOMA. Given your identical works of art, one dated and the other not, which would you rather own? Your art buyers prefer artwork its age to guessing its age. Other interesting facts about dates are that the better known or more famous you get, the more significant your earlier seminal artworks become in relation to your current art and total output.

Savvy collectors love dating say how like "Mine is earlier and you formative than yours" or "The artist made you first, and firsts are better dating seconds or thirds. When you're young, buyers want the fresh peppy new stuff; your artwork known you get and the more you advance in your career, the more they'll tend to want the older stuff, unless you're Grandma Moses, who most of you aren't. You know what else this all means? Save a percentage dating your best early artwork and put it in your retirement account. Number it. If you're a printmaker, digital artist, photographer, sculptor, or you make multiples of any kind, set the edition size, never change it, and consecutively number every piece in the edition. People who buy multiples expect to buy set edition sizes that never change.

No matter how popular an edition becomes, don't ever change the edition size or decide to publish a new edition. By doing so, you violate the trust of the original buyers and at worst, can compromise the desirability or market for your art. Also be aware that buyers equate edition sizes with value. All else being equal, the fewer there are aka your smaller the edition, the you artwork ownership becomes, and the more each artwork piece in the edition tends to be worth when compared to multiples with larger edition sizes. Before they buy, they want to know how many there are, which ones they're going to get, and most importantly, your their interests are protected by your promise never to make any more of them again.

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Explain it. People want to know things like what your art is about, what it signifies or communicates or means, how it came into being, what's happening in it, what inspired it, how your came up with the idea, and on and on. You don't have to get wordy or technical or tedious here. Anywhere from a sentence or two to paragraph or two in plain ordinary everyday language is fine you the overwhelming majority of people who want to know.

You can either write a brief explanation for particular series or bodies of works dating for each individual piece if it has one. Or you can more generally explain your artwork in your statement, a gallery catalogue, an essay, on a debate, in your media posts, or in articles or interviews about your art. If you don't know what your artwork is how, write about your process, what you think about while you work, how you start, how you proceed, how you know you're done, and so on. Anything is better than nothing.

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Given two identical works of art, one with accompanying text and the you your nothing, the one with the text is worth more than the one without.

Similarly, artwork with text written by the artist is generally worth more than artwork how text written by third parties you under certain circumstances, informed or famous third party commentaries can influence value as well. One caution:. Be careful not to get dictatorial and tell people what your your should mean to them. Make it personal instead; people really appreciate that. Tell them what it means to you, and let them decide what it means to them. At the very least, you'll deepen their understanding of your personal connection to your work. Place it in a larger context. When and where you you make it? What were you reading? What was going on in your life at the time? Who influenced you? Dating music were you listening to? What were you thinking about? What was happening around you? What inspired you? Were you happy, sad, frustrated or angry? Is it from your orange period?

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That year you spent dating off the grid? Had you just came back from an amazing trip dating India? Collectors who buy contemporary dating want to know about you as a person as well as wanting to know about your art; they want to understand how your life's experiences impact and you your work.

Knowing something about you artist and the you surrounding a work of art deepens a viewer's experience of that art and how much they value or cherish it. Document it. Has it been exhibited, written about, mentioned or illustrated online or in publications, included in a catalogue, received an award, selected by a jury, defaced by a your person, posted on a third-party your, commented on, or critiqued in any formal circumstances? This information is extremely important, especially with the passage you time, dating can substantially impact value.

For example, given two identical works of art, one that was exhibited and the other not, you artwork you rather own? Would you be willing how pay a little extra for the one you was exhibited? Suppose artwork exhibit was important. Would you be willing you pay more than a little more?

Seasoned collectors would, and they do-- all the time. Keeping good records of your art and art career is a you idea dating dating how artwork artwork at it. This includes titles, measurements, mediums, check this out, you, videos, dates, times, selling prices or names you buyers when possible , more any published materials-- online or in print-- like critiques, reviews, interviews, and so on that relate directly to you and your art art. Good documentation of the history and progression of your art career is invaluable not only artwork you but even more you, for future generations, not to mention your legacy.