diggingART, Featuring A Painting A Day

Edouard Manet, The Bar at the Folies-Bergere

2011-11-15T03:47:00.001-08:00

The Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882)

Edouard Manet
The Samuel Courtauld Trust, Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London

The Bar at the Folies-Bergere is Manet's last masterpiece. A dedicated urbanite to the very end, Manet recreated the fashionable world he knew and loved best, in all its splendor, and its failures. The barmaid looks out with the sad dignity of the exploited. Like the exquisite vase flowers on the bar, she seems to have been plucked and set before the viewer. The customer conversing with her is reflected in the mirror but his bodily presence is missing. This is not an error. We, the viewers are actually in the position the customer would rightly occupy, and so we take his place. But the real surprise of this masterpiece is the pair of feet in little green boots in the left upper corner of the painting. It is the reflection of a trapeze act. The Folies-Bergere was a Parisian music hall that pioneered "variety" entertainment and its promenades were frequented by prostitutes. The painting has been interpreted as a modern paraphrasing of 'Las Meninas' by Diego Velázquez.

'Rhine II' Photograph by Andreas Gursky Breaks Auction Record

2011-11-12T14:44:00.001-08:00

Rhine II (1999)

Andreas Gursky

'Rhine II' (1999), Andreas Gursky's three and a half meter wide photograph of the grey Rhine under grey skies sold on November 8, 2011 for $4.3m (£2.7m) at Christie's New York, setting a new world record. The previous record was set in May this year by the American artist Cindy Sherman, who is also the subject of all her own works, for the photography Untitled #96 (1981), also at Christie's New York.

Gursky's chromogenic colour print mounted on acrylic glass far exceeded its pre-sale estimate of $2.5m-$3.5m (£1.6m-£2.2m). Gursky declared 'Rhine II' was his favorite picture and that the desolate landscape is actually "a dramatic and profound reflection on human existence and our relationship to nature on the cusp of the 21st century".

The buyer of the 'Rhine II' is unknown, but if you feel like seeing Gursky's works in person you can check with Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, both displaying works by the famous photographer.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Three Princesses Of Saxony

2011-11-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

The three princesses of Saxony, Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia (c. 1535), oil on panel
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Viena

"The three princesses of Saxony, Sibylla (1515-92), Emilia (1516-91) and Sidonia (1518-1575)" is a stunning painting. At a first glance the viewer might have the feeling Lucas Cranach the Elder portrayed only one girl from three different angles. Indeed, the three sisters are very similar in facial features and clothing, yet so different from each other. After a careful analysis, one can easily see how the master managed to capture a different personality and age on each face and even a different fashion preference. There is absolutely no detail to be found in exactly the same shape or color in the portraits of the three girls. Each of them wears a different hairstyle in fashion during the Renaissance in Saxony, and each dress features expensive fabrics and complex embroideries. The gold jewelries are a symbol of wealth and prosperity. However, I could not help but notice the missing hat, the missing details and the melancholic face of the girl on the left, the older one. It's like her time's up and she is slowly slipping away from the painting. In the spotlight now is the girl in the middle, Emilia. It's her hour and she is shamelessly making eye contact with the viewer, in a sweet and desperate attempt to be picked. Sidonia, the youngest, is looking down, innocent and modest. Her time will come soon.

Johannes Vermeer, Little Street

2011-11-01T08:53:00.001-07:00

Little Street (c. 1657-1661), oil on canvas
Johannes Vermeer
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

There has been much debate about the location of this street in Delft, and whether this building ever existed as such in reality or it's a combination of details Vermeer took from different houses. Vermeer paid great attention to every single crack in the wall and the passing of time is marked by the different colors the bricks have. The sprawling grape vines have pretty much a decorative purpose, as the Dutch light was so weak that the grapes failed to produce drinkable wine, and symbolize fidelity, marriage and domestic virtue. It is so impressive how the four characters in this painting are caught up in what they are doing that it almost builds a magical atmosphere. During the 17th century cloths were very expensive and it was commonplace for the children to be dressed virtually as miniature adults, with no difference in clothing between boys and girls. Seen in this light, what might surprises more than anything here is the fact that the children are left alone playing, and not urged to do some kind of labor.

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi On Hold, Not Cancelled

2011-10-31T04:08:00.000-07:00

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project

There is good and bad news regarding the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum. The bad news is that the construction of the huge, 30,000 sq. m Guggenheim Museum planned for Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi has been put on hold. The good news is that the museum plans have not been cancelled.

The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project, designed by the US architect Frank Gehry, is one of four new institutions planned for a cultural district on the island, Louvre Abu Dhabi and Zayed National Museum being two of the others. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi was originally aiming for a 2013 opening, recently this date was revised to 2015, and now all we are left with is a "a future date".

The Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi is supposed to be the largest Guggenheim in the world, with an estimated cost of $400 million.

Lyonel Feininger, Carnival in Arcueil

2011-10-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

Carnival in Arcueil (1911), oil on canvas

Lyonel Feininger

Born and raised in New York, Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) moved at the age of sixteen to Germany, to study music. However, he decided against pursuing music professionally, and instead pursued his talent for caricature, turning it into a successful career as a newspaper cartoonist. His early paintings followed, colorful van Gogh influenced scenes of German town life, with distorted characters dressed in stovepipe hats rushing around chaotically, like Carnival in Arcueil. Nevertheless, Lyonel Feininger is best known today for his later paintings, to which he got after incorporating influences from Fauvism, German Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism. Lyonel Feininger seems to have been present at every landmark artistic moment, always perhaps a step or two behind, but absorbing and synthesizing and creating something uniquely his. After spending 50 of his most creative years in Germany, in the late 1930s, the Nazi campaign against modern art forced him to flee back to New York where he was received with open arms.

Josephine Wall, Painting

2011-10-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

Josephine Wall

Josephine Wall (born May 1947 in Farnham, Surrey) is a popular English fantasy artist and sculptor. Her paintings are influenced and inspired by Arthur Rackham, surrealist artists such as Magritte and Dalí, and the romanticism of the pre-Raphaelites. From childhood Josephine has had a passion for light and colour, fantasy and visual story telling. Much of the inspiration for her mystical images comes from her close observation of nature and her interest in its preservation. Though she often strives to impart a message in her scenes, she also hopes to inspire in her audience a personal journey into the magical world of their own imagination. Josephine Wall works mostly with acrylic paint, which allows her to paint quickly, and to create many textured and colourful effects. Her paintings are so rich in details and the colors she uses are so yummy, it's impossible not to get transposed to this new world she so vividly paints.

