Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a graphite drawing by Sharp. It dates from 1984 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
The bottom half shows a photo of a subway car covered in graffiti—lots of red, blue, and green scribbles, plus a number "1372" on the side.
This looks like a sketchy blueprint mixed with a real subway wall. The top half is a messy, hand-drawn map with scribbled notes like "black bricks" and "fill in cascade green." There’s also a weird doodle of a building with a hat on it. The bottom half shows a photo of a subway car covered in graffiti—lots of red, blue, and green scribbles, plus a number "1372" on the side.
The notes and doodles feel like instructions for something, maybe how to paint or redesign the subway. The graffiti-style art in the photo is wild and colorful, but the sketch above it looks more like a plan than finished art.
If you like this mix of sketches and real-world art, look up The Museum of Modern Art.
Overview
Untitled, created by Sharp in 1984, is a mixed-media artwork combining pencil and felt-tip pen drawings with pasted chromogenic prints on paper, now part of The Museum of Modern Art's collection.
Subject & Meaning
The artwork juxtaposes two distinct elements: a hand-drawn, annotated map with architectural doodles and notes (e.g., "black bricks", "cascade green"), suggesting a design or painting plan, alongside a photograph of a graffiti-covered subway car (notably featuring the number "1372"). The contrast between the planned, instructional top and the vibrant, spontaneous graffiti image below may reflect themes of creativity, urban aesthetics, or the interplay between design and organic street art.
Technique & Style
Sharp employs a dual approach: loose, sketchy drawing for the top section, indicating a preliminary or conceptual stage, and a pasted photograph for the bottom, introducing a layer of realism and documenting existing street art. The mixture of media and styles (hand-drawn plans vs. captured graffiti) highlights the artist's exploration of different creative processes.
History & Provenance
Created in 1984, the work is now held in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, indicating its recognition within the realm of modern art.
Context
Emerging in the 1980s, a time of vibrant street art and graffiti movements in urban centers, this piece may contextualize the dialogue between planned architectural/design elements and the spontaneous, often ephemeral nature of street graffiti.
Legacy
As part of MoMA's collection, it contributes to the institutional acknowledgment of mixed-media and street art's influence on contemporary practice, though its specific impact or influence on later artists is not broadly detailed in available information.
Artist & collection
