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Contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the late 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 challenge traditional boundaries and defy easy definition. 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
Public attitudes
Concerns
Prizes
History
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
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 "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;[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

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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.

Sociologist Nathalie Heinich draws a distinction between modern and contemporary art, describing them as two different paradigms
which partially overlap historically. She found that while "modern art" challenges the 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
refracted, prismatic, and multi-faceted. Reflecting the diversity of the world today, in all of its complexities, contemporary art reflects life
as we know it. It can be, therefore, contradictory, confusing, and open-ended. There are, however, a number of common themes that have
appeared in contemporary works. While these are not exhaustive, notable themes include: identity politics, the body, globalization and
migration, technology, contemporary society and culture, time and memory, and institutional and political critique.[15] Post-modern, post-
structuralist, feminist, and Marxist theory have played important roles in the development of contemporary theories of 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.
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 organizations 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 The Museum of Contemporary Art in
in leading publicly funded contemporary art museums.[16] Miami, Florida.

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,
organizing and sponsoring contemporary art awards, and building up extensive corporate collections.[17] 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 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.[18] Craft activities, such as textile design, are also
excluded from the realm of contemporary art, despite large audiences for exhibitions.[19] 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."[20]

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.

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Public attitudes
Contemporary art can sometimes seem at odds with a public that does not feel that art and its institutions share its values.[21] 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".[22] Some critics like Julian Spalding and Donald Kuspit have suggested that skepticism, even rejection, is a legitimate and
reasonable response to much contemporary art.[23] 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.[24]

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[25] 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[26]
Jindřich Chalupecký Award for Czech artists under 35[27]

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 American Culture jamming
Artist's book Cyberarts Excessivism
American Figurative Demoscene Cynical idea art
scene painting Expressionism COUM
Transmissions Electronic art Realism Kitsch
Antipodeans Art & Language Environmental Digital Art movement
Environmental
Bay Area Bay Area art
art Hyperrealism Post-
Figurative Figurative
Feminist art Figuration Libre Information art contemporary
Movement Movement
Froissage Fractal art Internet art Metamodernism
COBRA BMPT
(avant-garde Holography Graffiti Art Massurrealism Pseudorealism
Chicago
movement) Imagists Installation art Late Modernism Maximalism Remodernism
Color Field Chicano art Land Art Live art New Leipzig Renewable
Generación movement Lowbrow (art Neue School energy
de la Ruptura movement) Slowenische New media art sculpture
Color field
Gutai group Mail art Kunst New Street art
Computer art
Lenticular Postmodern art European Stuckism
Conceptual art Papunya Tula
prints Neo-conceptual Painting Superflat
Fluxus Photorealism
art Relational art Superstroke
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Les Happenings Postminimalism Neo- Software art Urban art


Plasticiens Hard-edge Process Art expressionism Toyism Videogame art
Lyrical painting Robotic art Neo-pop Tactical media VJ art
Abstraction Lenticular Saint Soleil Sound art Taring Padi Virtual art
(Abstract prints School Transavantgarde
lyrique) Verdadism
Kinetic art Video art Transgressive
Modern Western and
Light and Funk art art Central Desert
traditional Space
Balinese Pattern and Vancouver art
painting Lyrical Decoration School Young British
Abstraction Warli painting Video Artists
New York
(American revival installation
Figurative
version) Institutional
Expressionism Wildstyle
Minimalism Critique
New York
School Mono-ha Western and
Serial art Neo-Dada Central Desert
New York art
Situationist
International School
Soviet Nouveau
Nonconformist Réalisme
Art Op Art
Red Shirt Performance
School of art
Photography Plop Art
Tachisme Pop Art
Vienna School Postminimalism
of Fantastic Post-painterly
Realism Abstraction
Washington Psychedelic art
Color School
Soft sculpture
Systems art
Video art
Zero

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. NYU Steinhardt, Department of Art and Arts Professions, New York (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=PA57)
4. Also the Contemporary Arts Society of Montreal, 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.ar
t21.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.

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8. "Yahoo" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130720124418/http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/cntmpryart). Yahoo.


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/contemp
orary_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 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.
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_Stru
c.html?id=vIQICgAAQBAJ&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-ar
t/contemporary-art-in-context)
15. Robertson, J., & McDaniel, C. (2012). Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16. Derrick Chong in Iain Robertson, Understanding International Art Markets And Management, Routledge, 2005, p95. ISBN 0-415-
33956-1
17. Chin-Tao Wu, Privatising Culture: Corporate Art Intervention Since the 1980s, Verso, 2002, p14. ISBN 1-85984-472-3
18. 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
19. Peter Dormer, The Culture of Craft: Status and Future, Manchester University Press, 1996, p175. ISBN 0-7190-4618-1
20. Peter Timms, What's Wrong with Contemporary Art?, UNSW Press, 2004, p17. ISBN 0-86840-407-1
21. Mary Jane Jacob and Michael Brenson, Conversations at the Castle: Changing Audiences and Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1998,
p30. ISBN 0-262-10072-X
22. Julian Stallabrass, High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s, Verso, 1999, pp1-2. ISBN 1-85984-721-8
23. Spalding, Julian, The Eclipse of Art: Tackling the Crisis in Art Today, Prestel Publishing, 2003. ISBN 3-7913-2881-6
24. "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.
25. Fred Orton & Griselda Pollock, Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed. Manchester University, 1996. ISBN 0-7190-4399-9
26. "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.
27. Jindřich Chalupecký Award (http://www.jchalupecky.cz/home_en.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927184533/http://
www.jchalupecky.cz/home_en.html) 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine.

References
Smith, Terry (2009). What Is Contemporary Art? (https://books.google.com/books?id=vQeqAAAAQBAJ). Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226764313. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
Meyer, Richard (2013). What Was Contemporary Art? (https://books.google.com/books/about/What_was_Contemporary_Art.html?id=
VhGK5-ZLHvEC). 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 Years 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: Taschen, ISBN 978-3822829509
Mercer, K. (2008). Exiles, diasporas & strangers. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, ISBN 978-0262633581

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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 (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=XJFh9TT0Z9MC) (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
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