Contemporary art

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. In vernacular English, modern and contemporary are synonyms, resulting in some conflation and confusion of the terms modern art and contemporary art by non-specialists. 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. 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. A number of other institutions using the term were founded in the 1930s, such as in 1938 the Contemporary Art Society of Adelaide, Australia, and an increasing number after 1945. 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.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (5)

The Centre Beaubourg of Paris, now known as the Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, conceived by Piano+Rogers Architects and Ove Arup & Partners, between 1971 and 1977, represents on

EPFL2021

Visualising and revitalising traditional Chinese martial arts Visitors' engagement and learning experience at the 300 years of Hakka Kungfu

Sarah Irene Brutton Kenderdine, Jeffrey Shaw

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the emergent 3D interactive media technologies are used as a viable tool for enhancing visitors' overall experiences at an exhibition entitled, 300

EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD2019

Habiter la ville ouverte

Didier Challand

Between 2002 and 2004 Martin Steinmann gave a close insight to the urban villa, a building type well-known a century ago in our cities and recently brought to the foreground as a major architectural i

EPFL2010

Related concepts (82)

Related courses (20)

AR-416: UE N : Constructing the view

This course focuses on the production of utopian scenarios using experimental composition techniques. By means of digital montage, the fictitious scenes are meaningfully conveyed in a series of images

AR-419: Constructing the view: in motion

This course addresses the subject of moving images. It focuses on the field of 3D computer graphics and the animation of computer-generated images (CGI).

HUM-222: Artistic practices C

Ce cours propose aux étudiant-e-x-s un panorama du dessin contemporain par l'exploration et l'expérience, et plus précisément de penser le dessin comme économie. La pratique régulière est accompagnée

Related lectures (24)

Art Trends and Topics

Explores art trends since the 1950s, focusing on documenta exhibition and key artworks.

Reverse Perspective: Wim Goes

Delves into Reverse Perspective through Wim Goes' architectural projects and discussions with art historians.

Architecture Theory: Acceleration and Crisis

Explores acceleration, crisis, and architectural theory, focusing on modernism, postmodernity, and the Anthropocene, and challenges students to analyze contemporary architectural practices.

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. In art, the term "painting" describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called "a painting").

Art movement

An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years. Art movements were especially important in modern art, when each consecutive movement was considered a new avant-garde movement. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality (figurative art).

Contemporary art