Contemporary Art

Contemporary is the style that art has currently adopted. Contemporary art is a genre of art practiced in since the early 1970's. Contemporary art has several general characteristics that it usually possesses: mixed media, focused on a message, diverse and eclectic, blurs boundaries, references and samples other works, utilizes new technology and techniques, the audience is an active contributor, and the context of the work is vital to appreciate it. Of course any given work in the contemporary genre doesn't have to have all of these traits; it will generally possess several of them though.
Contemporary art is often mistakenly called modern art however they are quite different. Modernism is a genre of art that was practiced from the late 19th century until the 1960's. Modern art was highly focused on composition, emphasizing the study of how colors and shapes interact. Modern art rejected the concept of pictorial representation, strongly favoring abstract imagery. Modern art rarely had a message and the context was irrelevant.
Contemporary art is most recognized for its destruction of traditional barriers. Contemporary artists generally maintain the position that everything is art. Therefore art can be done anywhere in any way. A general example of this would be fluxus events. Contemporary artist seem unconcerned with the logical consequent of that which is, if everything is art then art is meaningless.
Contemporary art generally focuses on a theme. some such themes include process, spaces and places, time or narratives, spiritual contemplation, identity, and the body. Works that focus on the process are works where the artist sets rules for how he/she can make the work and have little concern for what the end result looks like, in such works the act of making it is more important than what is made. The artist that I have selected to exemplify this is Erwin Wurm, who is famous for his One Minute Sculptures, which are made by Erwin Wurm taking selected objects and assembling them into a construct withing one minute.

Location or space based works are works which the artist makes to represent a location, they can be objective and literal, but the majority of the time are highly subjective and meant to convey how the artist experienced the place not how it literally looked. Richard Long is a notable figure whose work falls into this theme, however I too have done work in this field. I made a map of the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle.

Time or narrative themed works generally try to get the observer to think about time or a story. These works will refer to time either as an element in the work which is generally where narratives come into play; or by having an element in the work cause the observer to be aware of the time spent making the work.

Spirituality or meditation on higher question is frequently addressed in works of art. works with such themes use iconography or symbolism to convey higher messages. Mandy Greer's Small but Mighty Wandering Pearl is an excellent example of such works. It uses the cultural icon of a white stag to convey a message of hopelessness.

Works that deal with the nature of identity are generally highly metaphor based or lurk in vagueness so that the observer can make assumptions for themselves.

The body is probably one of the most prolific themes in contemporary art. Artist address the body a myriad of different ways ie deconstructing it, using it as a tool, ect. furthermore every artist seems to have their own unique way of addressing and understanding the human body. To highlight the differences in opinion I have written up a transcript of a debate between two artist who deal in this theme, Janine Antoni and Stelarc. The debate is entirely fictional, it is merely what I personally believe they would say based on what I learned about them in the course of my research on body art.