Contemporary art

Contemporary art is art produced at the present period in time. Contemporary art includes, and develops from, postmodern art, which is itself a successor to modern art.^[1] In vernacular English, "modern" and "contemporary" are synonyms, resulting in some conflation of the terms "modern art" and "contemporary art" by non-specialists.

Scope

Some define contemporary art as art produced within "our lifetime," recognizing that lifetimes and life spans vary. However, there is a recognition that this generic definition is subject to specialized limitations.^[1]

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.^[2] A number of other institutions using the term were founded in the 1930s, such as in 1938 the Contemporary Art Society of Adelaide, Australia,^[3] and an increasing number after 1945.^[4] Many, like the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston changed their names from ones using "Modern art" in this period, as Modernism became defined as a historical art movement, and much "modern" art ceased to be "contemporary". The definition of what is contemporary is naturally always on the move, anchored in the present with a start date that moves forward, and the works the Contemporary Art Society bought in 1910 could no longer be described as contemporary.

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;^[5] "the art of the late 20th and early 21st century";^[6] "the art of the late 20th cent. and early 21st cent., both an outgrowth and a rejection of modern art";^[7] "Strictly speaking, the term "contemporary art" refers to art made and produced by artists living today";^[8] "Art from the 1960's or 70's up until this very minute";^[9] 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.^[10] 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.

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.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, Florida.

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. Contemporary artists are supported by grants, awards and prizes as well as by direct sales of their work. Career artists train at Art school or emerge from other fields.

There are close relationships between publicly funded contemporary art organisations and the commercial sector. For instance, in 2005 the book Understanding International Art Markets and Management reported that in Britain a handful of dealers represented the artists featured in leading publicly funded contemporary art museums.^[11]

Outstanding books and magazines and individual collectors can wield considerable influence.

Corporations have also integrated themselves into the contemporary art world, exhibiting contemporary art within their premises, organising and sponsoring contemporary art awards, and building up extensive corporate collections.^[12] Corporate advertisers frequently use the prestige associated with contemporary art and Coolhunting to draw the attention of consumers to Luxury goods.

The institutions of art have been criticised 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.^[13] Craft activities, such as textile design, are also excluded from the realm of contemporary art, despite large audiences for exhibitions.^[14] 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 contemporary art than one that is simply beautiful."^[15]

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.

Public attitudes

Contemporary art can sometimes seem at odds with a public that does not feel that art and its institutions share its values.^[16] 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".^[17] Some critics like Julian Spalding and Donald Kuspit have suggested that skepticism, even rejection, is a legitimate and reasonable response to much contemporary art.^[18] Brian Ashbee in an essay called "Art Bollocks" criticizes "much installation 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.^[19]

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^[20] may come into play in determining what art is noticed by galleries, museums, and collectors. Propaganda and entertainment in some circumstances have been regarded as art genres during the contemporary art period.

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 Prize awarded by ADIAF and Centre 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
• Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize^[21]
• Jindřich Chalupecký Award for Czech artists under 35^[22]

History

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

1950s Abstract Expressionism American Figurative Expressionism American scene painting Antipodeans Bay Area Figurative Movement COBRA (avant-garde movement) Color Field Generación de la Ruptura Gutai group Lenticular prints Les Plasticiens Lyrical Abstraction (Abstract lyrique) Modern traditional Balinese painting New York Figurative Expressionism New York School Serial art Situationist International Soviet Nonconformist Art Red Shirt School of Photography Tachisme Vienna School of Fantastic Realism Washington Color School

1960s Abstract expressionism Abstract Imagists American Figurative Expressionism Art & Language Bay Area Figurative Movement BMPT Chicago Imagists Chicano art movement Color field Computer art Conceptual art Fluxus Happenings Hard-edge painting Lenticular prints Kinetic art Light and Space Lyrical Abstraction (American version) Minimalism Mono-ha Neo-Dada New York School Nouveau Réalisme Op Art Performance art Plop Art Pop Art Postminimalism Post-painterly Abstraction Psychedelic art Soft sculpture Systems art Video art Zero