Cheap Expensive Art

2010-02-19T14:16:00.000-08:00

The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) is doubling up with Damien Hirst in its search for identical twins who are willing to take part in a recreation of the artist’s 1992 performance “Ingo, Torsten.” Successful candidates will perform in conjunction with the NGC’s summer exhibition “Pop Life: Art In A Material World,” organized by Tate Modern and on view from June 11 to September 19, 2010.

Ingo, Torsten (1992)
Damien Hirst

In 1992, at the Cologne Unfair art fair, British artist Damien Hirst commissioned a set of identical twins named Ingo and Torsten to spend time sitting in front of his trademark spot paintings. Dressed in identical clothing, the twins could read, knit or even play chess, so long as their actions were alike. Titled after the twins, the performance was about surface appearances, individuality, and making a scene.

Now, in 2010, the NGC plans to re-stage this iconic performance and invites identical twins to take part in this recreation and to become works of art in their own right.

Twins must be aged 18 or over and identical in stature, height and appearance. During the performance, successful applicants must wear identical clothes and footwear, and have matching hairstyles and hair color. Shifts for each performance will be four hours in length. Ideally, the twins will be able to commit to two to four shifts during the span of the exhibition.

Twins are invited to apply by sending their name, contact information and two photographs of themselves—one full body shot and one headshot to twins@gallery.ca or by regular mail to: Twins Project, Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 9N4. All applications must be received by May 7, 2010. Successful applicants will be notified by email.

All participants will be compensated for their time and will also be presented with a photographic memento of their performance, signed by Damien Hirst. Participants must pay for their own travel expenses to participate.

Source: designtaxi.com

5th International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid

2010-02-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

17 February 2010 - 21 February 2010

The Spanish International Contemporary Art Fair, Art Madrid, celebrates its fifth year in the Pabellón de Cristal at the Casa de Campo in Madrid, with the presence of 65 galleries, selected from among the most prestigious national and international scene. The fair reinforces on this edition their commitment to contemporary Spanish art and renews its support for emerging artists and young galleries.

Art Madrid is a fair aimed specifically to contemporary art collectors and has a complementary relation with other fairs, helping to convert Madrid into the international art capital during the month of February, being a well known event of the city in the artistic circuit.

The commitment to the Spanish contemporary art materializes in the fact that 90% of the galleries are Spanish. Numbers that allows Art Madrid to be not only the second contemporary art fair in Spain for the number of galleries, but also the one that has a higher proportion of Spanish galleries, coming from 13 autonomous regions. In this respect, 9 galleries from the Spanish Aragón Autonomous Community will be at the fair, with the appointment of the Aragón Goverment and the cooperation of the Aragonese Contemporary Art Galleries Association. Moreover, Art Madrid will receive 6 international galleries (4 Europeans y 2 Latin Americans), from Portugal, France, Colombia and Cuba.

Art Madrid hosts for the second consecutive year, a space dedicated to emerging art, into the Young Art program, which receives the younger artists and galleries with less than five years of existence. There are 46 artists (35 of them less than 40 years old) from 10 galleries, which will show their works in 20 different spaces (three more than last year).

During five days, the Pabellón de Cristal transforms into a big contemporary art gallery were you can see reunited paintings, sculptures, photographies and so on from all over the world, from big names of the historic avantgarde, like Picasso, Miró, Vasarely, De Chirico, Sonia Delaunay, Arman, Bonifacio, Torres-García and Le Corbusier; or the second half of the XXth Century: Warhol, Richard Serra, Wilfredo Lam, Francesco Clemente, Botero, A. R. Penck, Julian Opie, Schnabel or Gerhard Richter, with many more. Of course the biggest names in the contemporary Spanish art will be represented, as the likes of Tàpies, Antonio López, Canogar, Palazuelo, Torner, Arroyo, Chillida, Equipo Crónica o Miquel Barceló, and the next artist’s generation, like Evru-Zush, Verbis, Plensa, Carmen Calvo, Eva Lootz, Alexanco, Gonzalo Sicre, Pérez Villalta, Francisco Leiro…

One more year, the fair hosts big names of contemporary photography, as Chema Madoz, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Rax Rinnekangas, Marcos López, Alberto Schommer or emerging Spanish artists, like Salvador Díaz, Juan Francisco Casas, Carlos Salazar, Jacinto Moros, Samuel Salcedo and Michel Pérez, among others.

Moreover, the fair will work within the Official Program for the Independence Bicentennial Commemoration of Latin American countries. For this reason, it will feature an exclusive space dedicated to this event. The exhibition "Residentes: Artistas Latinoamericanos En España," shows the work of eleven emerging Latin American artists who live in Spain. Those artists come from Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico.

A significant innovation is the creation of the Art Madrid Collection of Unique Works on paper. Its goal will be original works on paper (not serial) by Contemporary Spanish artists. The acquisitions will be done during the fair, among the participating galleries.

Source: designtaxi.com

How To Buy Contemporary Art Paintings?

2010-02-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

Lilian Fendig

Anyone can make money out of contemporary art paintings. However, there are many factors that influence the dividends of an investment. These include the initial purchase price for the artwork, the success of the artist's career, the time involved in that success, the overall economic climate, possible major changes in the art market due to technological advances, art movements, and media coverage, and when the work is sold.

If you want to make money from investing in a contemporary artworks, it is vital to buy early in the career of an artist who is destined for success. It is usually necessary to wait for lengthy periods of time for the artist's art paintings to gather momentum over time and increase in value. It is better to purchase when the economic climate has been weakened as prices are lower and sell when the market is strong. These are factors that all need to be considered when investing in contemporary art paintings.

Anyone can invest in contemporary art paintings. Of course it depends on your budget and what you are looking to invest in. The best way to go about investing is to do your due diligence and research first. The best places to research are the auction houses, such as Sothebys and Christies. There are others, however these have been the largest auction houses for a long time and they are worth checking. Other galleries that specialize in contemporary art are worth researching. These galleries are in every major city and most regional areas also have galleries. Local media sources are also good at identifying the galleries specializing in contemporary art. There may be a local arts section in your paper or a city publication outlining the galleries. It is well worth going to the opening nights of some of these galleries and talking to people. It will take some time to get a handle on the market, so don't rush into anything, just enjoy contemplating the works and the right piece will come along.

