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• Contemporary art


  Art that came to be from 1947 onwards
• The term "contemporary" is complex to define as people have dissenting views on the interpretation of the "present", "today", or "now"
• Some museums include the term "contemporary art" in their name but champion works that fall under an earlier period
• Modern art


  Art that saw the digression of artists away from past conventions and traditions and toward freedom, roughly between the 1860s to late 1970s
• Modern art celebrated the novel opportunities in art, from the materials to its manipulation and ways of seeing and thinking about art
• Compared to the dense taxonomy of modern art, contemporary art had fewer -isms under its wing, perhaps due to it still unfolding
• Contemporary art


  Can be traced from the 1970s to the present
• The 1970s saw the emergence of postmodernism and the decline of clearer identified artistic movements
• Contemporary art was heavily driven by ideas and theories, and the blurring of notions of what is and can be considered as "art"
• Contemporary art involved the use of television, photography, cinema, digital technology, performance, and everyday objects
• The idea was more important than the visual articulation in contemporary art
• Abstract expressionism


  • Took the basic tenets of abstraction and combined it with gestural techniques, mark-making, and a rugged spontaneity in its visual articulation
  • Often affiliated with New York painters like Clyfford Still, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko
  • Committed to creating abstract works that had the ability to convey and elicit emotion, especially those residing in the subconscious
• Action painting


  • Underscored the process of creation, showing the physicality, direction and often spontaneity of the actions that made the drips and strokes possible
• Color fields


  • Emphasized the emotional power of colors, from vivid demarcations to more toned-down transitions, akin to the effect of landscapes
• Op art (optical art)

  • Creating energy was at the center, using color, pattern, and perspective tricks to inform the experience of the artwork
• Op art artists


  • Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Peter Sedgley, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Yaacov
• Kinetic art


  • Harnessed the current and direction of the wind, with components of the artwork predominantly sculptural, such as mobiles and motor-driven machines
• Kinetic art artists


  • Naum Gabo, Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Bridget Riley, Nicolas Schoffer
• Gutai (Japan, 1950s-1970s)


  • Platforms grounded on movement and a sense of dynamism to convey ideas attached to new-found freedom, individuality and openness to the international sphere
  • Explored the materiality of the implements used in the performance and the relationship between the body, movements, and the spirit of their interaction during the creative process
• Gutai artists


  • Yoshihara Jirō, Tanaka Atsuko, Saburo Murakami, Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo, Shozo Shimamoto, Kazuo Shiraga
• Minimalism


  • Tested the boundaries of various media, favoring geometric shapes, color fields, and the use of objects and materials with an "industrial" and sparse aesthetic
  • Avoided overt symbolism and emotional content, instead calling attention to the materiality of the works
• Minimalist artists


  • Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Donald Judd
• Aware


  Saburo Murakami Shozo Shimamoto
• Vibrant


  Kazuo Shiraga
• Another movement was minimalism which cropped up in the early 1960s in New York, and saw artists testing the boundaries of various media
• Minimalism


  • Favored geometric shapes, color fields, and the use of objects and materials that had an "industrial" the sparse
  • Painters and sculptors avoided overt symbolism and emotional content, but instead called attention to the materiality of the works
  • Subtext was deference to truth, as a thing was presented as itself, without pretensions or embellishments, very utopic aura about it
• Pop art first emerged in the 1950s but found its footing in the 1960s
• Pop art


  Drew inspiration, sources, and even materials from commercial culture, making it one of the most identifiable and relatable movements in art history
• Richard Hamilton: 'Pop art is: popular (designed for a mass audience), transient (short-term solution), expendable (easily forgotten), low cost, mass produced, young (aimed at youth), witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business'
• Postmodernism was a nudge to formalize the critique toward modernism and its claim over art for the better of the twentieth century
• Postmodernism


  • Grounded on skepticism about ideals and grand narratives
  • Rooted in analytic philosophy during the mid- to late twentieth century, which highlighted the importance of individual experience and was often steeped in complexity and contradiction
  • Formerly established rules, barriers, and distinctions were abolished
• Contemporary art is the most socially aware and involved form of art, with subject matter of its works being one of the most pressing, heated, and even controversial issues of contemporary society
• Neo-Pop Art


  • Renewed interest in pop art specifically to Andy Warhol's works and his contemporaries
  • Appropriated some of the first ideas of Dada in which ready-made materials were used for the artwork
  • Criticized and evaluated popular culture, often using popular cultural icons
• Artists involved in the revival of pop art

  • Katharina Fritsch
  • Daniel Edwards
  • Jeff Koons
  • Keith Haring
  • Mark Kostabi
  • Damien Hirst
• Photorealism


  Realistic depictions with painstaking attention to detail, without asserting an artist's personal style
• Photorealist artists


  • Chuck Close
  • Gerhard Richter
• Conceptualism


  • Fought against the idea that art is a commodity
  • Brought to the fore issues brought about by art institutions such as museums and galleries where works are peddled and circulated
• Performance Art


  • The heart of the artwork is its idea or message
  • The audience may even be an accomplice to the realization of the work
  • Performance art may be planned or spontaneous and done live or recorded
  • Performance is not about the medium or the format; rather, it is how a specific context is made in which through engagement or interaction, questions, concerns, and conditions will be fleshed out
• Installation Art


  • Immersive work where the environment or the space in which the viewer steps into or interacts with is transformed or altered
  • Usually large-scale, makes use of a host of objects, materials, conditions, and even light and aural components
  • May be considered site-specific and may be temporary or ephemeral in nature
• Earth Art


  • The natural environment or a specific site or space is transformed by artists
  • Different from environmental art in that it does not focus on the subject (environmental issues or concerns) but rather on landscape manipulation and the materials used, taken directly from the ground or vegetation