Lesson 7 – Contemporary Art.

Most of the times, it is really hard and quite confusing to differentiate between contemporary and
modern. Kahit ako noong una hirap akong hanapin yung pinagkaiba ng contemporary sa modern, kung,
ang akala ko interchangeable siyang salita. But I was wrong, when we say modern era it encompasses
the period from 1860 to 1970, basically the age of industrialization and people have already known the
new world and has mapped it out. It signifies industry and innovation and even technology. In the midst
of modern era present pa din ang mga forms or art style na bidang bida at may kanya kanyang prime.

Take for example yung mga cinite nating art movements sa lesson 6, yung emerging art movements in
Europe, isa sa mga halimbawa nito ay cubism, fauvism, Dadaism, surrealism etc. unlike sa contemporary
art which started from early 1970’s onward which is basically hanggang ngayon eh wala na yung
ganitong primacy ng mga art movement, maaaring ang usong art movement sa Japan ay pwedeng hindi
uso at tinitingala o ginagawa sa Sweden, o di naman kaya ang usong art movement sa Pilipinas ay
maaaring hindi relevant at hindi ginagawa sa bansang Cuba and so on and so forth. Basically sa
Contemporary era, everything goes, whatever art movement you adapt, or kung paghaluhaluin mo sila
to make a new art movement or redefine an old art movement or style, walang problema, because
contemporary era promotoes postmodernism. Postmodernism is a philosophical approach wherein
everybody has a say over everything and promotes free thinking o malayang kaisipan, maaari kang
maging critical sa mga bagay bagay at hindi ito tanggapin, we can even diversify depende yan sa
conviction ng bawagt tao o grupo ng tao. May pros and cons ito, pero di na tayo dadako diyan dahil di
naman Philo class ito. Pros and cons na lang nito when it comes to art.

Basically this philosophy brings a divide in the world of art, the cntemporary art forms in comparison to
the older art movements is being branded as low class, low art, low culture, lacks depth and meaning
samantalang ang mga older art movements are deemed as high art, fine art or beautiful art, at high
culture and meaningful (kaya ngayon gets niyo na kung bakit ang mayayaman mahilig bumili ng art
work, it’s not really because they love art themselves, but usually it is because it signifies status, though
marami pa din naman gumagawa at bumibili at tumitingin ng high art na mayayaman dahil genuine na
may appreciation sila for art or they are artists themselves.)

Ngayon ang tanong, bakit hindi na malalim ang hugot ng mga tao sa art movements nila at everything
goes? Wala bang malalim na inspirasyon sa paligid nila o wala bang masidhing ganap sa paligid nila to
influence them to do something. Basically wala. Dahil ang mundo natin ngayon at tayo mismong mga
tao may iba’t ibang kinakaharap at issue, may iba’t ibang political issue, problem, hurts etc. Ito ang mga
naging driving factor ng mga tao sa contemporary period para gumawa ng art, ang mga maliliit na bagay
na nagbabago bago at paiba iba na present sa buhay ng tao, unlike before people have real deep reason
to create high art, gay ana lang ng French movement ng Romanticism, kung napanood mon a ang Les
Miserables at familiar ka sa French revolution eh maiintindihan mo lalo ito, siguro kung may world war 3
tayo baka naging mitsa din yun to start an art movement. But we’d rather be contented in the mundane
reasons to create art and just create art not by some deep conviction or because you are compelled and
inspired by a certain art movement but because you believe na you can just do anything because
anything goes in this contemporary era.

Ngayon, anoa no ng aba ang mga prominent na art movements sa panahon ngayon?

1. Abstract Expressionsim (1940 – mid 1960’s) - “Took the basic tenets of abstraction and combined
with it with gestural techniques, mark-making, and a rugged spontaneity in its virtual articulation.” After
the 2nd world war and entering early 1970s naging prominent ang art movement na ito, kung ang
abstract art dati is just simply pure abstraction nalagyan ito ng twist ng mga artist like Mark Rothko,
Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, etc. basically abtract art ito na may meaning behind it, Kay Jackson
Pollock isang example sa kanya eh yung ginawa nyang lavender mist kung saan through abstraction
inimitate niya yung itsura ng mga cave painting during native American times, kay Mark Rothko mostly
sad and depressing yung paintings niya ang usually gumagamit lang siya ng dalawang kulay.

2. Optical art/ op art ( early 1960s onward) – The center of this art is to create kinetic movement,
kumbaga there’s some movement happening in the art kahit still lang naman yung art, kahit hindi
naman siya gumagalaw. Actually dito galing yung optical illusion na tinatawag kung saan kapag tinitigan
mo yung picture muka siyang gumagalaw and I know you are all familiar with it.

3. Kinetic art (early 1950s onward) – Ang kinetic art is an art approach seeking for art with actual
movement. Unlike optical illusion na nasa canvass lang or nasa picture at mukang gumagalaw lang pero
hindi naman talaga, itong kinetic art mga sculpture na literal na gumagalaw or shows movements.

4. Gutai Art (1950s-1970s) – “which means embodiment or concreteness, it preceded the later forms of
performance and conceptual art. The goal was not only to explore the materiality of the implements
used in 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.”
Actually ang gutai is a group of artists that is formed by Yohihara Jiro noong 1952 along with Tanaka
Atsuko, Saburo Murakami. Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo at Shozo Shimamoto. They highlight the
process of creating the art not the art itself, and the process contains your body interacting with the
materials, pwedeng you use your hands and paint with clay or mud, or you use your hair to paint with
acrylic (goodluch sa pagtanggal niyan). Thus is preceded Conceptual art na ididiscuss din dito at
performance art which na discuss na natin.

