Contemporary art

Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century.
Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their
art is a dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts, and subjects that continue the challenging of
boundaries that was already well underway in the 20th century. Diverse and eclectic, contemporary art as a whole is
distinguished by the very lack of a uniform, organising principle, ideology, or "-ism". Contemporary art is part of a
cultural dialogue that concerns larger contextual frameworks such as personal and cultural identity, family,
community, and nationality.

In vernacular English, modern and contemporary are synonyms, resulting in some conflation of the terms modern
art and contemporary art by non-specialists.[1]

Contents
Scope
Themes
Institutions
Joan Miró, Dona i Ocell,
Public attitudes 1982, 22 × 3 m (72 × 9.8 ft),
Concerns Parc Joan Miró, Barcelona,
Prizes Spain

History
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Scope
Some define contemporary art as art produced within "our lifetime," recognising that lifetimes and life
spans vary. However, there is a recognition that this generic definition is subject to specialized
limitations.[2]

The classification of "contemporary art" as a special type of art, rather than a general adjectival phrase,
goes back to the beginnings of Modernism in the English-speaking world. In London, the Contemporary
Art Society was founded in 1910 by the critic Roger Fry and others, as a private society for buying works
of art to place in public museums.[3] A number of other institutions using the term were founded in the
1930s, such as in 1938 the Contemporary Art Society of Adelaide, Australia,[4] and an increasing number
after 1945.[5] Many, like the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston changed their names from ones using
Jeff Koons, Balloon Dog (Yellow),
"Modern art" in this period, as Modernism became defined as a historical art movement, and much 1994–2000, mirror-polished stainless
"modern" art ceased to be "contemporary". The definition of what is contemporary is naturally always on steel with transparent color coating,
the move, anchored in the present with a start date that moves forward, and the works the Contemporary 121 x 143 x 45 in. (307.3 x 363.2 x
Art Society bought in 1910 could no longer be described as contemporary
. 114.3 cm). Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Private collection
Particular points that have been seen as marking a change in art styles include the end of World War II and the
1960s. There has perhaps been a lack of natural break points since the 1960s, and definitions of what constitutes
"contemporary art" in the 2010s vary, and are mostly imprecise. Art from the past 20 years is very likely to be
included, and definitions often include art going back to about 1970;[6] "the art of the late 20th and early 21st
century";[7] "the art of the late 20th cent. and early 21st cent., both an outgrowth and a rejection of modern art";[8]
"Strictly speaking, the term "contemporary art" refers to art made and produced by artists living today";[9] "Art from
the 1960s or [19]70s up until this very minute";[10] and sometimes further, especially in museum contexts, as
museums which form a permanent collection of contemporary art inevitably find this aging. Many use the
formulation "Modern and Contemporary Art", which avoids this problem.[11] Smaller commercial galleries,
magazines and other sources may use stricter definitions, perhaps restricting the "contemporary" to work from 2000
onwards. Artists who are still productive after a long career, and ongoing art movements, may present a particular
issue; galleries and critics are often reluctant to divide their work between the contemporary and non-contemporary
.
Charles Thomson. Sir
Sociologist Nathalie Heinich draws a distinction between modern and contemporary art, describing them as two Nicholas Serota Makes an
Acquisitions Decision, 2000,
different paradigms which partially overlap historically. She found that while "modern art" challenges the
Stuckism
conventions of representation, "contemporary art" challenges the very notion of an artwork.[12] She regards
Duchamp's Fountain (which was made in the 1910s in the midst of the triumph of modern art) as the starting point
of contemporary art, which gained momentum after World War II with Gutai's performances, Yves Klein's monochromes and Rauschenberg's Erased de
Kooning Drawing.[13]

Themes
One of the difficulties many people have in approaching contemporary artwork is its diversity—diversity
of material, form, subject matter, and even time periods. It is "distinguished by the very lack of a uniform
organizing principle, ideology, or -ism"[14] that we so often see in other, and oftentimes more familiar, art
periods and movements. Broadly speaking, we see Modernism as looking at modernist principles—the
focus of the work is self-referential, investigating its own materials (investigations of line, shape, color,
form). Likewise, Impressionism looks at our perception of a moment through light and color as opposed to
attempts at stark realism (Realism, too, is an artistic movement). Contemporary art, on the other hand, does
not have one, single objective or point of view. Its view instead is unclear, perhaps reflective of the world
today. It can be, therefore, contradictory, confusing, and open-ended. There are, however, a number of Irbid, Jordan, "We are Arabs. We are
common themes that have appeared in contemporary works. While these are not exhaustive, notable Humans". Inside Out is a global
themes include: identity politics, the body, globalization and migration, technology, contemporary society participatory art project, initiated by
and culture, time and memory, and institutional and political critique.[15] Post-modern, post-structuralist, the French photographerJR, an
feminist, and Marxist theory have played important roles in the development of contemporary theories of example of Street art

art.