When you are looking to collect contemporary art paintings that will give you significant returns, it usually involves a gamble on emerging or upcoming artists and it involves time. These artists can usually be found exhibiting themselves or are represented by cutting edge galleries in major cities or regional areas. Once again, this involves research and going to contemporary exhibitions. The dividends can be huge, however it usually takes decades for this to occur. It usually takes time for any artist to be recognized by their peers, the art scene/world, the media and to become the next big thing. For many artists, this never happens, therefore it pays to research first.

The broad scope of contemporary paintings are defined by their genre and the era in which they were created. Some consider them to commence from the 1960's and 1970's up until the time we live in now. They can also be defined as artwork that is currently contemporary to whichever age we are living in. Pop art paintings were most contemporary in the1960's just as Abstract Expressionist paintings were in the decade before that.

Here is an example of how contemporary artworks increase in value, sometimes in a phenomenal way. The Financial Times recently reported that in 1986, an anonymous collector bought a 1962 Andy Warhol painting '200 One Dollar Bills' for $385,000. This sounds like an expensive investment. In November 2009, it sold for $43.8m at New York's Sotheby's auction house. There are many such examples of amazing returns on investment. An outlay of $385 000 may not be possible for everyone, however there can still be significant returns over time if a new collector purchases for hundreds of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands.

The contemporary art market has been affected by the recent economic downturn. This has been evidenced in gallery closures, reported downturn of sales at auction houses and an overall decrease in sales. However, the Financial Times heralded a positive change in the contemporary art paintings market with this recent sale of the Warhol, 1962 Warhol painting for $43.8m.

It is an ideal time to invest when the market has undergone a downturn. There is much greater chance of investing with significant return if the market has been weakened by the economic climate. According to many speculators and analysts, this has been the case for contemporary art paintings for the last year. Savvy investors can become avid collectors in a market such as this, as the returns can yield much higher dividends in the future. As reported by the Financial Times, collectors are just starting to pay big dollars again for contemporary art paintings, so now could be considered a prime time to invest in your future.

What Is Contemporary Architecture?

2010-02-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

City Of Arts And Sciences, Valencia
Santiago Calatrava

Contemporary architecture has helped produce some of today's most popular building styles. Structures from single family homes to downtown office buildings are built in contemporary architecture styles, and most of which look as fresh today as they did decades ago. While it's hard to give an absolute list of contemporary architecture features, buildings within the movement can usually be broadly identified, as can their individual styles.

Contemporary architecture is, in many ways, a catch-all to describe contemporary styles that share a variety of features and haven't yet been classified. The term "contemporary" is also slightly inaccurate, as it can refer to buildings 70 or 80 years old. But in an age where classic building architecture styles are as popular as new ones, it's important to have a broad overview of what separates the two. Contemporary architecture, then, is generally recognized as a movement where few, if any, traditional building methods and ornamentation features are used. Contemporary architecture is also one of the first architectural movements to embrace completely new building methods, and forms that are based more on functionality than style.

While contemporary architecture is broad-ranging, the term usually refers exclusively to homes, while buildings for other purposes are classified according to their particular style. For example, a downtown office building might fit within the contemporary architecture movement, but still be considered art-deco, or internationally styled. The main reason for this is contemporary architecture's focus on functionality as opposed to design. For example, homes can be modified a number of ways to work better for their occupants, but office buildings with new, unprecedented features are generally seen as having abandoned functionality - an office building in the shape of an hourglass with exposed ventilation would probably be seen as Internationally-styled, whereas a house done this way is likely to be seen as contemporary.

If you notice a contemporary-styled home it's usually because one or several of the movement's common attributes is apparent. The most common things about the contemporary architecture style people notice are usually a mixture of wall materials, like stone, brick, and wood, all combined on the same surface. Exposed wood beams, and an abundance of glass are other common material characteristics of these homes. Shape-wise, contemporary homes can often be identified by flat roofs, split levels, and large overhangs.

While contemporary homes may often look fanciful or extravagant they are usually much more refined and practical than other home styles. Large windows, for example, might encourage energy saving and use of solar power, while split-levels are usually employed to help the house work better with the land around it. The biggest factor influencing contemporary architecture is probably home building technology - as this evolves, it'll be interesting to see how the style changes.

List Of Contemporary Art Museums

2010-02-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

Museum Of Contemporary Art, Rio De Janeiro

Contemporary art museums around the world specialize in collecting and exhibiting contemporary art. The following is a list of the major contemporary art museums by continent. If you happen to know a contemporary art museum worth mentioning, please leave a comment.

NORTH AMERICA

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa - Exhibits one of the greatest collections of paintings in North America, with works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso and Pollock

Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver - This dynamic and original Museum exhibits a large group of contemporary Art in a beautiful Neoclassical building

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Arguably America's greatest museum. Its spectacular collection is especially strong in American painting and Egyptian Antiquities.

The Museum of modern Art (MOMA), New York - Houses the world's best collection of modern and contemporary Art, featuring masterworks as Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon

The Guggenheim Museum, New York - Designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Guggenheim Fundation has also important galleries in Bilbao, Venice, Berlin and Las Vegas.

Withney Collection of American Art, New York - Houses more than 18,000 American works by American artists, including Hopper, Pollock and de Kooning

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo - Opened in 1901, exhibits a good collection of European and American Art, with works by Rembrandt and Willem de Kooning

Denver Art Museum, Denver - Focused in American Indian Art, this Museum also exhibits a good collection of contemporary Art, with works by Motherwell and Warhol

Menil Collection, Houston - This museum, designed by Renzo Piano, houses a great collection of contemporary Art, from Picasso to Cy Twombly

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle - The collections of this Museum have drastically grown in the last decades, and now include contemporary works by Andy Warhol or Richard Serra

EUROPE

S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Gent - The best collection of contemporary Art in Belgium, with important works of Karel Appel and Valerio Adami

Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen - A contemporary building by Danish architect Soren Robert Lund, exhibits works by modern Danish and International artists

Kiasma Museum of contemporary Art, Helsinki - Open in 1998, it's Finland's National Museum of contemporary Art, housed in a stunning building by Steven Holl

The Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris - France's national museum for modern and contemporary Art, housed in an important contemporary building by Rogers and Renzo Piano

Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin - This important building by Mies van der Rohe houses an important collection of modern and contemporary Art

Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin - This Museum of contemporary Art is housed in a 17th century building, and concentrates in works by living artists

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz - Opened in 2000, this museum houses a good collection of modern and contemporary Art, and some works from the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam - Houses the national collection of modern and contemporary Art, with works by Mondrian, Appel and Malevich, among others

Groningen Museum, Groningen - This polemical building by Coop Himmelblau houses the most innovative Art collection in Netherlands, and one of the most exciting museums in Europe

Museum of Modern Art, Moscow - This recent Museum (opened in 1999) exhibits works by modern and contemporary artists, including Picasso, Lèger and Malevich

Moderna Museet, Stockholm - State Museum for modern and contemporary Art, exhibiting works by Picasso, Dalí and Calder, among others

Beyeler Foundation, Basel - This small but rich museum exhibits the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, with works by van Gogh, Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Bacon and Warhol, among others

The Tate Modern, London - arguably the most important collection of modern and contemporary Art in Europe. It houses works of artists such as Lichstentein, Pollock or Francis Bacon

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool - Houses a large and important group of European paintings from 14th to 20th centuries, including works by Holbein, Renoir and Bacon

Tate Liverpool - Established in 1988, it's one of the most important collections of contemporary Art in the U.K., including an important triptych by Francis Bacon

Gallery of modern Art (GOMA), Glasgow - The most important Museum in Glasgow houses temporary exhibitions and workshops in a 18th century building

Museum of contemporary Art, Belgrade - Established in 1958, this gallery exhibits more than 30,000 contemporary works, mostly by Serbian artists

Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid - Spain's national Museum of modern and contemporary Art, well known for exhibiting Picasso's masterpiece, "Guernica"

Museo de Arte contemporáneo de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona - a quite recent collection of contemporary Art exhibited in a famous building by Richard Meier

Fundació Miró, Barcelona - the best collection of works by Joan Miró in the world, also housing interesting exhibitions of contemporary Art

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao - A good collection of contemporary Art, housed in a building by Frank Gehry. The most famous piece is "Puppy", a giant sculpture of a dog by Jeff Koons

Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Valencia - An interesting collection of contemporary Art, including important sculptures by Chillida and Julio González

SOUTH AMERICA

Sao Paulo Museum of Art, Sao Paulo - The greatest Art collection in South America, this Museum exhibits a selection of paintings, with works by Raphael, Botticelli, Rembrandt and Picasso

Museu de Arte Contemporanea da Universidade, Sao Paulo - It's arguably the most important collection of contemporary art in South America, including works by Picasso or Léger

Museum of Contemporary Art, Rio De Janeiro - The saucer-shaped modernist structure, which has been likened to a UFO, is set on a cliffside, at the bottom of which is a beach and houses contemporary art.

ASIA

Museum of Contemporary Art, Teheran - Houses the best collection of European paintings in Middle East, including works by Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso and Warhol

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo - Open in 1952, this gallery houses a nice collection of contemporary paintings, as well as modern ceramics and textiles

National Museum of Art, Osaka - This subterranean Museum exhibits a good collection of contemporary paintings, and a small group of Impressionist and modern work

AFRICA

Johannesburg Art Gallery / Pretoria Art Museum, Johannesburg - Arguably the best collection of European paintings in Africa, with works by El Greco, Monet and Picasso, among others

National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare - Zimbabwe's National Museum, exhibit a collection of artifacts from the country's heritage, as well as contemporary Art

OCEANIA

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra - The most important Art Museum in Australia, exhibiting a large and good group of paintings, including Jackson Pollock's masterpiece "Blue Poles"

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane - Exhibits a very good collection of Aboriginal Art, as well as Asian Art and contemporary Australian Art. Part of the Queensland Art Gallery houses one of the best collections of contemporary Art in Australia

Contemporary Art and the African Diaspora

2010-02-06T05:58:00.000-08:00

Global Exhibitions
Contemporary Art and the African Diaspora
Friday 19 February 2010, 10.00–18.00

Tate Liverpool The Auditorium
£35 (£20 concessions), booking recommended

Price includes lunch and refreshments

8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America

Kara Walker

This major international symposium will consider and reflect on recent developments in the globalisation of the contemporary art of Africa and its many diasporas. A number of key international exhibitions have highlighted the increased importance of artistic production by African and African diasporic artists to the evolving geography of global contemporary art. This symposium gathers artists, curators, art historians and cultural critics to discuss and unravel the complexities of presenting and exploring art of the African diaspora and situating it within debates around Contemporanism.

Key speakers include Shaheen Merali, curator of Black Atlantic: Travelling Cultures, Counter-Histories, Networked Identities, Berlin 2004; Sonia Boyce, artist in Black Skin/Bluecoat, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, 1985; and Carol Tulloch, Reader at TrAIN, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London, and co-curator of Black British Style at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2004.

Auction Breaks Records

2010-02-06T03:55:00.000-08:00

Walking man I

Alberto Giacometti

The life-size bronze sculpture "Walking man I" by Alberto Giacometti sold for £65 million ($104 million) at Sotheby's auction in London on Wednesday, 3rd of February, 2010. It took just eight minutes before an anonymous phone bidder placed the winning bid after Giacometti's sculpture opened for bidding at £12m at Sotheby's (BID) auction house in London.

"Walking man I" by Alberto Giacometti now ranks as one of the most expensive works of art ever sold and the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. For Sotheby's, Wednesday's Impressionist and Modern Art auction was a huge success, yielding a total of £147 million versus its pre-sale estimate of £69-102 million (before buyer's premium). Perhaps more than anything else, the auction proves that despite the economic crisis individual wealth is well and alive, if only limited to the few. It also proves the attractiveness of Sotheby's business model, which benefits from a duopolistic industry structure.

Robert Rauschenberg

2010-01-31T10:17:00.000-08:00

Born in Texas in 1925, Robert Rauschenberg imagined himself first as a minister and later as a pharmacist. It wasn’t until 1947, while in the U.S. Marines that Robert Rauschenberg discovered his aptitude for drawing and his interest in the artistic representation of everyday objects and people. After leaving the Marines Robert Rauschenberg studied art in Paris on the G.I. Bill, but quickly became disenchanted with the European art scene. After less than a year Robert Rauschenberg moved to North Carolina, where the country’s most visionary artists and thinkers were teaching at Black Mountain College.

