Fine Art Discussions

Dan Carmichael

An article on Red Dot:

http://www.reddotblog.com/wordpress/index.php/should-i-date-my-artwork/

Mike Savad

i usually add a ©2012 in my stuff and the exif has that as well.

---Mike Savad

Mario Donk

Well I used to but sometimes don't as exhibitions want the latest and greatest, strangely they confuse art with fruit and think if its old it's gone bad. But I am back to dating them again but just a year is good enough for me.

Anne Norskog

Yes. I always date and sign my works. It helps me keep track of my own progress. Maybe galleries do not like this but, oh well. I had a gallery and it was a moot point. It is more important to know the person presenting works to a gallery actually has the right to display their work.

Gregory Scott

If you see your wife, you should hide your date anywhere you can. If in your art is the only available place, I guess it will have to do.

Anne Norskog

:-)

Arthur Fix

I agree that dating a work is not a good idea for the same reasons mentioned in that article. However, I want to be able to know when I created a piece so I use a special code on the back of the piece just for my knowledge. That way I have it both ways.

Elizabeth Lane

Year and copyright symbol (sometimes). A lot of juried shows want the "newest and greatest"....I like Mario's analogy: that art goes bad like fruit. LOL. it is also helpful to see when a particular piece was painted/drawn.

Chuck Staley

Never, but I will sometimes mention the date in the title if it's vintage stuff.

Ed Meredith

i like Mario's analogy also… =>))

i date mine, but if i remember to, i remove the date and signature for posting on line…

There are of course two schools of thought on dating art work heres' one for dating…

Dating your art: How important is it?
by ALYSON STANFIELD on FEBRUARY 11, 2009
"Dating your artwork is critical if you’re interested in high-end galleries and museums. Curators are trained as art HISTORIANS. Strangely enough, historians like dates! They’re obsessive about dates!

Curators delve into the minutiae of an artist’s career. They build timelines and think about where a specific work came in the artist’s oeuvre and what that means.

If you’d like to see a retrospective of your art some day, you’ll date your work (with the year of completion) and keep track of it in an inventory. In other words, don’t just date the physical object, but keep a record of it as well. If you inventory your artwork as it's created, you'll also have a record of the months and days. The latter isn't as important, but it could end up being a bit of interesting data if you're quite prolific. And if you feel like putting the exact date (February 11, 2009 or 2/11/09) on the work, that's fine as well.

The date might not seem that important to you right now, but you can plan for the future and the big dreams."