Institutions
The functioning of the art world is dependent on art institutions, ranging from major museums to private
galleries, non-profit spaces, art schools and publishers, and the practices of individual artists, curators,
writers, collectors, and philanthropists. A major division in the art world is between the for-profit and non-
profit sectors, although in recent years the boundaries between for-profit private and non-profit public
institutions have become increasingly blurred. Most well-known contemporary art is exhibited by
professional artists at commercial contemporary art galleries, by private collectors, art auctions,
corporations, publicly funded arts organizations, contemporary art museums or by artists themselves in
artist-run spaces.[16] Contemporary artists are supported by grants, awards, and prizes as well as by direct
The Museum of Contemporary Artin
sales of their work. Career artists train atart school or emerge from other fields.
Miami, Florida.
There are close relationships between publicly funded contemporary art organizations and the commercial
sector. For instance, in 2005 the book Understanding International Art Markets and Management reported
[17]
that in Britain a handful of dealers represented the artists featured in leading publicly funded contemporary art museums.

Corporations have also integrated themselves into the contemporary art world, exhibiting contemporary art within their premises, organizing and
sponsoring contemporary art awards, and building up extensive corporate collections.[18] Corporate advertisers frequently use the prestige associated with
contemporary art and coolhunting to draw the attention of consumers toluxury goods.
The institutions of art have been criticized for regulating what is designated as contemporary art. Outsider art, for
instance, is literally contemporary art, in that it is produced in the present day. However, one critic has argued it is
not considered so because the artists are self-taught and are thus assumed to be working outside of an art historical
context.[19] Craft activities, such as textile design, are also excluded from the realm of contemporary art, despite
large audiences for exhibitions.[20] Art critic Peter Timms has said that attention is drawn to the way that craft
objects must subscribe to particular values in order to be admitted to the realm of contemporary art. "A ceramic
object that is intended as a subversive comment on the nature of beauty is more likely to fit the definition of
[21]
contemporary art than one that is simply beautiful."

At any one time a particular place or group of artists can have a strong influence on subsequent contemporary art.
For instance, The Ferus Gallery was a commercial gallery in Los Angeles and re-invigorated the Californian
contemporary art scene in the late fifties and the sixties.
The Château de
Montsoreau-Museum of
Public attitudes Contemporary Art in
Montsoreau, France.
Contemporary art can sometimes seem at odds with a public that does not feel that art and its institutions share its
values.[22] In Britain, in the 1990s, contemporary art became a part of popular culture, with artists becoming stars,
but this did not lead to a hoped-for "cultural utopia".[23] Some critics like Julian Spalding and Donald Kuspit have suggested that skepticism, even
[24] Brian Ashbee in an essay called "Art Bollocks" criticizes "much installation
rejection, is a legitimate and reasonable response to much contemporary art.
art, photography, conceptual art, video and other practices generally called post-modern" as being too dependent on verbal explanations in the form of
theoretical discourse.[25] However, the acceptance of non traditional art in museums has increased due to changing perspectives on what constitutes an art
piece.[26]

Concerns
A common concern since the early part of the 20th century has been the question of what constitutes art. In the contemporary period (1950 to now), the
concept of avant-garde[27] may come into play in determining what art is noticed by galleries, museums, and collectors.

The concerns of contemporary art come in for criticism too. Andrea Rosen has said that some contemporary painters "have absolutely no idea of what it
[28]
means to be a contemporary artist" and that they "are in it for all the wrong reasons."

Prizes
Some competitions, awards, and prizes in contemporary art are:

Emerging Artist Award awarded by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Factor Prize in Southern Art
Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
John Moore's Painting Prize
Kandinsky Prize for Russian artists under 30
Marcel Duchamp Prizeawarded by ADIAF andCentre Pompidou
Ricard Prize for a French artist under 40
Turner Prize for British artists under 50
Participation in the Whitney Biennial
Vincent Award, The Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists, awarded by the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery
[29]
Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize
Jindřich Chalupecký Award for Czech artists under 35[30]

History
This table lists art movements and styles by decade. It should not be assumed to be conclusive.

