Untitled,+by+Dieter+Appelt



Dieter Appelt German, born 1935 Untitled, 1977/79

= Teachers' Responses =

Angela Hayes:



 * How much time did you spend on this with students?** 1 day

Students were shown a slideshow (attached), starting with 5 works of art with numbers by them and 5 titles on the side. They were asked to match the titles with the art. After a few minutes of thinking it over and talking amongst themselves it was clear that they knew Nude Descending a Staircase but the rest weren’t so concrete.
 * Activity description: **

I heard a lot of arguments about 2 particular works, Alice Neal’s Last Sickness and Rodin’s The Cathedral. I asked students (usually students who I knew were wrong with their pairings) to defend their choices with evidence and they had a lively discussion, challenging each other and disagreeing, stating their own implied evidence to their choices. Some things said were “How can a picture of someone’ s back be a self-portrait” and “the hands look like they’re praying so it reminds me church, but I’m confused because [Matta’s The Earth is a Man] looks like stained glass.”

Catherine Opie’s Self Portrait garnered a long discussion as they were trying to figure out why it was a self-portrait. Then they discussed the clues in the picture to get to a meaning.

After revealing the correct titles we moved on to the idea of titling work and how it can help and sometimes misdirect the viewer. The 2nd slide in the presentation was Magritte’s The Treachery of Images to which a student asked, “If it’s not a pipe, then what is it? A baseball bat?” We discussed how titles can sometimes push an agenda and/or clue the viewer in to the inspiration you may have tapped into to create the piece. Before I showed the next slide I gave them a handout regarding titling work (attached) and we read it over as a class.

For the 3rd slide I showed them the Mystery Object, Dieter’s Untitled photograph. I didn’t give them any information on the picture and told them to look at it for a few minutes and to think of giving it a title. They anonymously wrote that class favorites and talked about how the photograph changed when it was called title on a piece of paper which I collected and wrote on the board. We starred the Untitled to Flipped Truth. Revolution vs Burned Alive. “It looks like he’s dead and ashes are on his face.” “Revolution means war, right? So is he in a war and that’s why he’s dead? ‘Cuz it also revolved, upside down.” “Crackhead is hilarious, but the picture isn’t funny.” Lastly the students were shown a final piece and given the artist’s intention before giving it a title. They pretty much unanimously came up with the same title, which is the actual title of the piece.

The students wanted me to give them more slides where they had to match images to titles. I don’t blame them, I find that activity fun as well. While I wrote titles on the board a few of them got oohs and ahhs. They seem eager to go back to their work and assign names and have discussions between themselves regarding what title is better, etc. Reflections on or implications for your instructional practice? I’m going to do something like this every year. The students are asked by IB to title their work and a lot of them struggle with the task. The matching game aspect gets them to talk and challenge each other with cited evidence which CPS, et al, just love. Using the MO is a nice way to keep it fresh for myself and to play along with them, to put myself in their shoes alongside them.
 * Students' response:**



What Makes a Good Title?
Titling your artwork is a challenge because you have several potentially conflicting goals with a good title:

- A good title will provide insight into your inspiration for the artwork, and may help the artwork tell its story. - A good title will leave room for the viewer to bring his or her own meaning and interpretation to the artwork.

Additionally, a good title will

- be memorable and catchy - be original (or at least as original as anything can be in a world where nothing is ever truly new) - not be too cheesy

How to Come up With Titles

The goal is to come up with a great title – but how does one do it? Here are some ideas that might help: - Start with the obvious – if there are elements in the artwork that are key focal points, use those elements as a jumping off point. - Was there a driving emotion or inspiration that lead you to create the work? If so, try and draw a title from that inspiration. - Is there an underlying story behind the work? Try to clue the buyer into the story with your title. - Try to put yourself in your viewer’s shoes – what will they see when they look at the work?

What do you want them to focus on?

- Keep it short. While there are obviously exceptions, if you need a 30 word title, you are probably doing something wrong (and maybe you should have become and author instead of artist!)

Coming up with titles can become more difficult over time If you make a lot of pieces then eventually you are going to run out of creative, unique titles. To combat this issue, try to come up with a naming system. There are artists who look to poetry or mythology for inspiration. Having a dictionary and thesaurus around can help. Get help! Ask a friend. Your mom. That one guy you know.

“Untitled” is not a title Once you become super famous you can get lazy and start “untitling” your work.





Kelly McKee:



 * Visual Thinking Activity **

With a partner review the Six Party Talks matrix that you completed for homework last night. View the 2 images on the front board and respond to the questions below:

Image #1 Observe this image What do you see in this image? Why do you see that makes you think that? What title would you give to this image? Which of the 6 countries in the Six Party Talks do you think this image represents? Share two reasons to support your answer: 1. 2.  Do you have any other thoughts, comments or questions to share about this image? Visual Thinking Activity

With a partner review the Six Party Talks matrix that you completed for homework last night. View the 2 images on the front board and respond to the questions below:

Image #2 Observe this image What do you see in this image? Why do you see that makes you think that? What title would you give to this image? Which of the 6 countries in the Six Party Talks do you think this image represents? Share two reasons to support your answer: 1. 2.  Do you have any other thoughts, comments or questions to share about this image?


 * Visual Thinking Activity **

Your Country = _ With your group view the 2 images and respond to the questions below: Image #1 Observe this image What do you see in this image? Why do you see that makes you think that? What title would you give to this image? Identify one significant person from your country you think this image represents? Share two reasons to support your answer: 1. 2.  Do you have any other thoughts, comments or questions to share about this image?


 * Visual Thinking Activity **

Your Country = _ With your group view the 2 images and respond to the questions below: Image #2 Observe this image What do you see in this image? Why do you see that makes you think that? What title would you give to this image? Identify one significant event from your country you think this image represents? Share two reasons to support your answer: 1. 2.

Do you have any other thoughts, comments or questions to share about this image?




 * Click on the following image to see the video:**



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