Contemporary Art

What is Contemporary Art?

Contemporary art is art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced since World War II.

Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, with the advent of Modern and Postmodern art forms, distinctions between what is generally regarded as the fine arts and the low arts have started to fade, as contemporary high art continues to challenge these concepts by mixing with popular culture.

Contemporary art is exhibited by commercial contemporary art galleries, private collectors, art auctions, corporations, publicly funded arts organizations, contemporary art museums or by artists themselves in artist-run spaces. Contemporary artists are supported by grants, awards and prizes as well as by direct sales of their work. Source: Wikipedia

Features From Previous Issues

Forging, a Career

In Eric Hebborn’s elaborate smoke-and-mirrors game with the art world, picture faking was only the beginning. Continue reading →

Indoor/Outdoor

The Nelson-Atkins Museum serves up the work of sculptor Roxy Paine two ways. Continue reading →

Strange Fires

Valton Tyler, Gathering, 2000, oil on linen, 76 x 84 inches

Valton Tyler’s visionary Paintings are some of the most mysterious—and oddly alluring—images anywhere on the contemporary scene. Continue reading →

The Afterlife of Eva Hesse

The mutable materials of the artist’s sculptures are continuing the creative process that she began. Continue reading →

Creation and Conservation

Art & Antiques visits the New York studio of Daisy Craddock, where art and art restoration go hand in hand. Continue reading →

Too Cool for School

A show at LACMA examines the early work of Vija Celmins, often classed with the California “Cool School” but really in a category all its own. Continue reading →

On The Border

As the contemporary art market becomes ever more diversified, does the distinction between the work of trained artists and that of their self-taught counterparts really matter? Continue reading →

Making It New

by Sarah E. Fensom Two of the Met’s period rooms get a contemporary reimagining. Katrin Sigurdardottir, an artist born in Iceland in 1967, stands in one of her two installations in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, aptly titled Boiserie, meaning … Continue reading →

Istanbul Goes International

As Turkish contemporary art takes its place on the worldwide stage, the market for it is getting so hot that collectors in Turkey are being priced out. By Abigail R. Esman Situated at the meeting point between Europe and Asia, … Continue reading →

Drawn Together

Drawing is to the visual and design arts what mathematics is to the sciences—a lingua franca that serves, across disciplines from painting and sculpture to fashion, architecture and industrial design, as a widely expressive language in which creative types of all kinds can jot down their ideas and efficiently share them with each other. Traditionally, drawings have been works made with various media on paper, including different kinds of cardboard. Continue reading →