contemporary art
Art of now
Contemporary art is art produced in the present era, roughly from the mid-20th century onward.
The term distinguishes current artistic practice from historical periods like Renaissance or modern art.
Contemporary art encompasses diverse media and approaches—painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance—and often engages with social, political, or conceptual themes: The museum's contemporary art wing features works by living artists.
What qualifies as contemporary shifts with time.
Process of putting in
- videoRecorded moving imagery
- performanceCarrying out a task
- digital artComputer-generated visual work
- mixed mediaArt combining diverse materials
photography · sculpture · collage · multimedia · graffiti · mural · projection · interactive
Space for displaying artwork
- curatorCollection overseer
- art fairExhibition selling creative works
- collectorOne who gathers items
- vernissageExhibition opening reception
commission · artist residency · retrospective · acquisition · provenance · auction · Tate Modern · MoMA
Mass culture as canvas
- minimalismAesthetic of reduction
- conceptualismUniversals as mental constructs
- neo-expressionismIntense 1980s painting style
- land artEnvironmental sculpture movement
street art · video art · performance art · installation art · sound art · mail art · assemblage · happenings
Testing new methods
- provocativeMeant to provoke response
- transgressiveViolating accepted boundaries
- subversiveSeeking to undermine authority
- immersiveFully engaging the senses
interactive · ephemeral · site-specific · political · interdisciplinary · collaborative · conceptual · radical
Prepared in advance
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
- interventionPurposeful involvement to change course
- deconstructionAnalysis exposing self-contradiction
- semioticsStudy of signs, symbols
dematerialization · participatory · ephemeral · time-based · interdisciplinary · postmodernism · critical theory · art theory
installation
Process of putting in
- videoRecorded moving imagery
- performanceCarrying out a task
- digital artComputer-generated visual work
mixed media · photography · sculpture · collage · multimedia · graffiti · mural · projection · interactive · immersive
gallery
Space for displaying artwork
vernissage · commission · artist residency · retrospective · acquisition · provenance · auction · Tate Modern · MoMA · Guggenheim
pop art
Mass culture as canvas
- minimalismAesthetic of reduction
- conceptualismUniversals as mental constructs
- neo-expressionismIntense 1980s painting style
land art · street art · video art · performance art · installation art · sound art · mail art · assemblage · happenings · lowbrow
experimental
Testing new methods
- provocativeMeant to provoke response
- transgressiveViolating accepted boundaries
- subversiveSeeking to undermine authority
immersive · interactive · ephemeral · site-specific · political · interdisciplinary · collaborative · conceptual · radical · boundary-pushing
readymade
Prepared in advance
- appropriationUnauthorized claiming or allocation
- interventionPurposeful involvement to change course
- deconstructionAnalysis exposing self-contradiction
semiotics · dematerialization · participatory · ephemeral · time-based · interdisciplinary · postmodernism · critical theory · art theory · anti-art
Marcel Duchamp
Urinal-as-art provocateur
- Yoko Ono
- Andy Warhol
- BanksyAnonymous political street artist
- Japanese culturesamurai, kabuki, sumo, origami, tea ceremony
- paintingsoil paintings, watercolors, acrylics, tempera, gouache
- art termspainting, sculpture, drawing, portrait, landscape
- artfine art, Renaissance, painters, masterpieces, paint
- art formspainting, drawing, sculpture, photography, music
- museumart gallery, art museum, collection, curator, exhibitions
contemporary artclassical art
Ancient Greek and Roman works
ancient art · historical art · Old Masters · Renaissance art · medieval art
contemporary arttraditional art
Non-digital creative work
classical art · beaux-arts · figurative art · realist painting · neoclassicism
contemporary arttraditional art
Non-digital creative work
folk art · outsider art · craft · decorative art · naive art
contemporary, coeval, contemporaneous, contemporaries, modern art