Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a drawing by Frances Stark. It dates from 1993 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1993, the work titled Untitled consists of five sheets of pale‑yellow paper bound together by a carbon‑transfer process. Across the surfaces, faint black markings appear as irregular, hand‑drawn text that clusters in the lower right corner, its edges worn from repeated handling. The piece functions as a drawing that foregrounds the materiality of language as visual form.
Subject & Meaning
Stark’s approach translates fragments of literary sources—ranging from classic poetry to personal notes—into a visual field, allowing the viewer to encounter the cadence of the original words without their full context. By juxtaposing lines from poets such as Emily Dickinson and Goethe with seemingly private annotations, the work probes how voice, memory, and emotional resonance shift when transferred from page to image.
Technique & Style
This technique yields a delicate, uneven quality, preserving the texture of the original strokes while creating a ghostly overlay.
The artist employed carbon transfer, a method that presses carbon pigment onto paper to reproduce handwritten marks. This technique yields a delicate, uneven quality, preserving the texture of the original strokes while creating a ghostly overlay. Repetition of textual motifs and the layering of overlapping phrases generate a rhythm reminiscent of musical notation or architectural schematics, reinforcing the work’s interdisciplinary sensibility.
Context
Frances Stark, born in 1967, has built a practice that merges visual art, writing, and performance. Untitled reflects her ongoing investigation of how written language can be reinterpreted visually. The piece entered the museum’s collection through a 2015 acquisition from the artist’s estate, situating it among other works that explore the boundaries between text and image in contemporary art.
Artist & collection
Artist
Frances Stark (born 1967) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer, whose work centers on the use and meaning of language, and the translation of this process into the creative act.
