Allan Mitelman @ NGV and blogging works on paper

Published
by
David Wolf
on August 27, 2004
in Note to self
.
Allan Mitelman, Untitled, 1976 I bumped into my auntie the other day in the city and we had a look at Allan Mitelman: works on paper 1967 - 2004 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. As we were wandering around the gallery I noticed that all of the works were titled Untitled and the year. We had a chat about how the works were abstract and how giving them names would impose a fixed meaning on something that you could otherwise find your own meaning for.

Conceptually and artistically this made sense but it was then that I realised there were often more than one works from the same year. How does the gallery keep track of them and how do you refer to one particular work, “the medium sized blueish one with the fine scratches?” The blogger part of my brain said: “Why aren’t they date-stamped?” December 17 1976 at 4pm. They could be referenced with a permalink in the artist’s journal. What were they thinking at the time? Not necessarily a statement of intention for the work but an extra insight into what what was going on at the time. “I’m really into rubber stamps at the moment but I don’t like the black ink, this purple is much better”, for example.

That’s kinda what I’m trying to do with this blog.

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