Spot the Signature!

A little snapshot of some signatures of modern and contemporary artists whose works we’ve treated recently. Clockwise from top left: Miró, Basquiat, Oehlen, Picasso, Banksy, Hodgkin, Richter, Condo. A nice little collage!

These signatures below, on the other hand, won’t need any explanation! We have been delighted to treat a number of Picassos over the years.

If you are interested in exploring artists’ signatures further, or wish to identify an unknown scrawl in the corner of a painting in your collection, then browse through the online database of artists' signatures created by fine arts researcher John Castagno. The database lists over 50,000 artists and 55,000 signature examples. Use the ‘Reverse Lookup’ feature to identify monograms, illegible signatures, symbols, common last name signatures, Cyrillic signatures or Prakrit signatures.

‘The Encyclopedia of Artists' Signatures, Symbols & Monograms’ by H.H. Caplan and Bob Creps is a useful (weighty!) 860-page tome, which indexes over 25,000 signatures, and is usually found in the reference section of your local library or at an art museum bookstore. Look up signatures by the category of your choice, including monograms, symbols and illegible or misleading signatures.

If you have an unknown artwork that you would like help with attribution, then get in touch to see how we can help.