He Highlighted the Undesirable Nature of the Contemporary Art Ccritic
Notation: Words in bold below are divers in the glossary for this curriculum (see "For the Classroom" links).
Strictly speaking, the term "contemporary art" refers to art made and produced by artists living today. Today's artists work in and respond to a global environs that is culturally diverse, technologically advancing, and multifaceted. Working in a wide range of mediums, contemporary artists ofttimes reflect and comment on modern-day society. When engaging with gimmicky art, viewers are challenged to set aside questions such equally, "Is a work of art good?" or "Is the work aesthetically pleasing?" Instead, viewers consider whether fine art is "challenging" or "interesting." Contemporary artists may question traditional ideas of how art is defined, what constitutes art, and how art is made, while creating a dialogue with—and in some cases rejecting—the styles and movements that came before them.
Since the early 20th century, some artists take turned away from realistic representation and the delineation of the homo figure, and accept moved increasingly towards abstraction. In New York City after Globe War Two, the art earth coined the term "abstruse expressionism" to characterize an fine art movement that was neither completely abstract, nor expressionistic. Nevertheless, the motility challenged artists to place more accent on the procedure of making art rather than the final product. Artists like Jackson Pollock brought art-making to choreographic heights by dripping paint in grand yet spontaneous gestures. Equally one critic noted, the canvas was an arena in which to act—"what was going on in the sheet was not a picture but an event." This notion of art every bit an effect emerged out of the movement called abstruse expressionism, which greatly influenced the art movements that followed, and continues to inspire artists living today.
Contemporary artists working within the postmodern movement reject the concept of mainstream art and embrace the notion of "creative pluralism," the acceptance of a variety of creative intentions and styles. Whether influenced by or grounded in performance art, pop fine art, Minimalism, conceptual art, or video, contemporary artists pull from an infinite variety of materials, sources, and styles to create fine art. For this reason, information technology is difficult to briefly summarize and accurately reverberate the complexity of concepts and materials used past contemporary artists. This overview highlights a few of the contemporary artists whose work is on view at the Getty Museum and the concepts they explore in their piece of work.
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Contemporary artists, similar many artists that preceded them, may acknowledge and find inspiration in art works from previous fourth dimension periods in both subject matter and formal elements. Sometimes this inspiration takes the form of appropriation. Artist John Baldessari "borrowed" an image from 1505 of a stag beetle by the German artist Albrecht Dürer and made it his own. Using modernistic-mean solar day materials (ink-jet printing mounted on a fiberglass panel), Baldessari juxtaposed the original image with a piece of sculpture in the form of a giant steel pin. By inserting the steel pin into the canvas, Baldessari combines mediums in a very modernistic way.
In the 1960s, artists began to turn to the medium of video to redefine fine art. Through video fine art, many artists have challenged preconceived notions of art as loftier priced, loftier-forehead, and only decipherable past elite members of order. Video art is non necessarily a type of art that individuals would want to own, only rather an experience. Continuing the trend of redefining before ideas and ideals about fine art, some contemporary video artists are seeking to do away with the notion of fine art as a commodity. Artists turning to video have used the art grade as a tool for change, a medium for ideas. Some video fine art openly acknowledges the power of the medium of telly and the Internet, thus opening the doors of the art world to the masses.
Such artists seek to elevate the process of creating art and move beyond the notion that art should only be valued every bit an aesthetically pleasing product. Video art exemplifies this, for the viewer watches the piece of work as it is actually being made; they watch as the procedure unfolds. Video installation pieces combine video with sound, music, and/or other interactive components. In Nicole Cohen's Please Be Seated, viewers are asked to be active participants. Using innovative video technologies, participants can sit down on replicas of 18th-century French chairs and lookout television screens in which they are nigh inserted in historic recreations of 18th-century French spaces. While traditional works of art are in galleries with signs that say "Do non impact," Cohen invites yous to physically participate. In this mode, the viewer becomes part of the piece of work of fine art.
Robert Irwin is another artist who sought to involve the viewer, every bit seen in his garden at the Getty Center. In the Key Garden, which Irwin has playfully termed "a sculpture in the form of a garden aspiring to be fine art," viewers can experience a maze-like configuration of plants, stones, and water. Here visitors get completely immersed in the sensation of being inside the work of art. The sense of smell, bear on, and audio are juxtaposed with the colors and textures of the garden. All of the foliage and materials of the garden were selected to accentuate the coaction of light, color, and reflection. A argument by Irwin, "Always changing, never twice the same," is carved into the plaza floor, reminding visitors of the ever-changing nature of this living work of art. In this style, Irwin subverts the idea that a piece of work of fine art should be paint on a canvas. Rather, nature can be art.
By creating a garden specifically designed for the Getty Center, Irwin engages in site-specific art. Many contemporary artists who create site-specific works move art out of museums and galleries and into communities to address socially meaning bug and/or raise social consciousness. In the example of Irwin's garden and Martin Puryear's That Profile (likewise on view at the Getty Middle), works of fine art are deputed by museums to enhance and incorporate their surrounding environments. That Profile, stationed on the plaza at the foot of the stairs leading to the Museum, mimics the grid-like patterns of the Getty Center building itself. Weighing 7,500 pounds, That Contour is massive. However the work's svelte and curving lines take a "light and airy" quality that capitalizes on the surrounding mountains and ocean views visible from the Getty'south plaza.
Questions such as "What is fine art?" and "What is the function of art?" are relatively new. Creating fine art that defies viewers' expectations and artistic conventions is a distinctly modern concept. Nonetheless, artists of all eras are products of their relative cultures and time periods. Contemporary artists are in a position to express themselves and respond to social issues in a mode that artists of the past were not able to. When experiencing contemporary art at the Getty Center, viewers utilise different criteria for judging works of art than criteria used in the by. Instead of asking, "Practise I like how this looks?" viewers might enquire, "Do I like the idea this creative person presents?" Having an open mind goes a long mode towards understanding, and even appreciating, the art of our own era.
Source: https://www.getty.edu/education/for_teachers/curricula/contemporary_art/background1.html