Contemporary Art

Contemporary Art refers to art namely, painting, sculpture, photography, installation,

performance, and video art produced today. Today's artists work in and respond to a
global environment that is culturally diverse, technologically advancing, and
multifaceted. Though seemingly simple, the details surrounding this definition are often
a bit fuzzy, as different individuals' interpretations of “today” may widely and wildly vary.
Therefore, the exact starting point of the genre is still debated; however, many art
historians consider the late 1960s or early 1970s (the end of modern art, or modernism)
to be an adequate estimate.

Other Contemporary Art Movements

Neo Pop Art

Neo-Pop art is a style that owes its origins to Pop Art. As a reaction to the 1970s'
Minimalism and Conceptualism, the first wave of Neo-Pop Art arose in the 1980s.
Neo-Pop Art is a reimagined version of Pop Art based on its progenitors, combining
identifiable objects and celebrities from popular culture with contemporary iconography
and symbols. Neo-Pop Art
frequently pokes fun at
celebrities and openly
embraces bold and
controversial concepts,
criticizing and evaluating
Western culture, beliefs,
relationships, and interactions.

In Koon’s “Puppy,” he uses

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. This work articulates his
exploration of the limits that exist between the mass or popular and the elite culture.
Photorealism

Photorealism was an American art movement in

which artists attempted to recreatethe image in a
photo using a different artistic medium such as
drawing, pastels, painting, charcoal, etc. The
primary goal of a photorealist was to capture the
essence of the photo on canvas. To do so, the artist
would develop the photo, transfer it to a canvas, and
bring it back to life using a different medium.
Photorealism came to life in 1960s through the
1970s in America as an opposing force to Abstract
Expressionism. In its opposition, photorealism
aligned itself with Pop Art, and both fields of art
worked with photography in mind. Two of the known
photorealist artists are Chuck Close and Gerhard Richter.

Conceptualism

Other movements were informed and shaped by pop art, such as conceptualism.as
opposed to celebrating commodities as references to real life, conceptualism As
opposed to celebrate fought against the idea that art is a commodity. This movement
also brought to the fore as brought about by art institutions such as museums and
galleries where works e peddled and circulated. Some of the major conceptual artists
are jenny Holzer, Damien Hirst, and Ai Weiwei.

Performance Art

Performance art may be planned or spontaneous and done live or recorded. Since it
is also durational in nature, it is also considered as epheme ral 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 and interaction,
questions, concerns, and conditions will be fleshed out. Performance art is related to
conceptual art, whose rosters of well-known artists include the likes of Marina
Abramovic, Yoko Ono, and Joseph Beuys. 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.

Installation Art

Compared to traditional art forms, installation art is a kind of an immersive work

where the environment or the space in which the viewer steps into or interacts an (going
around installative art) is transformed or altered. Usually large-scale, installation art
makes use of a host of objects, materials, conditions, and even light aural components.
These works may also be considered site-specific and may temporary or ephemeral in
nature. Well-known Installation artists are Allan Kaprow, Yayoi Kusama, and Dale
Chihuly .
An example of a public installation art is the "Cadillac Ranch," comprised of 10
Cadillacs of different models ranging from 1999 to 1964. Buried nose-first into the
ground, each car is seemingly equidistant from each other and forming a straight line.

From its original site along

Interstate 40, it was moved in
1997 to its new spot two miles
westward along the interstate. The
cars underwent several changes,
from the first time they were
installed as they were located in a
public space. It didn't take long
before graffiti found its way onto
the surfaces of the cars, and was
painted different colors such as
gray. It also had a pink phase in
the 1990s, wherein all cars were painted pink.
Cadillac Ranch

Earth Art

Sometimes considered as a kind or a spin-off of installation art, earth art (or land art)
is when the natural environment or a specific site or space is transformed by artists. It is
a kind of human intervention into a specific
landscape or terrain. Earth art is different
from environmental art in a sense that it does
not focus on the subject (environmental
issues or concerns) but rather on landscape
manipulation and the materials used, taken
directly from the ground or vegetation (rocks
or twigs). Artists known for Earth Art are
Robert Smithson, Christo, Richard Long,
Andy Goldsworthy and Jeanne-Claude.

Street Art

This art movement is related to graffiti art as it is a by-product of the rise of graffiti
80s. Artworks created are not traditional in format but are informed by the illustrative,
painterly and print techniques and even a variety of media (even video projections).
Some of the examples of this include murals, stenciled in stages, stickers, Pd
installations or installative sculptural objects usually out of common objects and
Vachniques. Since these works are most commonly found in the public sphere, various
people who have access to them have formed the impression and perception of the
artworks themselves.
These works operate under interesting circumstances since they are unsanctioned and
do not enjoy the invigilated environments of museums and galleries. However, these
works also end up in them, as street artists also hold more traditional exhibitionary
formats in the white cube. If
it is in the open space, there
are no governing rules in its
production and sometimes,
in the interaction Known
Street artists include Michel
Basquiat, Keith Haring,
Shepard Fairey, and Banksy
Banksy's popularity is
evidenced by the creation of
a film documentary that
spoke about him and his
works. Gordon Matta-Clark, Jenny Holzer, and Barbara Kruger are some of the known
street artists.