Contemporary Art Is The Art of Today, Produced in The Second Half of The 20th Century or in The
Contemporary Art Is The Art of Today, Produced in The Second Half of The 20th Century or in The
Contemporary Art Is The Art of Today, Produced in The Second Half of The 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 continue the challenging of boundaries that was already well
underway in the 20th century. 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
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s
to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term
is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit
of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas
about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency away from the narrative, which
was characteristic for the traditional arts, toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art.
More recent artistic production is often called contemporary art or postmodern art.
Modern art begins with the heritage of painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul
Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all of whom were essential for the
development of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other
young artists including the pre-cubists Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Jean
Metzinger and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art world with "wild", multi-
colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism. Matisse's two
versions of The Dance signified a key point in his career and in the development of modern
painting It reflected Matisse's incipient fascination with primitive art: the intense warm color of
the figures against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of the dancing
nudes convey the feelings of emotional liberation and hedonism.
Initially influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and other late-19th-century innovators, Pablo
Picasso made his first cubistpaintings based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be
reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les Demoiselles
d'Avignon (1907), Picasso dramatically created a new and radical picture depicting a raw and
primitive brothel scene with five prostitutes, violently painted women, reminiscent of African
tribal masks and his own new Cubist inventions. Analytic cubism was jointly developed by
Picasso and Georges Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about 1908
through 1912. Analytic cubism, the first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed
by Synthetic cubism, practiced by Braque, Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert
Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and several other artists into the 1920s. Synthetic cubism is
characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier
collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.
The notion of modern art is closely related to modernism.
Neorealism refers to a few movements. Neo-realism in painting was established by the ex-
Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War
I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life. Their
intentions were proclaimed in Ginner’s manifesto in New Age (1 January 1914), which was also
used as the preface to Gilman and Ginner’s two-man exhibition of that year. It attacked the
academic and warned against the ‘decorative’ aspect of imitators of Post-Impressionism. The
best examples of neorealist work is that produced by these two artists; Howard Kanovitz and
also Robert Bevan. For Robert Bevan he joined Cumberland Market Group in 1914.
Social Realism is a naturalistic realism focusing specifically on social issues and the hardships
of everyday life. The term usually refers to the urban American Scene artists of the Depression
era, who were greatly influenced by the Ashcan School of early 20th century New York.
Social Realism is somewhat of a pejorative label in the United States, where overtly political art,
not to mention socialist politics, are extremely out of favor.
Ben Shahn, Jack Levine and Jacob Lawrence are the best-known American Social Realists.
Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers,
writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working
class and to voice the authors' critique of the social structures behind these conditions. While the
movement's characteristics vary from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of
descriptive or critical realism.
The term is sometimes more narrowly used for an art movement that flourished between the two
World Wars as a reaction to the hardships and problems suffered by common people after
the Great Crash. In order to make their art more accessible to a wider audience, artists turned to
realist portrayals of anonymous workers as well as celebrities as heroic symbols of strength in
the face of adversity. The goal of the artists in doing so was political as they wished to expose
the deteriorating conditions of the poor and working classes and hold the existing governmental
and social systems accountable.
Social realism should not be confused with socialist realism, the official Soviet art form that was
institutionalized by Joseph Stalin in 1934 and was later adopted by allied Communist parties
worldwide. It is also different from realism as it not only presents conditions of the poor, but
does so by conveying the tensions between two opposing forces, such as between farmers and
their feudal lord.However, sometimes the terms social realism and socialist realism are used
interchangeably.
Integrated arts practice refers to inter-disciplinary art, art research, development, production,
presentation, or artistic creation of work that fully uses two or more art disciplines to create a
work for a specific audience.