Untitled

Robert Rauschenberg

In 1953, Robert Rauschenberg completed his series of black paintings, using newspaper as the ground, and began work on sculptures created from wood, stones, and other materials found on the streets; paintings made with tissue paper, dirt, or gold leaf; and more conceptually oriented works such as Automobile Tire Print (1953) and Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953). Robert Rauschenberg picked up trash and found objects that interested him on the streets of New York City and brought these back to his studio where they could become integrated into his work. Robert Rauschenberg claimed he "wanted something other than what I could make myself and I wanted to use the surprise and the collectiveness and the generosity of finding surprises. And if it wasn't a surprise at first, by the time I got through with it, it was. So the object itself was changed by its context and therefore it became a new thing."

By the end of 1953, Robert Rauschenberg had begun his Red Painting series on canvases that incorporated newspapers, fabric, and found objects and evolved in 1954 into the Combines, a term Robert Rauschenberg coined for his well-known works that integrated aspects of painting and sculpture and would often include such objects as a stuffed eagle or goat, street signs, or a quilt and pillow.

Estate, 1963

Robert Rauschenberg

In late 1953, Robert Rauschenberg met Jasper Johns, with whom he is considered the most influential of artists who reacted against Abstract Expressionism. The two artists had neighboring studios, regularly exchanging ideas and discussing their work, until 1961. Robert Rauschenberg's approach was sometimes called "Neo-Dada," a label he shared with the painter Jasper Johns. Robert Rauschenberg's oft-repeated quote that he wanted to work "in the gap between art and life" suggested a questioning of the distinction between art objects and everyday objects, reminiscent of the issues raised by the notorious "Fountain," by Dada pioneer, Marcel Duchamp. At the same time, Jasper Johns' paintings of numerals, flags, and the like, were reprising Duchamp's message of the role of the observer in creating art's meaning.

Robert Rauschenberg began to silkscreen paintings in 1962. Robert Rauschenberg had his first career retrospective, organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, in 1963 and was awarded the Grand Prize for Painting at the 1964 Venice Biennale. Robert Rauschenberg spent much of the remainder of the 1960s dedicated to more collaborative projects including printmaking, performance, choreography, set design, and art-and-technology works. In 1966, Robert Rauschenberg cofounded Experiments in Art and Technology, an organization that sought to promote collaborations between artists and engineers.

Monogram, 1955-59

Freestanding combine
Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg's simple comment concerning the gap between art and life can be seen as a the statement which provides the departure point for an understanding of Rauschenberg's contribution as a contemporary artist. In particular his series of works which he called Combines served as instances in which the delineated boundaries between art and sculpture were broken down so that both were present in a single work of art. Technically "Combines" refers to Robert Rauschenberg's work from 1954 to 1962, but the artist had begun collaging newsprint and photographic materials in his work and the impetus to combine both painting materials and everyday objects such as clothing, urban debris, and taxidermied animals such as in Monogram continued throughout his artistic life.

Robert Rauschenberg died in May 2008.

Bibliography: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/robert-rauschenberg/about-the-artist/49/

Lucien Freud

2010-01-31T07:04:00.000-08:00

Girl with a white dog, 1951 - 1952
Lucien Freud
Tate Gallery
The subject is Lucien Freud's first wife, Kitty

Lucien Freud (1922 - 2011), Sigmund Freud's grandson, moved to England in 1933 with his family to escape the rise of Nazism, and became a British citizen. Nowadays Lucien Freud is one of the most expensive contemporary artist. Lucien Freud's subjects are often the people in his life; friends, family, fellow painters, lovers, children. As Lucien Freud has said "The subject matter is autobiographical, it's all to do with hope and memory and sensuality and involvement really". "I paint people," Lucien Freud says, "not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be."

Gaz, 1997

Lucien Freud

What is a Contemporary Art Auction?

2010-01-31T04:10:00.000-08:00

The world of contemporary art is changing. Just visit a contemporary art auction for a clue. Unknown artists find the value of their works quadrupling within years. Chinese and Indian artists are finding greater audiences, and wealthy patrons of the arts aren't just paying thousands - they're paying millions.

Traditionally, an artist's older works garnered higher bids and more frenzied requests. However, contemporary painters like Brice Marden are changing the status quo with a whole collection of recent, sought-after work.

The top 10 contemporary artists, whose works sold for over $5 million at auction, are as follows: Lucian Freud, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, and Cy Twombly. Other artists (in the $1 - $4 million range) to look out for include: Chuck Close, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Anselm Kiefer, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Ryman, and Wayne Thiebaud. See also the top 10 contemporary artists in 2008.

Jasper Johns, one of the highest paid contemporary artists, can't seem to keep up with the demand. He paints two projects each month (which will sell for no less than $1 million), but the waiting list is still long. Entertainment giant David Geffen paid $40 million for "Gray Numbers" a few years back and New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art allegedly paid over $20 million for "White Flag."

Jasper John's colorful paintings touch upon Americana themes - with lots of flags, maps and targets - with subtle messages that affect every onlooker differently. If a collector is fortunate enough to find a Jasper Johns in an art auction house, then there's no telling how much it'll sell for.

One can't help but wonder about what accounts for the noticeable trend towards contemporary art? Most of the buyers (42%) at the Sotheby's contemporary art auction continue to be Europeans, with the US trailing at 19%, and Asia / Middle Eastern sales at 12%.

It seems that the high price of the pound is hurting many Americans more than the credit crunch, but London's weekend auctions saw many advances from interested Indian and Chinese buyers looking for a piece of cultural heritage. For instance, two bidders fought over Yue Minjun's "Execution", a take on Goya's famous, "The Third of May", for six minutes, which finally sold for a record breaking $2.93 million. Likewise, one of Putu Sutawijaya's paintings ("Silent Road") sold for $350,000 (11 times its estimated price) at the Borobudur Auction!

Execution
Yue Minjun

The contemporary art world is changing from the traditional swanky event, complete with fine wine, cheese and fashionable attire - to one of sitting behind the computer screen, credit card in hand. While it may seem impersonal to some, it's advantageous to others, who have the ability to hop between sites, checking the fair prices for the particular work they've got their eye on. After browsing online catalogues, art lovers can get a good idea of what's available in the up-to-date marketplace, and then make the best purchase later at a contemporary art auction.

