The Presence of Words in Visual Art from Surrealism to Conceptualism

Without a doubt, one of the biggest changes that affected XXth century art is the introduction of words into paintings and, in more recent years, in installations. For centuries, if words were part of a visual composition, they functioned as reference; strictly speaking, they were used as a guideline for a better perception of the subject represented. With the developments of the XXth century, words became a very important part of the visual composition, and sometimes embodied the composition itself. About this topic, American art critic and collector Russell Bowman wrote an interesting article called Words and images: A persistent paradox, in which he examines the American and the European art of the XXth century in almost its entirety, dividing it up in six “categories of intention”. The aforementioned categories are not based on the art history timeline, but on the role that language played for specific artists or movements. Taking inspiration from Bowman's article, this paper is structured in three chapters, respectively: words in juxtaposition and free association, words as means of exploration of language structures, and words as means for political and personal messages. The purpose of this paper is therefore to reflect on the role of language in contemporary art and on the way it has changed from artist to artist.

Il fenomeno dell'intraducibilita e le sue possibili soluzioni

L’elaborato ha come oggetto il fenomeno dell’intraducibilità, esaminando vari casi di lingue diverse, prendendo però in esame casi in cui si trova un evidente collegamento tra il termine intraducibile e la cultura a cui esso fa riferimento. In particolare vengono presi come esempio i termini e le relative immagini, provenienti dal testo Lost in translation e dall’articolo de LaRepubblica intitolato “Queste immagini spiegano il significato di 30 parole intraducibili”. In seguito vengono trattati alcuni metodi possibili di traduzione degli intraducibili, cioè i prestiti integrali, gli adattamenti, la parasinonimia, con riferimento al lavoro di Umberto Eco e riallacciandosi alle teorie di Jakobson e Peirce e la semiotica. La conclusione dell’elaborato consiste nella presa di coscienza del fatto che non esiste un metodo del tutto soddisfacente per rendere gli intraducibili in altre lingue se non quella di partenza, aprendo però la strada a nuovi metodi interpretativi, come appunto l’associazione della parola all’immagine.