What is

Contemporary
Art?
 ART
The expression or application of human
creative skill and imagination, typically in a
visual form such as painting or sculpture,
producing works to be appreciated primarily
for their beauty or emotional power.
 ART AS A FORM OF
• Self-expression
(paintings, music, poetry,
fashion, etc)
• Therapy
• Aesthetic
• Inspiration
• Motivation
• Awareness
 What is
Contemporary Art?
Is it similar with
Modern Art?
 Modern
being up to date and technologically
advanced.
Art that is current and
new is also referred to
modern as opposed to
”traditional” or
“conservative”
Contemporary V S Modern

HISTORICAL AND
CHRONOLOGICAL
 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: PHILIPPINE ART
FORM PRE- SPANISH AMERICAN JAPANESE POSTWAR 70S
CONQUEST PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD REPUBLIC
CONTEMPORARY
1521-1898 1898-1940 1941-1945 1946-1969

PAINTING Pottery, body Religious Landscape, Wartime scene Modern, Figurative, non-
adornment secular interior, still life for propaganda conservative figurative, art for
abstract, art sake,
(Amorsolo, public art multimedia
SCULPTURE Pottery, Santos, Free standing, Ocampo, etc)
carving, furniture, altar, relief, public
woodwork jewellery, pieta

ARCHITECTURE Dwellings and Church, City planning Public works Real estate, safe housing, condos,
houses, lighthouse, etc parks, etc.
shelters, waterfronts,
worship areas apartments
Contemporary V S Modern

1960 –still emerging

1880 - 1960
Produced by artists living
“Traditional”
today
 HR
Ocampo

The Contrast
 Xyca
Bacani

Man in Stairs
 2000's Man in
Stairs Xyca Bacani

1960's The Contrast

NOW AND THEN
HR Ocampo
 Arturo Luz
- produced paintings in 90's and
well into 21st
- hard-edged and abstract
minimalist style
National Artist
Contemporary is a fluid term
and its use can change
depending of context
 Historical and
Stylistic Context
 VICTORIO EDADES
- Father of Philippine Modern Art
- Initiating the Modern Art
movement that challenged the
Neoclassic style, which was
dominant that time
Artist in Modern Art
Styles
 Neoclassic Art
depicts reality as closely as
possible and idealizes it:
beautiful and pastoral
 “The Palay
Maiden, 1920”
Fernando
Amorsolo

“Mora Girl, 1950”

Victori Edades

Neoclassic Art VS Modern Art

 Modern Art
depict what might be tought
of as “ugly” and unpleasant
 “The Palay
Maiden, 1920”
Fernando
Amorsolo

“Mora Girl, 1950”

Victori Edades

Neoclassic Art VS Modern Art

 Modern Art
- Modern artists do not aim to copy
and idealize reality.
- They change colors and flatten
the picture instead of creating
illusions of depth.
Artist in Modern Art
Styles
Neoclassic Style Modern Art
creates illusions of
they change colors
depthness, nearness
and flatten the
and farness
picture instead of
new looking and
familiar and
shocking
comfortable
 Neoclassic art is “academic” as it was
and continues to be taught in school (UP
Fine Arts) where Fernando Amorsolo and
Guillermo Tolentino are influential.
Modern art is referred to as “traditional”,
compared to Contemporary Art.

Contemporary Art is the art of the

present, which is continuously in process
and in flux.
 Comparison and
Contrast of
Contemporary Art
and Modern Art
Man and Carabao (H.Ocampo)

Morning Dance (Cesar Legaspi)

Social Realist/Neo-
Realist
Social Realist of the 70s are
considered heirs of Neo-
realist

Neo-Realists
 Contemporary art is
influenced by Social Realism

Neo-Realists
 Imelda Cajipe-
Endaya
is a social realist but
the style and medium
of installation is
markedly different

Filipina DH
 STYLISTIC OVERVIEW
FORM PRECOLONIAL SPANISH/ AMERICAN MODERN POSTMODERN/
ISLAMIC COLONIAL CONTEMPORARY
COLONIAL
PAINTING Religious, Religious, Classical, Abstract, Collaborative
community- formal idyllic, neorealist,
based, inter- naturalistic nostalgic surreal,
ethnic expressionist
relations,
SCULPTURE collective Abstract Junk/scrap,
history. Expressionism performance art,
hybrid
ARCHITECTURE Worship- Neoclassic, International Filipino
related, art deco industrializing architecture,
etc. cosmopolitan,
 Aside from style, it is also
very useful to know where
the artists are coming from
and the circumstances of
making and disseminating
their art.
 CULTURAL OVERVIEW
FORM Indigenous Islamic or Folk or Lowland Popular Urban
Southeast Asian Philippine Muslim and mass
based
PAINTING Ritual and Governance Colonial and Mass Produced
Post Colonial and Market
Oriented

SCULPTURE

ARCHITECTURE
Characteristics of
Contemporary
Art
 Site-specific
- they cannot be experienced
in the same way if removed from
their original places of
exhibit whether in the gallery,
out on the streets, in the
forest, on the internet, etc.
 Process-based

- integrate various medium and

art forms
 Collaborative and
Interactive

- the art is never complete

without the audience’s active
input.
- Contemporary Art is distinguishable
from Modern Art in historical,
stylistic and cultural terms.
- Contemporary Art is never fixed, but
open to many possibilities.
- To study and appreciate the
contemporary is to experience and
understand art as a window to the
Philippine contemporary life.