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The discrepancy between the addition of some handwritten data to a work and the great significance the art world attributes to it represents a paradox that Tim Beeby is addressing in his exhibition project Unsigned Untitled Undated. In 2017, he deliberately refrained from signing his paintings for the first time, instigating a provocative confrontation with the established mechanisms of evaluating art by inviting his audience to take his unsigned works away free of charge.8 Anyone wishing to have the work signed and therefore included in the artist's register of purchased works can acquire the paintings at the usual market price.9
The artist's decision to forgo a signature yet offer signed works for sale to visitors raises numerous questions. It remains to be clarified what role the signature actually plays in the process of creating value for a work of art. Can an unsigned work achieve the same economic and cultural value as a signed one and also gain recognition in the art world? Shouldn't the aesthetic qualities of art be valued more highly than its connection to an eminent name?
The present essay seeks to address such contradictions and, using Tim Beeby's Unsigned Untitled Undated as a paradigm, explores how the signature influences the value of a work of art. The focus will be on the genre of painting in Europe, which even today is expected to involve evidence of the artist's own hand, with the signature playing a special symbolic role, attesting to both originality and authorship. Because of the close ties, the modern and contemporary art market in North America is also included in the considerations.
Duchamp posed a question that is yet to be clearly answered, one which Tim Beeby likewise confronts: what is it that defines and distinguishes a work of art? According to Joachim Heusinger von Waldegg, the signature plays a crucial role in enabling the urinal to be interpreted as a work of art, since as a symbolic gesture it determines the form of its presentation and the orientation of the object, facilitating the urinal's transformation into Fountain.90 Both Hubertus Butin and Anette Annette Tietenberg have concluded: the signature posits the circumstances of an exhibition and the presentation of the object on a pedestal. Taking alone its potential for exhibition into consideration abolishes the utility value of the urinal and, despite its questionable aesthetics, integrates the urinal as a sculptural object into the art world's system of values and classification.91
8 Cf. Beeby, s.l., n.d. (last accessed 04.11.2024).
9 Ibid. (last accessed 04.11.2024).
90 Cf. Heusinger von Waldegg 2015, pp. 83-84.
91 Cf. Butin 2013, p. 397 & cf. Tietenberg 2013, p. 24.
95 Cf. Tietenberg 2013, p. 24.
149 Cf. Breuer 2014, unpaginated (last accessed 04.11.2024).
Charlotte Seidel
excerpt from:
Unsigned Untitled Undated
How does the signature influence the value of a work of art – using Tim Beeby's project as a paradigm
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The example that has been presented illustrates the importance of both the signature and language in evaluating art. Duchamp succeeded in definitively separating the figure of the author from any manual involvement. Alone the idea and signature as authorial label were sufficient in defining a work of art as such.95 A century later, Tim Beeby is exploring the question of whether a painting can likewise be accepted in the 21st century while eschewing the legitimising signature, as a mystical sign of authorship.
By denying his works such conventional features as a signature, Beeby is inviting his audience to determine the value of his works according to alternative criteria that imply a questioning of mechanisms of appreciation commonly employed in the art world. The economic and artistic value of art are juxtaposed, and the relevance of the question highlights the influence the signature has on both. Can the signature alone justify the value of a work of art? Tim Beeby draws attention to the core of a universal problem in the art world: neither a work's market value nor its value as art are objectively measurable and elude any clear definition.149
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Beeby, Tim: unsigned untitled undated, s.l., n.d., http://tim-beeby.de/unsigned_e.html (last accessed 04.11.2024).
Breuer, Ingeborg: Der Wert der Kunst. Wie funktioniert der weltweite Kunstmarkt? In: Deutschlandfunk 2014, unpaginated, https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/der-wert-der-kunst-wie-funktioniert-der-weltweite-kunstmarkt-100.html
Butin, Hubertus: Die Crux mit der Signatur. Der Namenszug in der modernen und zeitgenössischen Kunst zwischen Affirmation und Dekonstruktion. In: Hegener, Nicole (ed.): Künstlersignaturen: von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Petersburg 2013, pp. 392-405.
Heusinger von Waldegg, Joachim: Signaturen der Moderne. Karlsruhe 2015.
Tietenberg, Annette: Die Signatur als Authentifizierungsstrategie in der Kunst und im Autorendesign. In: Dauer, Uta (ed.): Authentizität und Wiederholung: Künstlerische und kulturelle Manifestationen eines Paradoxes. Bielefeld 2013, pp. 19-34.
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