LES 9: Caught in Between: Modern & Contemporary Art

Credit to @Acetylcholine for collaborating in the creation of the flashcards

Institute of Contemporary Art in London

Institute of Contemporary Art in London

Museum that includes in its mandate "the promotion of art that came to be from that year onwards”

False

True or False. Modern and Contemporary are considered synonymous in the context of art.

Modern Art

Saw the digression of artists away from the past convention and traditions and toward freedom

Roughly between the 1860s to late 1970s, creatives celebrated the novel opportunities in art, from the materials to its manipulation and ways of seeing and thinking about art

Tenets of this period were not only reflected in its art, but it was also evident in the way people lived and conducted themselves, the social issues that were relevant, fashion, music and the wide range of images and activities they were engaged in

“anything goes”

Famous adage of modern art

mass production

The period of modern art saw the heavy ___ ___ of goods, along with the encouraging environment made possible by industrialization, new technology, urbanization, and rise of commercially driven culture.

(1) secularization (2) nature (3) self and individuality

During the period of modern art, there was a palpable (1) ___ of society, interest in (2) ___, and primacy of the (3) ___ and ____.

1970s-present

Time period (“cutoff”) of modern art

(1) postmodernism (2) decline of clearer identified

2 reasons why the modern period is cutoff to the 1970s to the present:

1. 1970s saw the emergence of (1) ____

2. 1970s saw (2) ___ of ___ ___ artistic movements

(1) themes and concerns

In modern art, what compelled artists' works were not prevailing medium, technique, or style; rather, it was the (1) ___ and ___ they addressed.

True

True or False: Contemporary arts is still unfolding

Contemporary Art

Heavily driven by ideas and theories, and the even the blurring of notions of what is and can be considered as "art"

Involvement of television, photography, cinema, digital technology, performance, and even objects of the everyday.

It was the idea that was more important than its visual articulation.

Ideas and Theories

What is Contemporary art heavily driven by?

Abstract Expressionism

One of the early movements that reeled after the war (1940-1960) which took the basic tenets of abstraction and combined with it with gestural techniques, mark-making, and a rugged spontaneity in its visual articulation.

New York Painters (New York School)

Who are affiliated with abstract expressionism ?

Clyfford Still, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Koonig, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko

5 examples of New York painters that used abstract expressionism

Action Painting and the Color Fields

2 major styles that emerged from abstract expressionism

Action Painting

One of the major styles that emerged from abstract expressionism

Underscored the process of creation in that it showed the physicality, direction, and spontaneity of the actions that made the drips and strokes possible.

Color Fields

One of the major styles that emerged from abstract expressionism

Emphasized the emotional power of colors.

Op Art (Optical Art)

A type of art where creating energy is the center

Relies on creating an illusion to inform the experience of the artwork using color, pattern, and other perspective tricks that artists had on their sleeves

Creating Energy

What is the center of optical art?

• Hungarian Victor Vasarely

• British Bridget Riley & Peter Sedgley

• American Richard Anuszkiewicz

• Israeli Yaacov Agam

5 examples of optical artists from different countries

Jesus Soto, Guenther Uecker, Enrico Castellani, Carlos Cruz-Diez

4 examples of optical artists that included other materials like nails, plexiglass, metal rods

Kinetic Art

The quest for actual movement in the works created were responded to by this art form.

Harnessing the current and direction of the wind, components of the artwork which was predominantly sculptural, most were mobiles and even motor-driven machines.

Naum Gabo, Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Bridget Riley, Nicolas Schoffer

5 examples of artists known for creating kinetic art

Theo Jansen

One of the most recent kinetic artists to gain attention

Creates massive sculptures or beasts using plastic tubes and PVC pipes

Gutai

In Japan during the post-war, platforms that were grounded on movement and a sense of dynamism were utilized to convey ideas attached to the new-found freedom, individuality and openness to the international sphere.

Goal was not only to explore the materiality of the implements used in the performance, but also to hold a deeper desire to make sense of the relationship that is struck between the body, the movements, and the spirit of their interaction during the process of creation.

Embodiment or concreteness

What is the meaning of Gutai?

Gutai Art Association/Gutai Group

What is the organization dedicated to Gutai?

Yoshihara Jiro

Founder of the Gutai Art Association/Gutai Group

Tanaka, Atsuko, Saburo Murakami, Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo, Shozo Shimamoto

5 examples of gutai artists

Kazou Shiraga

Artist behind the “Challenge to the Mud”

Challenge to the Mud

An important example of gutai. Art done by Kazuo Shiraga, writhing in a pile of mud. The shapes formed, and the state of the mud were left as is after his performance.

Minimalism

Cropped up in the early 1960s in New York, and saw artists testing the boundaries of various media.

Extreme type of abstraction that favored geometric shapes, color fields, and the use of objects and materials that had an “Industrial” the sparse.

(1) symbolism (2) emotional (3) materiality

According to Wolf, minimalist painters and sculptors avoided overt (1) ___ and (2) ___ content, but instead called attention to the (3) ___ of the works.

(1) truth (2) utopic aura

Another assumption of minimalism is its subtext was deference to (1) ___, as a thing was presented as itself, without pretensions or embellishments. It also had a very (2) ___ ___ about it.

Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Donald Judd

6 examples of minimalist artists

Pop Art

First emerged in the 1950s but found its footing in the 1960s

It drew inspiration, sources, and even materials from commercial culture

Artists became increasingly critical about how what was being exhibited in art spaces had no relationship with real life.

Turned to commodities designed and made for the masses, particularly drawing inspiration and material from ads, packaging, comic books, movies and movie posters, and pop music.

The aim was to also elevate popular culture as something at par with fine art.

