This paper investigated the impact of the type of title on the price of the artwork effects using the hammer price of the paintings auctioned in Korea during a two-year period from December 2017 to November 2019. The results of the analysis showed that a descriptive title had a negative effect on the prices fetched, whereas a more elaborate title had a positive effect on auction prices. Also, it was found that elaborate titles for abstract paintings had a significant positive impact on the hammer price. In the case of unknown artists, a descriptive title had a negative effect on the auction price, while the absence of a title had a positive impact. The findings of this study suggest that artists must make careful decisions when titling their work because the title of the work affects the purchase decisions of art collectors.
AgnelloJ. R.PierceK. R. (1996),
Financial returns, price determinants, and genre effects in American art investment. Journal of Cultural Economics,
20, 359–383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-005-0383-0
2.
Arts Economics. (2019). The art market 2019. The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report.
3.
BelkeB.LederH.AugustinD. (2006).
Mastering style: Effects of explicit style-related information, art knowledge and affective state on appreciation of abstract paintings. Psychology Science,
48(2), 115–134.
4.
Bonus, H., & Ronte, D. (1997). Credibility and economic value in the visual arts. Journal of Cultural Economics, 21, 103--118.
5.
BubicA.SusacA.PalmovicM. (2016).
Observing individuals viewing art: The effects of titles on viewers’ eye-movement profiles. Empirical Studies of the Arts,
35(2), 194–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276237416683499
6.
CarpenterG. S.GlazerR.NakamotoK. (1994).
Meaningful brands from meaningless differentiation: The dependence on irrelevant attributes. Journal of Marketing Research,
31(3), 339–350. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379403100302
7.
ChangH. (2008).
Art: Why I buy: Art collectors reveal what drives them. Wall Street Journal, Europe; Brussels [Brussels],
11, 1–7.
8.
ChenY. (2009).
Possession and access: Consumer desires and value perceptions regarding contemporary art collection and exhibit visits. Journal of Consumer Research,
35(6), 925–940. https://doi.org/10.1086/593699
9.
CheongJ. J. (2008).
Literature and painting: The title of the work of art and its interpretation. Association of Studies of French Culture and Arts in France,
25, 1–43. https://doi.org/10.21651/cfaf.2008.25.417
10.
CleeremansA.GinsburghV.KleinO.NouryA. (2016).
What’s in a name? The effect of an artist’s name on aesthetic judgements. Empirical Studies of the Arts,
34, 126–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276237415621197
11.
CupchikG. C.GebotysR. J. (1988),
The search for meaning in art: Interpretive styles and judgments of quality. Visual Arts Research,
14(2), 38–50
12.
CupchikG. C.ShereckL.SpiegelS. (1994).
The effects of textual information on artistic communication. Visual Arts Research,
20, 62–78.
13.
CupchikG. C.VartanianO.CrawleyA.MidulisD. J. (2009).
Viewing artworks: Contributions of cognitive control and perceptual facilitation to aesthetic experience.Brain and Cognition,
70, 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2009.01.003
14.
DelmestriG.MontanariF.UsaiA. (2005).
Reputation and strength of ties in predicting commercial success and artistic merit of independents in the Italian feature film industry. Journal of Management Studies,
42(5), 975–1002. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00529.x
15.
FranklinM. B. (1988).
Museum of the mind: An inquiry into the titling of artworks. Metaphor & Symbolic Activity,
3(3), 157–174. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327868ms0303_4
16.
FranklinM. B.BechlenR. C.DoyleC. L. (1993).
The influence of titles on how paintings are seen.Leonardo,
26, 103–108. https://doi.org/10.2307/1575894
17.
GramppW. (1989). Pricing the priceless. Art, artists and economics.
Basic Books.
18.
Heimbach, J. T., & Jacoby, J. (1972). The Zeigarnik Effect in Advertising. In M. Venkatesan (Eds.), SV -- Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the Association for Consumer Research. Chicago, IL : Association for Consumer Research, 746-758.
19.
HernandoE.CampoS. (2017).
Does the artist’s name influence the perceived value of an art work?International Journal of Arts Management,
19(2), 46–58.
HsuJ. L.MoR. H. C. (2009).
Consumer responses to incomplete information in print apparel advertising. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management; Bradford,
13(1), 66–78. https://doi.org/10.1108/13612020910939888
22.
JakeschM.LederH. (2009).