Andreas Gursky, King of Photographers

2010-01-31T03:46:00.000-08:00

Andreas Gursky (1955, Leipzig, Germany) is the photographer that holds the record for the highest price paid at auction for a single photographic image - "Rhine II", sold in 2011 for USD $4.3m (£2.7m) at Christie's in New York. This is the second time Gursky breaks the record. The first time it was for "99 Cent II, Diptych", sold in 2007 for GBP 1.7 million (USD $3.3 million) at Sotheby's, London.

Andreas Gursky is also known for his enormous architecture and landscape color photographs, often employing a high point of view. Andreas Gursky makes large-scale photographs distinctive for their critical look at the effect of globalisation and capitalism on contemporary everyday life.

99 Cent II, Diptych (detail), 2001
Andreas Gursky

Andreas Gursky's Early Life
Andreas Gursky, the son of a commercial photographer, grew up in Düsseldorf where he learned the tricks of the trade before he had finished high school. In the early 1980s, at Germany's State Art Academy, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Gursky studied under Hilla and Bernd Becher, a photographic team known for their distinctive, dispassionate method of systematically cataloging industrial machinery and architecture. Andreas Gursky also studied under the British landscape photographer John Davies, whose highly detailed high vantage point images had a strong effect on the street level photographs Andreas Gursky was then making, and under the American photographer Joel Sternfeld. So one might say that Andreas Gursky learned photography three times.

Andreas Gursky's work in 1990's
After the middle of 1990's, Andreas Gursky started to rely on computers to edit and enhance his photographs, creating an art of spaces larger than the subjects photographed. Andreas Gursky's pictures are vast, splashy, entertaining and literally unbelievable. The critic Calvin Tomkins described Gursky as one of the "two masters" of the "Düsseldorf" school. Andreas Gursky’s world of the 1990s is big, high-tech, fast-paced, expensive, and global. Within it, the anonymous individual is but one among many.

Spectacular City, Düsseldorf, 2007
Andreas Gursky

Andreas Gursky's work in the 21th century

In pursuit of this project, Andreas Gursky expanded his scope of operations from Düsseldorf and its surroundings to an international itinerary that has taken him to Hong Kong, Cairo, New York, Brasil, Tokyo, Stockholm, Singapore, Chicago, Athens, Paris and Los Angeles, among other places.

Kamiokande
Andreas Gursky

Andreas Gursky´s early themes of Sunday leisure and local tourism gave way to enormous industrial plants, apartment buildings, hotels, high-rise facades at night, office lobbies and warehouses. Family outings and hiking trips were replaced by the Olympics, a cross-country marathon involving hundreds of skiers, the German parliament, the trading floors of international stock exchanges, alluring displays of brand-name goods, and midnight techno music raves attended by casts of thousands.

Tomkins described in 2001, the experience of confronting one of Andreas Gursky's large works: "The first time I saw photographs by Andreas Gursky...I had the disorienting sensation that something was happening—happening to me, I suppose, although it felt more generalized than that. Gursky's huge, panoramic color prints—some of them up to six feet high by ten feet long—had the presence, the formal power, and in several cases the majestic aura of nineteenth-century landscape paintings, without losing any of their meticulously detailed immediacy as photographs. Their subject matter was the contemporary world, seen dispassionately and from a distance."

Copan, 2002
Andreas Gursky

Top 10 Contemporary Artists in 2008

2010-01-31T02:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the list of the top 10 most popular artists based on auction records in July 2008, as compiled by Artprice. In spite of the state of the world's economy and complaints of dropping art sales from top auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's, here's a quick look at some not-so-starving contemporary artists who are bringing home a fat paycheck for each work of art sold.

Top 10 Contemporary Artists in 2008

Out of the top 10 money-making artists the first four are Western: Jeff Koons (b.1955), the celebrated American self-taught sculptor and mixed-media neo-pop artist; Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88), the Afro-Caribbean-American painter and ex-graffiti artist; Damien Hirst (b.1965), the British sculptor, mixed media artist noted for his dead shark (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living) and diamond encrusted skull (For the Love of God); Richard Prince (b.1949), the American painter and photographer. But the rest are Asian.

1. Jeff Koons (b.1955)
Type of art: sculpture, mixed-media
Nationality: American
Sales at auction (07-08): £69.4 million

Balloon Dog (Yellow), 2008
Jeff Koons

2. Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88)
Type of art: Painting (ex-graffiti artist)
Nationality: American
Sales at auction (07-08): £54.3 million

3. Damien Hirst (b.1965)
Type of art: Sculpture, mixed-media, installation art, winner of Turner Prize.
Nationality: British
Sales at auction (07-08): £45.8 million.
Note: The survey excludes Hirst's Sept 2008 auction of £100 million.

4. Richard Prince (b.1949)
Type of art: painting, fine art photography
Nationality: American
Sales at auction (07-08): £33 million

5. Zhang Xiaogang (b.1958)
Type of art: Surrealism works, portraiture
Nationality: Chinese (Yunnan)
Sales at auction (07-08): £32.3 million

6. Zeng Fanzhi (b.1964)
Type of art: Figure painting, portraits
Nationality: Chinese (Wuhan)
Sales at auction (07-08): £27.8 million

7. Yue Minjun (b.1962)
Type of art: Expressionist figurative paintings
Nationality: Chinese (Heilongjiang)
Sales at auction (07-08): £27.5 million

8. Takashi Murakami (b.1962)
Type of art: Sculpture, painting, installation
Nationality: Japanese
Sales at auction (07-08): £15.5 million

9. Wang Guangyi (b.1957)
Type of art: Mixed-media, painting
Nationality: Chinese (Heilongjiang)
Sales at auction (07-08): £11.7 million

10. Liu Xiaodong (b.1963)
Type of art: Painting, fine art photography
Nationality: Chinese (Liaoning)
Sales at auction (07-08): £10.5 million

Important Auctions of Contemporary Art

Both the two main international fine art auctioneers, Sotheby's and Christie's, hold regular auctions of post-war modern and contemporary artworks. Recently, the British contemporary sculptor and installation artist Damien Hirst broke the salesoom record for a single artist with his £111 million auction at Sotheby's (Set 2008).