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Abstract Abstract Arte Povera NAMES Project Art Altermodern
Expressionism expressionism Ascii Art AIDS Memorial intervention Classical
American Abstract Quilt Body art realism
Bad Painting
Figurative Imagists Appropriation art Bio art Cynical realism
Body art
Expressionism Culture jamming
 American American Artist's book Demoscene Cyberarts Excessivism
scene painting Figurative COUM Electronic art Cynical idea art
Antipodeans Expressionism Transmissions Realism
Environmental Kitsch
Bay Area Art & Language Environmental art Digital Art movement
Figurative Bay Area art Figuration Libre Hyperrealism Post-
Movement Figurative Feminist art Indigenouism contemporary
Fractal art
COBRA Movement Froissage Metamodernism
Graffiti Art Information art
(avant-garde BMPT
Holography Late Modernism Internet art Pseudorealism
movement) Chicago
Installation art Live art Massurrealism Remodernism
Color Field Imagists
Land Art Neue Maximalism Renewable
Generación Chicano art energy
de la Ruptura movement Lowbrow (art Slowenische New Leipzig
movement) Kunst sculpture
Gutai group Color field School
Mail art Postmodern art Street art
Lenticular Computer art New media art
Papunya Tula Neo-conceptual New Stuckism
prints Conceptual art
Photorealism art European Superflat
Les Fluxus
Plasticiens Postminimalism Neo- Painting Superstroke
Happenings expressionism Relational art Urban art
Lyrical Process Art
Hard-edge Neo-pop
Abstraction Robotic art Software art Videogame art
painting
(Abstract Saint Soleil Sound art Toyism VJ art
lyrique) Lenticular
School Transavantgarde Tactical media Virtual art
prints
Modern Video art Transgressive Taring Padi
traditional Kinetic art
Funk art art Verdadism
Balinese Light and 2010s
Pattern and Vancouver Western and
painting Space
Decoration School Central Desert
New York Lyrical Postinternet
Warli painting Video art
Figurative Abstraction
revival installation Young British
Expressionism (American
version) Wildstyle Institutional Artists
New York Critique
School Minimalism
Western and
Serial art Mono-ha
Central Desert
Situationist Neo-Dada art
International New York
Soviet School
Nonconformist Nouveau
Art Réalisme
Red Shirt Op Art
School of Performance
Photography art
Tachisme Plop Art
Vienna School Pop Art
of Fantastic
Realism Postminimalism
Post-painterly
Washington
Abstraction
Color School
Psychedelic art
Soft sculpture
Systems art
Video art
Zero

See also
Acculturation
Anti-art and Anti-anti-art
Art:21 - Art in the 21st Century(2001-2016), a PBS series
Criticism of postmodernism
Classificatory disputes about art
List of contemporary art museums
List of contemporary artists
Medium specificity
 Reductive art
Value theory

Notes
1. NYU Steinhardt, Department of Art and Arts Professions, New ork
Y (http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/art/education/definitions)
2. Esaak, Shelley. "What is "Contemporary" Art?"(http://www.arthistory.about.com/od/current_contemporary_art/f/what_is.htm)
. About.com.
Retrieved 28 April 2013.
3. Fry Roger, Ed. Craufurd D. Goodwin,Art and the Market: Roger Fry on Commerce in Art
, 1999, University of Michigan Press,
ISBN 0472109022, 9780472109029, google books (https://books.google.com/books?id=Zb8hTlHZOb0C&pg=P A57)
4. Also the Contemporary Arts Society ofMontreal, 1939–1948
5. Smith, 257–258
6. Some definitions: "Art21 defines contemporary art as the work of artists who are living in the twenty-first century
." Art21 (http://www.art21.
org/teach/on-contemporary-art/contemporary-art-in-context)
7. "Contemporary art - Define Contemporary art at Dictionary
.com" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/contemporary+art).
Dictionary.com.
8. "Yahoo" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130720124418/http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/cntmpryart)
. Archived
from the original (http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/cntmpryart)on 2013-07-20.
9. "About Contemporary Art (Education at the Getty)"(http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/contemporar
y_art/background1.html).
10. Shelley Esaak. "What is Contemporary Art?"(http://arthistory.about.com/od/current_contemporary_art/f/what_is.htm). About.com
Education.
11. Examples of specializing museums include theStrasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Artand Museum of Modern and
Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Artis one of many book titles to use the
phrase.
12. Heinich, Nathalie, Ed. Gallimard,Le paradigme de l'art contemporain : Structures d'une révolution artistique
, 2014, ISBN 2070139239,
9782070139231, google books (https://books.google.fr/books/about/Le_paradigme_de_l_art_contemporain_Struc.html?id=vIQICgAAQB
AJ&redir_esc=y)
13. Nathalie Heinich lecture "Contemporary art: an artistic revolution ?(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhclwyYYbtY) at 'Agora des
savoirs' 21th edition, 6 May 2015.
14. Contemporary Art in Context. (2016). Retrieved December 11, 2016(http://www.art21.org/learn/tools-for-teaching/on-contemporary-art/c
ontemporary-art-in-context)
15. Robertson, J., & McDaniel, C. (2012).Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16. "Largest Art & Language Collection Finds Home - artnet News"(https://news.artnet.com/market/art-language-philippe-meaille-french-cha
teau-310458). artnet News. 2015-06-23. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
17. Derrick Chong in Iain Robertson,Understanding International Art Markets And Management
, Routledge, 2005, p95.ISBN 0-415-33956-1
18. Chin-Tao Wu, Privatising Culture: Corporate Art Intervention Since the 1980s
, Verso, 2002, p14. ISBN 1-85984-472-3
19. Gary Alan Fine, Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity, University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp42-43.ISBN 0-
226-24950-6
20. Peter Dormer, The Culture of Craft: Status and Future, Manchester University Press, 1996, p175.ISBN 0-7190-4618-1
21. Peter Timms, What's Wrong with Contemporary Art?, UNSW Press, 2004, p17.ISBN 0-86840-407-1
22. Mary Jane Jacob and Michael Brenson,Conversations at the Castle: Changing Audiences and Contemporary Art
, MIT Press, 1998, p30.
ISBN 0-262-10072-X
23. Julian Stallabrass, High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s, Verso, 1999, pp1-2. ISBN 1-85984-721-8
24. Spalding, Julian, The Eclipse of Art: Tackling the Crisis in Art Today, Prestel Publishing, 2003.ISBN 3-7913-2881-6
25. "Art Bollocks" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110716210004/http://www .ipod.org.uk/reality/art_bollocks.asp). Ipod.org.uk. 1990-05-05.
Archived from the original (http://www.ipod.org.uk/reality/art_bollocks.asp) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
26. "What is Art? | Boundless Art History"(https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/what-is-art/)
.
courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
27. Fred Orton & Griselda Pollock, Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed. Manchester University, 1996. ISBN 0-7190-4399-9
28. Haas, Nancy (2000-03-05), "Stirring Up the Art W
orld Again". The New York Times, [1] (https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=
9D03E4DB1638F936A35750C0A9669C8B63&fta=y) .
29. "Signature Art Prize - Home"(https://web.archive.org/web/20141106194843/http://www .singaporeartmuseum.sg/signatureartprize/).
Archived from the original (http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/signatureartprize) on 2014-11-06.
30. Jindřich Chalupecký Award (http://www.jchalupecky.cz/home_en.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927184533/http://ww
w.jchalupecky.cz/home_en.html) 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine.

