The Artist's Signature by Ebby Cheung

An artist’s identity is important according to the modern art world. This importance of recognizing an artist’s identity didn’t exist until the Northern Renaissance. I believe the mind set for artists for artist to recognize him/herself is crucial in making their art valuable in history. Furthermore, it makes the artist the one who is worth to be written in the History of Art but not just the artwork itself.

Artists worked for nobilities, aristocrats and for pure religious purpose in the very beginning. Most of the early art works have no artist’s signatures on it because the artist didn’t fully recognize him/herself as a creator but merely a craftsman. Today, artists strive to make art out of their unique way in order for their names to be remembered in the Art world. One of the earliest example who have self-recognition of his own worth and value in the History of Art making was Jan van Eyck. He was among the first artists who literally put his name on his painting. 

As we have discussed in class, he has written “Jan van Eyck was here” on the wall in the background. He has recognized himself as the creator of this painting. This is not merely about craftsmanship anymore but the value of the artist.

Another artist who has used his signature in his work was Vincent van Gogh. Not to mention his determination of being a painter at the age of mid-30s, he was also a firm believer of his role. He believed in himself when the world didn’t recognize his genius before. On most of his works, he signed his first name “Vincent” instead of “Van Gogh”, his last name, to tell people that HE is the creator of his works. Also, he has used different colors to sign his names as part of his paintings. Here is one of the great examples of how he USED his signature.

Sorry for the size of the image but you can see that on this blue palette painting, he signed his name on the bottom left corner in bright red to create intensity of color use.

Not only signatures, but also brushstroke can be a different kind of signature of an artist. Like Van Gogh’s famous impasto, Modern artist Jackson Pollock and contemporary artist Cy Twombly also have their own significant brushstrokes that can be seen as their unique signatures.