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What is Contemporary Art?



'In its most basic sense, the umbrella term contemporary art refers to art—namely, painting, sculpture, photography, installation, performance, and video art—produced today. 
Though seemingly simple, the details surrounding this definition are often a bit fuzzy, as different individuals' interpretations of “today” may widely and wildly vary.

Therefore, the exact starting point of the genre is still debated; however, many art historians consider the late 1960s or early 1970s to be an adequate estimate. (Various Sources)



Contemporary Art includes:
  • Pop Art - In post-war Britain and America, Pop Art was pioneered by artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. It is defined by an interest in portraying mass culture and reimagining commercial products as accessible art.
  • Photorealism - a concurrent movement, aimed to create hyper realistic drawings and paintings. Photorealists often worked from photographs, which enabled them to accurately reproduce portraits, landscapes, and other iconography
  • Conceptualism - which rejected the idea of art as a commodity. In conceptual art, the idea behind a work of art takes precedence. Major conceptual artists include Damien Hirst, Ai Wei Wei, and Jenny Holzer. Though this experimental movement is rooted in art of the early 21st century, it emerged as a formal movement in the 1960s and remains a major contemporary art movement today.
  • Minimalism - materialized in the 1960s and is still prevalent today. According to the Tate, both movements “challenged the existing structures for making, disseminating and viewing art.” What sets Minimalism apart, however, is that its simple, abstract aesthetic invites viewers to respond to what they see—not what they think a given work of art represents.
  • Performance Art - Beginning in the 1960s and retaining its popularity today, performance art is a drama-inspired approach to art. While the art form is performed by artists, it is not solely intended as entertainment. Instead, its goal is to convey a message or idea.
  • Installation Art - is an immersive medium of art. Installations are three-dimensional constructions that transform their surroundings and alter viewers' perceptions of space. Often, they're large-scale and site-specific, enabling artists to transform any space into a customized, interactive environment
  • Earth Art - is a movement in which artists transform natural landscapes into site-specific works of art
  • Street Art - is a genre that gained prominence with the rise of graffiti in the 1980s. Often rooted in social activism, street art includes murals, installations, stencilled images, and stickers erected in public spaces


Famous Contemporary Artists Include:
  • Banksy
  • Jean-Michel Basquiat
  • Takashi Murakami
  • Marina Abramovic


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