References
 Smith, Terry (2009). What Is Contemporary Art?. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN 978-0226764313. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
Meyer, Richard (2013). What Was Contemporary Art?. Cambridge: MIT Press.ISBN 978-0262135085. Retrieved 26 October 2014.

Further reading
Altshuler, B. (2013). Biennials and Beyond: Exhibitions that Made Art History: 1962-2002 . New York, N.Y.: Phaidon Press, ISBN 978-
0714864952
Atkins, Robert (2013).Artspeak: A Guide To Contemporary Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1945 To the Present (3rd. ed.). New
York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 978-0789211514.
Danto, A. C. (2013). What is art. New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300205718
Desai, V. N. (Ed.). (2007). Asian art history in the twenty-first century. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
ISBN 978-0300125535
Fullerton, E. (2016). Artrage! : the story of the BritArt revolution. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd,ISBN 978-0500239445
Gielen, Pascal (2009).The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude: Global Art, Memory and Post-Fordism . Amsterdam: Valiz,
ISBN 9789078088394
Gompertz, W. (2013). What Are You Looking At?: The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Y ears of Modern Art
(2nd ed.). New York, N.Y.: Plume, ISBN 978-0142180297
Harris, J. (2011). Globalization and Contemporary Art. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell,ISBN 978-1405179508
Lailach, M. (2007). Land Art. London: Taschen, ISBN 978-3822856130
Martin, S. (2006). Video Art. (U. Grosenick, Ed.). Los Angeles: T aschen, ISBN 978-3822829509
Mercer, K. (2008). Exiles, diasporas & strangers. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press,ISBN 978-0262633581
Robertson, J., & McDaniel, C. (2012).Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-0199797073
Robinson, H. (Ed.). (2015).Feminism-art-theory : an anthology 1968-2014(2nd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell,
ISBN 978-1118360590
Stiles, Kristine and Peter Howard Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, A Sourcebook of Artists's Writings (1996),
ISBN 0-520-20251-1
Thompson, D. (2010).The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin,
ISBN 978-0230620599
Thorton, S. (2009). Seven Days in the Art World. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0393337129
Wallace, Isabelle Loring and Jennie Hirsh,Contemporary Art and Classical Myth. Farnham: Ashgate (2011),ISBN 978-0-7546-6974-6
Warr, T. (Ed.). (2012). The Artist’s Body (Revised). New York, N.Y.: Phaidon Press, ISBN 978-0714863931
Wilson, M. (2013). How to read contemporary art : experiencing the art of the 21st century . New York, N.Y.: Abrams, ISBN 978-
1419707537

External links
Media related to Contemporary art at Wikimedia Commons

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Contemporary_art&oldid=866450175

"

This page was last edited on 30 October 2018, at 12:12(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.