Finding meaning in art: Preferred levels of ambiguity in art appreciation.The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,
62(11), 2105–2112. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210903038974
23.
KimS. M. (2016).
Titles as a phenomenon in art history: On the origin and genealogy of titles. Journal of the Association of Western Art History,
44, 101–124. https://doi.org/10.36726/cammp.2016.15.1.9
24.
KossenjansJ.ButtleF. (2016).
Why I collect contemporary art: Collector motivations as value articulations. Journal of Customer Behaviour,
15(2), 193–212.
25.
Kreitler, H., & Kreitler, S. (1972). The model of cognitive orientation: Towards a theory of human behaviour. British Journal of Psychology, 63(1), 9--30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1972.tb02079.x
26.
LederH.CarbonC. C.RipsasA. L. (2006).
Entitling art: Influence of title information on understanding and appreciation of paintings.Acta Psychologica,
121, 176–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2005.08.005
27.
LeeB. K. (2012).
Debates about the title of Yun Dong-Joo’s poem which is called “Seosi.”The Korean Literature Association,
61, 353–385. https://doi.org/10.16873/tkl.2012.61.353
28.
MarinelliN.PalombaG. (2011).
A model for pricing Italian contemporary art paintings at auction.The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance,
51(2), 212–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qref.2011.02.001
29.
MastandreaS.CranoW. D. (2019).
Peripheral factors affecting the evaluation of artworks. Empirical Studies of the Arts,
37(1), 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276237418790916
30.
MillisK. (2001).
Making meaning brings pleasure: The influence of titles on aesthetic experiences. Emotion,
1(3), 320–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.1.3.320
NamJ. W. (2011).
Price determinants and financial returns in Korean art investment. The Korean Economic Review,
59(1), 5–24.
33.
ParkJ. H.ShinH. D. (2012).
Would online artwork auction be better than offline? Focusing on the impacts of price determinants on the fetching price. Korean Management Review,
41(4), 789–808.
34.
ParkJ. Y.ShinH. D. (2016).
Untitled effect: Effect of type of artwork title on audience reaction. Journal of the Korea Contents Association,
16(9), 600–611. https://doi.org/10.5392/JKCA.2016.16.09.600
35.
ParkS. J.JeonI. S.MoonS. L. (2018).
The effect of museum docent program typology on the art appreciation. Journal of Korea Culture Industry,
18(2), 13–21. https://doi.org/10.35174/JKCI.2018.06.18.2.13
36.
PerzanowskiA. (2010).
Unbranding, confusion, and deception. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology,
24(1), 1–46.
37.
Pesando, J. E. (1993). Art as an Investment: The Market for Modern Prints. The American Economic Review, 83(5), 1075--1089.
38.
PrenticeR.DavisA.BeehoA. (1997).
Seeking generic motivations for visiting and not visiting museums and like cultural attractions.Museum Management and Curatorship,
1, 45–70.
39.
RamachandranV. S.HirsteinW. (1999).
The science of art: A neurological theory of aesthetic experience. Journal of Consciousness Studies,
6(6–7), 15–51.
RussellP. A.MilneS. (1997).
Meaningfulness and hedonic value of paintings: Effects of titles. Empirical Studies of the Arts,
15(1), 61–73. https://doi.org/10.2190/EHT3-HWVM-52CB-8QHJ
42.
SasakiK. (1997).
Translated by Choi, E., life and symbols/symbols in life: The semiotics of the title of a work of art-the interrelationship of two text-.Semiotic Inquiry,
3, 335–348.
43.
SchönfeldS.ReinstallerA. (2007).
The effects of gallery and artist reputation on prices in the primary market for art: A note. Journal of Cultural Economics,
31(2), 143–153. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-007-9031-1
44.
SpechtS. M. (2010).
Artists’ statements can influence perceptions of artwork. Empirical Studies of the Arts,
28, 193–206. https://doi.org/10.2190/EM.28.2.e
45.
SwamiV. (2013).
Context matters: Investigating the impact of contextual information on aesthetic appreciation of paintings by max Ernst and Pablo Picasso. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts,
7(3), 285–295. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030965
UusitaloL.SimolaJ.KuismaJ. (2012).
Consumer perception of abstract and representational visual art. International Journal of Arts Management,
15(1), 30–41.
48.
WertheimerM. (1923). Laws of organization in perceptual forms. A source book of Gestalt psychology.
Trubner & Company.