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts,
literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and
culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism or New Classicism, any of a number of
movements in the fine arts, literature, theatre, music, language, and architecture beginning in
the 17th century
Neoclassical architecture, an architectural style of the 18th and 19th centuries
Neoclassical sculpture, a sculptural style of the 18th and 19th centuries
New Classical architecture, an overarching movement of contemporary classical
architecture in the 21st century
in linguistics, a word that is a recent construction from New Latin based on older,
classical elements
Neoclassical ballet, a ballet style which uses traditional ballet vocabulary, but is generally
more expansive than the classical structure allowed
The "Neo-classical period" of painter Pablo Picasso immediately following World War I
Neoclassical economics, a general approach in economics focusing on the determination of
prices, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand
Neoclassical realism, theory in international relations
Neo-classical school (criminology), a school in criminology that continues the traditions of
the Classical School within the framework of Right Realism
Neo-classical theology, another name for process theology, a school of thought influenced by
the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead
Neoclassical transport is an effect seen in magnetic fusion energy reactors
Process art is an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment where the end product
of art and craft, the objet d’art (work of art/found object), is not the principal focus. The
'process' in process art refers to the process of the formation of art: the gathering, sorting,
collating, associating, patterning, and moreover the initiation of actions and proceedings. Process
art is concerned with the actual doing and how actions can be defined as an actual work of art;
seeing the art as pure human expression. Process art often entails an inherent motivation,
rationale, and intentionality. Therefore, art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than
as a deliverable or end product.
Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the
location into account while planning and creating the artwork.
Collaborative Art Definition: Collaborative art can be defined simply as artwork that
involves working as a team to create art, and each person contributes in some significant way to
the artwork.
Interactive art is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve
its purpose. Some interactive art installations achieve this by letting the observer or visitor
"walk" in, on, and around them; some others ask the artist or the spectators to become part of the
artwork.[3]
Works of this kind of art frequently feature computers, interfaces and sometimes sensors to
respond to motion, heat, meteorological changes or other types of input their makers
programmed them to respond to. Most examples of virtual Internet art and electronic art are
highly interactive. Sometimes, visitors are able to navigate through a hypertextenvironment;
some works accept textual or visual input from outside; sometimes an audience can influence the
course of a performance or can even participate in it. Some other interactive artworks are
considered as immersive as the quality of interaction involve all the spectrum of surrounding
stimuli. Virtual reality environments like works by Maurice Benayounand Jeffrey Shaw are
highly interactive as the work the spectators – Maurice Benayoun call them "visitors", Miroslaw
Rogala calls them (v)users, Char Davies "immersants" – interact with take all their fields of
perception.
Though some of the earliest examples of interactive art have been dated back to the 1920s, most
digital art didn’t make its official entry into the world of art until the late 1990s.[4] Since this
debut, countless museums and venues have been increasingly accommodating digital and
interactive art into their productions. This budding genre of art is continuing to grow and evolve
in a somewhat rapid manner through internet social sub-culture, as well as through large scale
urban installations.
Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that often are site-specific and
designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces,
whereas exterior interventions are often called public art, land art or intervention art; however,
the boundaries between these terms overlap.
Mixed media is an artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed.
Assemblages and collages are two common examples of art using different medias that will
make use of different materials including cloth, paper, and/or wood. [1]
When an artist is doing painting or photography work using mixed media, care should be taken
to allow enough drying time between layers, to ensure the final work will have structural
integrity. If several different mixed medias are used with the artwork, it is important to choose a
sturdy foundation upon which the different media layers are imposed.
Many artistic effects can be achieved by using mixed media. Found objects can be used in
conjunction with traditional artist media to attain a wide range of self-expression.
Some children's picture books also use mixed media illustrations. For example, 's
Nachts by Wolf Erlbruch.
Mixed media art, a visual art, is distinguished from multimedia art which combines visual art
with non-visual elements, such as recorded sound, literature, drama, dance, motion graphics,
music, or interactivity.
Performance art is a performance presented to an audience within a fine art context,
traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or
carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience
participation. The performance can be live or via media; the performer can be present or absent.
It can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body, or
presence in a medium, and a relationship between performer and audience. Performance art can
happen anywhere, in any type of venue or setting and for any length of time. The actions of an
individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work.