1970s Arte Povera Ascii Art Bad Painting Body art Artist's book COUM Transmissions Environmental art Feminist art Froissage Holography Installation art Land Art Lowbrow (art movement) Mail art Papunya Tula Photorealism Postminimalism Process Art Robotic art Saint Soleil School Video art Funk art Pattern and Decoration Warli painting revival Wildstyle

1980s NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt Appropriation art Culture jamming Demoscene Electronic art Environmental art Figuration Libre Fractal art Graffiti Art Late Modernism Live art Neue Slowenische Kunst Postmodern art Neo-conceptual art Neo-expressionism Neo-pop Sound art Transavantgarde Transgressive art Transhumanist Art Vancouver School Video installation Institutional Critique Western and Central Desert art

1990s Art intervention Body art Bio art Cyberarts Cynical Realism Digital Art Hyperrealism Information art Internet art Massurrealism Maximalism New Leipzig School New media art New European Painting Relational art Software art Toyism Tactical media Taring Padi Western and Central Desert art Young British Artists

2000s Altermodern Classical realism Cynical realism Excessivism The Kitsch Movement Post-contemporary Metamodernism Pseudorealism Remodernism Renewable energy sculpture Street art Stuckism Superflat Superstroke Urban art Videogame art VJ art Virtual art

See also

• Acculturation
• Anti-art and Anti-anti-art
• Criticism of postmodernism
• Classificatory disputes about art
• List of contemporary art museums
• List of contemporary artists
• Medium specificity
• Reductive art
• Value theory

Notes

1. Esaak, Shelley. "What is "Contemporary" Art?". About.com. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
2. 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
3. Also the Contemporary Arts Society of Montreal, 1939–1948
4. Smith, 257–258
5. Some definitions: "Art21 defines contemporary art as the work of artists who are living in the twenty-first century." Art21
6. "Contemporary art - Define Contemporary art at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.com.
7. "Yahoo". Yahoo.
8. "About Contemporary Art (Education at the Getty)".
9. Shelley Esaak. "What is Contemporary Art?". About.com Education.
10. Examples of specializing museums include the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art is one of many book titles to use the phrase.
11. Derrick Chong in Iain Robertson, Understanding International Art Markets And Management, Routledge, 2005, p95. ISBN 0-415-33956-1
12. Chin-Tao Wu, Privatising Culture: Corporate Art Intervention Since the 1980s, Verso, 2002, p14. ISBN 1-85984-472-3
13. 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
14. Peter Dormer, The Culture of Craft: Status and Future, Manchester University Press, 1996, p175. ISBN 0-7190-4618-1
15. Peter Timms, What's Wrong with Contemporary Art?, UNSW Press, 2004, p17. ISBN 0-86840-407-1
16. Mary Jane Jacob and Michael Brenson, Conversations at the Castle: Changing Audiences and Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1998, p30. ISBN 0-262-10072-X
17. Julian Stallabrass, High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s, Verso, 1999, pp1-2. ISBN 1-85984-721-8
18. Spalding, Julian, The Eclipse of Art: Tackling the Crisis in Art Today, Prestel Publishing, 2003. ISBN 3-7913-2881-6
19. "Art Bollocks". Ipod.org.uk. 1990-05-05. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
20. Fred Orton & Griselda Pollock, Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed. Manchester University, 1996. ISBN 0-7190-4399-9
21. "Signature Art Prize - Home".
22. Jindřich Chalupecký Award

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

• 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.
• Kristine Stiles and Peter Howard Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, A Sourcebook of Artists's Writings (1996), ISBN 0-520-20251-1
• Pascal Gielen, The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude: Global Art, Memory and Post-Fordism. Valiz: Amsterdam (2009).
• Isabelle Loring Wallace and Jennie Hirsh, Contemporary Art and Classical Myth. Farnham: Ashgate (2011), ISBN 978-0-7546-6974-6