Commercial Culture

What did pop art draw inspiration, sources, and even materials from?

• Use of very banal and “low” objects

• Absence of criticality

What are the critical statements against pop art?

Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Hamilton, Tom Wesselman, Ed Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein

7 examples of pop artists

Postmodernism

Movement that solidified the move to contemporary art

Formalizes the critique toward modernism and its claim over art for the better of the twentieth century.

Grounded on the shifts in the belief systems that were in place in the 1960s. First used in 1970, the term was difficult to affix to any style or theory and perhaps that was the point.

Artist’s creativity was in its most free with an "anything goes" disposition, artworks fell within the broad spectrum of the humorous to controversial works that challenged not only taste but also former sensibilities and styles.

Conceptual Art, Neo-Expressionism, Feminist Art, Young British Artists of the 1990s

4 other smaller movements included in postmodernism

(1) skepticism (2) analytic philosophy (3) individual experience

Postmodernism is grounded on (1) ____ about ideals and grand narratives. It was rooted in (2) ___ ___ during the mid- to late twentieth century, which highlighted the importance of (3) ___ ___ and was often steeped in complexity and contradiction.

(1) copy or be governed (2) borrow (3) critique

Postmodern artists’ awareness of styles was not for them to (1) ___ or be ___ by them, but to (2) ___, (3) ___, and even to turn on their heads.

(1) sole authorship

In postmodernism, the idea of (1) ___ ___ of the artist is put to the test, that it is the intention of the artist during the time of creation-the end-all and be-all of the appreciation of work because ti is where the sole meaning lie-is disputed.

Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Video Art, Performance Art, Installation Art, Feminist Art

6 sub-movements under postmodernism

Contemporary Art

The most socially aware and involved form of art.

Turn from the traditional notions of what art is: from paintings and sculptures to the more experimental formats.

Included film, photography, video, performance, installations and site-specific works, and earth works.

Even these formats tended to overlap, leading to interesting and dynamic, and otherwise "unheard of" combinations of concepts, subjects, materials, techniques, and methods of creation, experience, and even analysis.

Neo-Pop Art

In the 1980s, there was a renewed interest in pop art specifically to Andy Warhol's works and his contemporaries.

What made it different from pop art was that it appropriated some of the first ideas of Dada in which ready-made materials were used for the artwork.

Dada

Part of the Neo-Pop Art movement

Movement that was very much against the values of the bourgeois, the colonial and even the national.

It was both anarchic as it was referencing anarchy—the war ensued because of the values the movement abhors and despises.

Aside from this, it does not only reference popular culture, but more importantly, criticized and evaluated

Often using popular cultural icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie O, Madonna, and Michael Jackson, among many others.

Marilyn Monroe, Jackie O, Madonna, Michael Jackson

4 examples of popular cultural icons referenced in the Dada movement (part of Neo-Pop Art)

Katharina Fritsch, Daniel Edwards, Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Mark Kostabi, Damien Hirst

6 examples of neo-pop artists

Koon’s "Puppy”

Example of neo-pop art

Computer modeling to create a behemoth of a sculptural work—a giant topiary—-that refers back to saccharine ideas of sentimentality, security and banality: flowers, a puppy (West Highland terrier), Hallmark greeting cards, and Chia pets.

Exploration of the limits that exist between the mass or popular and the elite culture.

Photorealism

Painstaking attention to detail is aimed, without asserting an artist's personal style

Drawings and paintings that are so immaculate in their precision that is starts to look like it is a photo without a direct reference to the artist who created it

Chuck Close & Gerhard Richter

2 known photorealist artists

Conceptualism

As opposed to celebrating commodities as references to real life, this movement fought against the idea that art is a commodity.

This movement also brought to the fore issues brought about by art institutions such as museums and galleries where works are peddled and circulated.

Jenny Holzer, Damien Hirst, Ai Wei Wei

3 examples of major conceptual artists

Performance Art

As a movement, it began in the 1960s and instead of being concerned with entertaining its audience, the heart of the artwork is its idea or message.

Here, the audience may even be an accomplice to the realization of the work.

Durational in nature, it is also considered as ephemeral works of art. An interesting proposition is that performance is not about the medium or the format; rather, it is how a specific context is made in which through engagement or interaction, questions, concerns, and conditions will be fleshed out.

Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys

3 well-known performance artists

Installation Art

Immersive work where the environment or the space in which the viewer steps into or interacts with is transformed or altered

Makes use of a host of objects, materials, conditions, and even light and aural components.

These works may also be considered site-specific and may be temporary or ephemeral in nature.

Allan Kaprow, Yayoi Kusama, Dale Chihuly

3 well-known installation artists

Cadillac Ranch

Example of public installation art

In which 10 Cadillacs of different models ranging from 1949 to 1964. Buried nose-first into the ground, each car is seemingly equidistant from each other and forming a straight line

Earth Art

Considered “spin off of installation art”", the natural environment or a specific site or space is transformed by artists

False; Earth art is different from environmental art as it does not focus on the subject (environmental issues or concerns) but rather on landscape manipulation and materials used

True or False: Earth art and and environmental are are the same.

Robert Smithson, Christo, Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy, Jeanne-Claude

5 examples of Earth Artists

Street Art

This art movement is related to graffiti, and is a by-product of the rise of graffiti in the 1980’s.

Artworks created are not traditional in format but are informed by the illustrative, painterly and print techniques and even a variety of media

Commonly found in the public sphere

Are unsanctioned

Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey, Gordon Matta-Clark, Jenny Holzer, Barba Kruger

6 examples of Street Artists

Banksy

Street artist whose popularity is evidenced by the creation of a film documentary that spoke about him and his works