Contemporary art
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Contemporary art is a term which can, depending on context, apply to art which is recently produced, art which is seen as being after the dominance of modernism, or art of the 20th Century and afterward. All three uses are current depending on the author and context. In general all of the visual arts, including sculpture, painting, photography, print making, multimedia and other decorative arts. The most commonly used phrase in defining contemporary art is "art of our times". However, what, exactly, constitute art, and "our times" varies widely.
Definition
Contemporary art refers to serious art being produced at the present era, which may be variously defined. In many contexts it contains the implication of avant-garde, following on from the modern art tradition, or of a post-avant-garde period in art. The term contemporary art has been both applied and denied to such catagories as outsider art, naïve art, or folk art. There are three broad streams of usage:
- Meaning, produced by artists in recognized traditions or institutions of art in the present, or artistic production by artists in the past who are still active or recently deceased. The key catagorical distinctions are recent, and recognized. Many museums of "Modern" Art use this definition for collections of recent works. The beginning of this can be anywherer from the 1940's - this includes the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago which starts at 1945, and the Musuem of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles which begins at 1940 - to much more recent dates.
- Including the modern period. This applies to all art post-impressionism, and the term is used in a similar manner for music. The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston uses this definition. The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art uses the Armory show in 1913 as its benchmark of modern, and therefore contemporary, art.
- Meaning all of the artistic movements after Abstract Expressionism, including Contemporary Realism, Postmodern Art and works in Modern traditions. This usage often applies to Outsider Art. The key dividing line is drawn somewhere between 1955 and 1970 depending on the critic or institution. The term modern art, which had been used in a similar manner to the way contemporary art is now used, has been called into question by the ascendance of the concept of postmodernism, which posits the notion that a significant inflection point was reached in the history of art in about the 1970s. The concept of postmodernism implies that the period of modernism has come to a close. Not all accept the division between modernism and postmodernism, and that debate is ongoing. Many critics argue that postmodern art is simply one stream of contemporary art, and several influential critics, such as Arthur Danto argue that contemporanity is the element which joins all of the different postmodernisms with other currents in art.
Movements associated with contemporary art
- Abstract Expressionism
- Neo-Expressionism
- Minimalism
- Postminimalism
- Contemporary Realism
- Pop Art
- Postmodern Art
- Photorealism
Contemporary art surveys are the primary subject of over 200 biennials and triennial exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennale, São Paulo, the Asia-Pacific triennial, the Kwan Ju, the Havana, Echigo-Tsumari, Istanbul Biennial, and documenta in Kassel, Germany.
Prizes
Some competitions, awards and prizes in contemporary art are
- Emerging Artist Award awarded by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
- Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Guggenheim Museum
- Turner Prize for British artists under 50
- Jindrich Chalupecky prize for Czech artists under 35 [1]
- Participation in the Whitney Biennial
Museums
See Contemporary art museums for a list of contemporary art museums around the world.
Contemporary art from the 1960s onwards, by decade
References
- Bourriaud, Nicolas (1998). Esthétique relationnelle. Dijon: Presses du réel.
- Gablik, Suzi (1995). "Connective Aesthetics: Art After Individualism" in Suzanne Lacy [ed.], Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Seattle: Bay Press.
- Kester, Grant (2004). Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Kuspit, Donald (2004). The End of Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.