Contemporary Art In Contemporary Households

2010-01-30T14:31:00.000-08:00

Water woman

Alex Alemany

Oil on canvas, 100 x 89cm

Contemporary art is absolutely present in contemporary households and can be recognized almost in every aspect of human life, since it has penetrated the way people communicate with each other more than ever before. Almost all contemporary art forms have become the means through which personal interaction is described or the vehicle though which a specific message is accurately transmitted. Furthermore, increased attendance on art exhibitions, or substantial high levels of sales of various art forms, suggest that contemporary art is both publicly appreciated and highly understood.

Human creativity, along with the need of expressiveness, can be present to any contemporary creation that critics would define as an artistic attempt. As Picasso, the great Hispanic painter, has once pointed out, "art is something that makes people move towards a certain direction in life, or even conceptualize things from a different perspective, which they would have never consider before, if an artful creation had not revealed its mere existence."

Although people reactions against contemporary art seem to vary at some point, the underlined significance of the medium can be categorized as unanimously appreciated. The element that makes contemporary art popular is the freedom to react upon the message one interprets when viewing an artistic creation. For instance, modern music expressions, like rap songs, have won tremendous acceptance among youth, as this form of expressed emotions, directly relates to their need to counterfeit conservative views.

Moreover, contemporary art has become easy to be understood and appreciated by the masses, as it can be released in numerous copies, for example music disks or books, in order for the audience / readers to acquire it. This kind of mass production of art forms has made art attainable, while preserving its unique values. Original paintings once bought by few prosperous people are today accessible, through galleries, to many other groups of admirers who can obtain the object of their desire easily and less costly.

On the other hand, contemporary art critics discuss the difficulty of the vast majority of people to translate art forms, as it is created for the sole appreciation of the few artists that can relate to fellow-artists works. This is true in some cases, when the creator needs to express an idea that cannot be recognized by those who have not engaged themselves with some kind of artistic occupations. Although these instances are present, they cannot be considered the rule, as art creators want to be appreciated by as many people as possible. The feeling of an artful existence is directly related to the need of understanding. Thus, nowadays contemporary art symbolizes the feelings not only of few artists, but rather the ideas of entire groups of people, even nations.

Therefore, contemporary art forms have and will continue to express publicly understood ideas so as to be appreciated by as many as possible. In other words, the success of a play, a novel, a music composition, a film, or a painting, does not depend solely on the views of some skillful artists, critics, or experts. On the contrary, it depends on the capacity an art form has to penetrate our household, help us express a thought, or even conceptualize popular emotions and needs.

The Purpose of Contemporary Art

2010-01-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

"Artists must continue the conquest of new territory and new taboos"
- Norman Rosenthal, Director of the Royal Academy of Arts, London

As time has moved on and contemporary art has moved with it, controversy has somehow always managed to keep up. Going back to the beginning of art historical study we can find cases of both individual artists and groups who have rocked the artistic status quo with their innovative contributions to the art of the day. The 20th century was no exception.

Contemporary art has a purpose. The purpose is simply to beautify your surroundings with intrigue. Ok, but why do people pay so much for what looks like a canvas with some paint thrown on it? Abstract paintings can actually be very affordable if purchased from an up and coming artist. And believe it or not, most often there was a deliberate attempt at where that paint landed on the canvas. The beauty of abstract art, both for the artist and the viewer, is that anyone can take what they see and interpret it however they see fit.

There are many different interpretations of contemoporary art. An artist can be completely non-representational, or he/she can conjure up recognizable forms and symbols. In a broad spectrum of contemporary art paintings, you can find landscapes, seascapes, natural objects, and colorful shapes and forms. All and all, abstract paintings tend to have a strong focus on color patterns, and/or texture. Nowadays, with photography, digital art, and the ability to create prints, it's no wonder why artists are seeking to make it perfectly clear that what you see on the canvas was in-fact created with a more personal human element. How you ask? Through building up layers of texture, depth, or using a glazing technique that collects and redistributes light, making the paint appear luminous.

There is so much joy in painting abstractly because the walls of rigid preconception are torn down. Many artists are using abstract art as a means to release feelings, and also as a way to freely express what they have seen in nature. When something is done in spirit and spontaneity, it's obvious and it shows in the work. The purpose of contemporary art is to capture this essence and bring this joy into the lives of others.

But not all contemporary art is so inocent. The article starts with the words of the man behind the exhibition that has caused the biggest Sensation of recent years. Words that suggest that he had more than an inkling of, in fact wished for, the furor that would follow. It seems implausible, however, that he would have anticipated the scale of the revolt. More accurately, Rosenthal was just one of the men behind the show; the other was the advertising mogul and art collector Charles Saatchi.

Jenny Saville

Examining the exhibition catalogue, it is interesting that many of the artists - there are 42 in total - are far from "notorious," and their work is unlikely to bring them any such accolade. The works include a significant number of paintings, and while Jenny Saville's works may pose a challenge because of her eschewal of models of conventional beauty, the clear, bold, colorful works of Gary Hume, Britain's representative at the 48th Venice Biennale, seem positively tame. In the place of Tracey Emin's bed was her tent, embroidered with the names of all her sexual partners, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995. The evident skill in the crafting of the piece does not save it from the critics of the show, and indeed of contemporary art, whose favored argument is to question whether such works "merit" the title of art.

The crescendo begins with the more clearly distressing Dead Dad (1996-97) by Ron Mueck, an eerily life-like silicone model lying prostrate on the floor, and Self (1991) by Marc Quinn - a perspex sculpture of the artist's head, filled with his own blood and displayed in a fridge, which disturbs in the tradition of the Surrealists. And then we reach the Chapman brothers and Damien Hirst. The shock tactics favoured by Jake and Dinos Chapman are deemed puerile and infantile by their detractors; Great Deeds against the Dead (1994) presents us with mutilation and castration, Ubermensch (1995), with its model of the scientist Stephen Hawking about to plummet off the edge of a cliff in his wheelchair, favors cruelty and insensitivity over political correctness, while Zygotic Acceleration, Bio-genetic, De-sublimated Libidinal Model (Enlarged x 1000) (1995) and Tragic Anatomies (1995) feature genetic freaks made up of girl mannequins morphed together, many with the Chapmans' trademark phallus nose and rectum mouth. Damien Hirst found controversy and fame in Britain for his practice of cutting up dead animals and preserving them in formaldehyde when he won the Turner Prize in 1995. Several of these works are featured in the show, including perhaps the most famous exemplar, the shark, entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991).

