The Art of Today Produced by Artists Who Are Living in the Twentyfirst Ccentury
Notation: Words in bold beneath are defined in the glossary for this curriculum (meet "For the Classroom" links).
Strictly speaking, the term "contemporary art" refers to art made and produced by artists living today. Today'south artists work in and respond to a global surround that is culturally diverse, technologically advancing, and multifaceted. Working in a wide range of mediums, contemporary artists often reflect and comment on modern-day society. When engaging with contemporary art, viewers are challenged to set aside questions such as, "Is a work of fine art good?" or "Is the work aesthetically pleasing?" Instead, viewers consider whether art is "challenging" or "interesting." Contemporary artists may question traditional ideas of how art is defined, what constitutes art, and how art is made, while creating a dialogue with—and in some cases rejecting—the styles and movements that came before them.
Since the early 20th century, some artists take turned away from realistic representation and the delineation of the man effigy, and have moved increasingly towards abstraction. In New York City after World State of war Ii, the art world coined the term "abstract expressionism" to characterize an fine art move that was neither completely abstract, nor expressionistic. Yet, the movement challenged artists to identify more emphasis on the process of making fine art rather than the final production. Artists like Jackson Pollock brought art-making to choreographic heights by dripping paint in k nevertheless spontaneous gestures. As one critic noted, the canvas was an arena in which to deed—"what was going on in the canvas was not a picture only an event." This notion of art as an event emerged out of the movement called abstract expressionism, which greatly influenced the art movements that followed, and continues to inspire artists living today.
Contemporary artists working within the postmodern movement reject the concept of mainstream art and embrace the notion of "artistic pluralism," the acceptance of a diversity of artistic intentions and styles. Whether influenced by or grounded in performance art, popular art, Minimalism, conceptual art, or video, contemporary artists pull from an infinite variety of materials, sources, and styles to create art. For this reason, it is difficult to briefly summarize and accurately reflect the complexity of concepts and materials used by contemporary artists. This overview highlights a few of the contemporary artists whose work is on view at the Getty Museum and the concepts they explore in their piece of work.
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Contemporary artists, similar many artists that preceded them, may acknowledge and find inspiration in fine art works from previous time periods in both subject area matter and formal elements. Sometimes this inspiration takes the form of appropriation. Artist John Baldessari "borrowed" an image from 1505 of a stag beetle by the German artist Albrecht Dürer and made it his ain. Using modern-twenty-four hours materials (ink-jet press mounted on a fiberglass panel), Baldessari juxtaposed the original image with a piece of sculpture in the form of a behemothic steel pin. By inserting the steel pin into the canvas, Baldessari combines mediums in a very modern way.
In the 1960s, artists began to turn to the medium of video to redefine fine fine art. Through video art, many artists have challenged preconceived notions of fine art as high priced, loftier-brow, and only decipherable by elite members of guild. Video art is not necessarily a type of fine art that individuals would want to ain, but rather an feel. Continuing the trend of redefining earlier ideas and ideals nigh art, some contemporary video artists are seeking to do away with the notion of art as a commodity. Artists turning to video have used the fine art class as a tool for change, a medium for ideas. Some video fine art openly acknowledges the power of the medium of television and the Net, thus opening the doors of the fine art earth to the masses.
Such artists seek to elevate the procedure of creating art and move across the notion that art should only be valued every bit an aesthetically pleasing product. Video fine art exemplifies this, for the viewer watches the work as information technology is really being made; they watch as the process unfolds. Video installation pieces combine video with sound, music, and/or other interactive components. In Nicole Cohen'southward Delight Be Seated, viewers are asked to be active participants. Using innovative video technologies, participants can sit on replicas of 18th-century French chairs and watch tv screens in which they are virtually inserted in historic recreations of 18th-century French spaces. While traditional works of fine art are in galleries with signs that say "Practise not touch," Cohen invites you to physically participate. In this way, the viewer becomes office of the work of fine art.
Robert Irwin is another artist who sought to involve the viewer, as seen in his garden at the Getty Center. In the Central Garden, which Irwin has playfully termed "a sculpture in the class of a garden aspiring to be fine art," viewers can experience a maze-like configuration of plants, stones, and h2o. Here visitors become completely immersed in the sensation of being inside the work of art. The sense of smell, touch, and sound are juxtaposed with the colors and textures of the garden. All of the leafage and materials of the garden were selected to accentuate the interplay of low-cal, color, and reflection. A statement past Irwin, "Always changing, never twice the same," is carved into the plaza floor, reminding visitors of the ever-irresolute nature of this living work of art. In this way, Irwin subverts the idea that a work of art should be paint on a canvass. Rather, nature can be art.
By creating a garden specifically designed for the Getty Center, Irwin engages in site-specific art. Many contemporary artists who create site-specific works move fine art out of museums and galleries and into communities to accost socially meaning issues and/or heighten social consciousness. In the instance of Irwin's garden and Martin Puryear'south That Profile (also on view at the Getty Centre), works of fine art are deputed by museums to enhance and contain their surrounding environments. That Profile, stationed on the plaza at the foot of the stairs leading to the Museum, mimics the grid-like patterns of the Getty Center building itself. Weighing seven,500 pounds, That Profile is massive. However the work'southward graceful and curving lines accept a "light and blusterous" quality that capitalizes on the surrounding mountains and body of water views visible from the Getty'southward plaza.
Questions such as "What is art?" and "What is the function of art?" are relatively new. Creating art that defies viewers' expectations and artistic conventions is a distinctly modernistic concept. Nevertheless, artists of all eras are products of their relative cultures and fourth dimension periods. Contemporary artists are in a position to express themselves and respond to social issues in a way that artists of the past were not able to. When experiencing contemporary art at the Getty Eye, viewers use different criteria for judging works of art than criteria used in the by. Instead of asking, "Practise I like how this looks?" viewers might ask, "Exercise I similar the idea this artist presents?" Having an open up mind goes a long style towards understanding, and even affectionate, the art of our own era.
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Source: https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/contemporary_art/background1.html