5. Minimalism (early 1960s) – “Seen as an extreme type of abstraction that favored geometric shapes,
color fields, and the use of objects and materials that had an “industrial” sparse.”

By now all of us are familiar with minimalism, in reality wala naman talagan deep meaning ang
minimalistic art, it just concentrates on industrial designs and just focusing on space and the little
materials and shapes in it.

6. Pop art (1950s)- The goal of pop art is to turn popular culture or contemporary culture in music,
icons, advertisements, media etc. to be in par with fine arts. Pop art was regarded as low culture or low
art, meaning that it is banal in nature (banal in English does not mean holy), made for the masses,
devoid of any meaning, and will easily lose value and meaning over time. Unlike its counterpart, the fine
arts which highlights artistry itself and skill that will elicit emotion and deep meaning to the audience,
pop art is not just made for that level no matter how much it tries to stand side by side with fine arts.
Most notable pop artists in the history were Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, Richard
Hamilton, Tom wesselman, Ed Ruscha, and Roy Lichtenstein.

7. Neo pop art (1980) – Though pop art is just simply making art out of the mainstream media and the
contemporary fads, Neo pop art on the other hand took a left turn. Meaning it has a new meaning, it
uses the banal subjects of pop art but puts political and critical of consumerism and sometimes anarchic
meaning and twists in it. One good example are the caricatures that we see in tabloids and newspapers.

8. Photorealism – Have you ever went to a mall and see shops that does commission art work. You just
give them a picture and they either paint or sketch and frame it for you for a price. Well that’s photo
realism. Photorealism is trying to accurately translate pictures into artforms. So basically they are
copying what is seen in pictures.

9. Conceptualism – The offspring of gutai art and pop art. But it is more of a revolutionary movement
against fine arts (so meaning don’t expect that this is as good as fine arts, maaaring nag pangit pangit
talaga ng gawa nila) “Conceptualism fought against the idea that art is a commodity. This movement
also brought to the fore issues brought about by art institutions sucha as museums and galleries where
works are peddled and circulated.” Against sila sa idea ng art as a form of craft or trade na kung saan
pwede mong ibenta yung gawa mo. For them the idea or the concept ay ang pinaka importanteng
aspect of the work.

10. Performance art (1960s) – another child of gutai art. It values the performance of the artist over
what it looks like, yung meaning ng performance kumabaga, kaya wag ka na aasa na maganda ang
makikita mo o maririnig sa performance art. Famous examples of performance artsists are Marina
Abramovic – She held a performance art in a gallery where there are two chairs and between those
chairs is a table she sits on the other chair and anyone from the audience can sit on the other and they
will just look at each other for 5 minutes. Isa sa amazing na nangyari sa performance niya is that his
TOTGA or (The on that got away) ex-lover niya eh isa sa audience, they haven’t seen each other for a
very long time and they still love each other; so the guy sat opposite of her and they stare at each other,
then held hands and cried.Another notable performance artists is Yoko Ono, the wife of John Lennon.
Yoko Ono sings pero mostly sigaw lang talaga yung ginagawa niya. And Joseph Beuys.

11. Installation Art – “Installation art is a kind of an immersive work where the environment or the
space in which the viewer steps into or interacts with (going around installative art) is transformed or
altered.” Basically mga art to na di mo makikita sa museum, nilalagay lang sila sa mga wide spaces for
everybody to see and interact, either mag improve or pumangit yung ininstall or nilagay na art due to
time and weather or dahil ginagalaw ng tao, pwedeng binababoy or frequent na pag iinteract. Isang
example na cinite nung book is the Cadillac ranch kung saan may mga Cadillac na kotse na nakabaon sa
lupa yung harapan nung kotse at yung the rest ng katawan ay nakalitaw, nakapila ito at nakabilad sa
araw at sa isang malaking empty dessert para makita ng lahat, over time it rusted and was full of
graffities.

12. Earth Art – “earth art (or land art) is when the natural environment or a specific site or space is
transformed by artists.”. Basically ang Earth art ang gamit mo for creating the art is found in the
surrounding, pwedeng bato, dahoon, puno, putik, damo, tangkay and create art out of it and medyo
gaya ng installation art, you put it in the midst of the environment where you found it. One good
example is the Moai heads by the Rapa Nui people in Papua New Ginuea, sa island nila they installed big
human stone heads sa lupa na sobrang bibigat na up until now it baffles historians and people kung
paano nila nagawa yun, kasi it was made back in 1250 na wala naman heavy equipments noon. Another
is the stone henge in Wiltshire England, kung saan may pillar ng malalaking bato sa tuktok ng isang hill,
and it is regarded as a prehistoric earth art na walang maka decipher kung sino ang nagdala dun at
paano nila ginawa yun, some stones in the stone henge eh naka stack on top of the other, given na in
pre historic times wala naman heavy equipments.
13. Street Art (1980s) – this includes graffities , murals, stenciled images, stickers, or installative
sculptures. Basically art that you see on the streets.

Ever evolving talaga ang mundo ng art, and who knows after half a decade anong bagong art ang
magkaroon tayo. Postmodernism na nag udyok ng malayang kaisipan ang naging susi at daan sap ag
ttransform ng mga traditional na art and paved way to newer form of arts, either they adapt other
pronciples and merge them together or it is a totally new art. Sadly most of these arts are devoid of
deep meaning and lack aesthetics, therefore nawawala na yung meaning ng art. But who knows
maaaring mag transform nanaman ang meaning ng art.