Some of these works sparked controversy, but it was in fact two other pieces, by different artists in London and New York, which caused the biggest uproar.

In London it was a painting by Marcus Harvey, a monochrome canvas entitled MH (1996-98). The image, made up of prints from a plaster cast of a child's hand, depicted the infamous imprisoned child murderer Myra Hindley. The work became the subject of a fierce tabloid campaign, with one newspaper paying for the mother of one of Hindley's victims to attend the show. The media was successful in fueling a frenzy, and ink and eggs were thrown at the painting by a member of the public. The vandalized canvas was taken away and cleaned, after which it was reinstated, behind glass, with the Royal Academy preaching the defense of freedom of expression.

The Holy Virgin Mary (1996)

Chris Ofili

It was Chris Ofili who found himself at the center of the storm in New York. Ofili had already experienced controversy when he too won the Turner Prize in 1998. His intricately patterned mixed-media works draw on his Nigerian heritage and are characterized by their inclusion of elephant dung. The focus of the outrage was The Holy Virgin Mary (1996): a mixed media painting/collage depicting a black madonna, surrounded by images of buttocks, with the addition of the ubiquitous dung. Ofili stayed well out of the affray as his work was branded blasphemous. [1]

And the list continues because the show must go on, right? Is the purpose of contemporary art to provoke a reaction even if it's an ugly one? The purpose of art was never only pure beauty or merely decorative. But nowadays, probably more than even art became more intertwined with our day by day problems and issues, like traffic lights in our eyes, trying to get our attention about the present we have here in front of us. Sometimes contemporary art can be naive and colorful but most of the time it is like a bell that rings in our ears the message: live your live, don't let your life pass by you.

[1] www.csa.com

The Affordable Art Fair, London

2010-01-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

The Affordable Art Fair
Battersea Park, London
11-14 March 2010

Small Nude, 2009
Ema Radovanovic
Oil on canvas, 27x33cm

If you are after original and contemporary works of art, then London Affordable Art Fair is one that should not be missed. Whether this is your first time or you are a seasoned campaigner in the world of contemporary art collections, there is something to suit everyone's taste and budget. Thousands of paintings, sculptures, original prints and photographs are on display from 120 galleries. The Affordable Art Fair from London offers a stunning array of contemporary art from just £50 up to £3,000.

From the hottest young contemporary talents to firmly established household names, you’re bound to find something you love whether you’re an experienced collector or simply looking for a masterpiece for the mantelpiece.

This spring, The Affordable Art Fair features an exciting line-up of special events. The Contemporary Art Society will run a series of informative talks about collecting art, whilst The Affordable Art Fair Education Programme – under the theme of ‘Park Life’ – is hosting plenty of hands-on, family-friendly activities, all of which are fun, enlightening and, best of all, free.

The dynamic young team at jotta, the online and offline community of practising artists and designers borne from the University of the Arts London, have been invited to curate a thematic, stimulating group exhibition of work by recent graduates selected from the jotta community. This is your opportunity to snap up a beautiful and unique artwork by one of tomorrow’s bright-shining stars.

Jasper Johns, Map

2010-01-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

Map, 1962
Jasper Johns (b. 1930, August, Georgia; lives and works in New York)
Encaustic and collage on canvas, 60 x 93 in.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Gift of Marcia Simon Wiseman

In 1960, contemporary artist Robert Rauschenberg gave Jasper Johns mimeographed maps of the United States that inspired Johns to begin working with this motif; he ultimately made three large 'Map' paintings, in addition to smaller paintings, prints, and drawings, sometimes rendered directly on the mimeographed sheets. During this time, Jasper Johns was beginning to employ monochromatic gray or blue palettes and, in 1962, he rendered 'Map' almost entirely in shades of gray. About his work during this period, he insisted: “My primary concern is visual form. The visual meaning may be discovered afterward - by those who look at it.”

What is Contemporary Art?

2010-01-30T03:05:00.000-08:00

Alison Lapper Pregnant, 2005
Marc Quinn

Contemporary art refers to the art that has been and still continues to be created during our lifetime. Contemporary art is quite different from modern art, which was art created by the impressionists from around 1880 until the 1970s. There is some overlapping in terms of years when it comes to modern art and contemporary art as the museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced since World War II. But still, both forms of art are considered to be separate, and each occupies its own space in the history of art.

So, art that was created from the 1970s until present time is labeled as contemporary. The reason 1970 is used as the cutoff time for the two art forms is because terms like postmodern art and postmodernism became popular around that time. Also, the 1970s was the last time when the last easily classifiable artistic movement occurred. Basically we can say that contemporary artists work on art movements that cannot be classified as the number of artists in any movement is very low to be actually labeled as a movement.

However, it must also be added that when it comes to contemporary art, any emerging movement is very difficult to classify. Also, contemporary art is considered to be more socially conscious compared to any era in the past. In the last 40 years, the art that has been created has been connected to some issue. In fact, artists have used their artwork to raise awareness about major issues like multiculturalism, globalization, AIDS, bio-engineering and feminism.

Contemporary art is exhibited by commercial contemporary art galleries, private collectors, corporations, publicly funded arts organizations, contemporary art museums or by artists themselves in artist-run spaces. The institutions of art have been criticised 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, it is not considered so because the artists are self-taught and are assumed to be working outside of an art historical context. Craft activities, such as textile design, are also excluded from the realm of contemporary art, despite large audiences for exhibitions. Attention is drawn to the way that craft objects must subscribe to particular values in order to be admitted. "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." Which leads us to the question: "What is the purpose of contemporary art?".

Here is a list of art movements from the 1970s onward. It should not be assumed to be conclusive.

1970s
Arte Povera
Ascii Art
Bad Painting
Body art
Artist's book
Feminist art
Installation art
Land Art
Lowbrow (art movement)
Photorealism
Postminimalism
Process Art
Video art
Funk art
Pattern and Decoration

1980s
Appropriation art
Demoscene
Electronic art
Figuration Libre
Graffiti Art
Live art
Mail art
Postmodern art
Neo-conceptual art
Neoexpressionism
Sound art
Transgressive art
Transhumanist Art
Video installation
Institutional Critique

1990s
Bio art
Cyberarts
Cynical Realism
Digital Art
Information art
Internet art
Massurrealism
New media art
Software art
Young British Artists

2000s
Classical realism
Relational art
Street art
Stuckism
Superflat
Videogame art
VJ art