Richard Webb – 124307

Question: In what ways is Contemporary Art different from Modern art? Give examples.

INTRODUCTION

Being someone very new to the art world, I was very nervous to ask this question anytime during the course for fear that people would think of me ‘stupid’ or ignorant about the art. It was something I thought was common knowledge among art enthusiasts or students of the arts (which I wasn’t, until now). Apparently until today many people, followers of art and casual appreciators alike still have trouble pinpointing the difference between contemporary and modern art. Some (I, too) would even interchange the terms “contemporary” and “modern” mistaking that both words were used only in its temporal meaning when in fact there’s more to it than just that.

This is a question people have to ask more often to further explore how these two types of art differentiate. Each style represents a certain aspect of not only art history but all of history as well. Exploring this would give art appreciators a deeper understanding and a better in the art produced after the late-19th century.

OVERVIEW

To give a brief overview of the topic, I will give an extremely simple and broad explanation to the question of how modern and contemporary art differ, starting with defining what both modern and contemporary art is. Modern art refers to the art produced in the years 1860’s to the 1970’s, defined by certain style, and maybe even a philosophy present in a significant amount of the paintings in this period. Paintings in this period were more or less, about “being new”, deviating from the standard, embracing a new perspective in art. Some would argue that the modern art had deep ties to the industrial revolution and the trending attitude of the people then to explore new world views and immerse in new cultures. The invention of photography also held a significant impact on the art world then which lead to the birth of modern art (something I will get into deeper later on) which would lead to venturing new frontiers in art and its search for meaning. Modern art was all about throwing out traditional art, which would often depict old-fashioned structured images tied to religion, mythology, and for the lack of a better term, archaic culture, and trading it for images of “people, places, and ideas that the artists had direct contact with.” (Little Art Talks, 2014)

On the other hand contemporary art (again to put it simply) may refer to a couple of things. Terry Smith, in his essay What is contemporary art?, gave three explanation: 1.) Contemporary

Art is the institutionalized network through which the art of the present depicts itself to itself and to its interested audiences all over the world. 2.) Contemporary art is that art infused with the multiple modes of contemporaneity, with the open-ended energies of art to come. 3.) Contemporary art is about artists, working through a particular set of representational problems, embracing the modern-postmodern culture today (Latter 20th-21st century) that is predominantly visual; Visually driven by image, spectacle, attraction and celebrity, on a scale far beyond that with which their predecessors had to deal. (Smith, 2001)

To summarize the explanations, modern art is a style of art depicting certain aspects of “modern life” that was present in the 19th and 20th century, moreover modern art could be identified as the art works made during this time frame, while contemporary art speaks of the art works made, arguably, from the 1970’s to today, which follow a certain style and freedom not present in the era of modern art, but something that is yet to be identified and specified in the years to come, since to put it bluntly, we still are living through this “contemporary era”. They’re two totally different things.

DISCUSSION

Modern Art

The concept of modernity was first introduced by Charles Baudelaire. He said that Modernity is often explained with the “consciousness of the discontinuity of time”, the deviation from the traditional, which is what Baudelaire describes as “the ephemeral” or what is fleeting. Modernity though isn’t an attitude which simply accepts this constant fleeting of the present, rather it is the attitude that, as Baudelaire puts it, “heroizes” the present. It’s about capturing the “poetry”, or what one sees “eternal”, in the ephemeral and transfiguring it the way one wishes. (Foucault, 1984) My Professor in Philosophy went on to explaining that the “present” is also actually something that could pertain to the “self” and that Baudelaire was not only talking about how one grasps the world the way it is, but also how one perceives this world that this subject is grasping. Subjectivity comes into play, which is also a very important aspect to the concept of modernity and Modern Art.

This concept of subjectivity was introduced by Rene Descartes when he started investigating the internal, rather than the external, in search for something that is absolute and certain. It was through his meditations, Philosophy was introduced to a barrage of new ideas one of which was through Descartes questioning of how one questions, in other words he began investigating the structure of thought. It was here Philosophy structured the way we think, making us able to critically investigate what the world and the self is and how we came to this adopting this perception of the world and the self. (Danto, 1997) Kant also was a great contributor to the modern thinking who, almost like Descartes, searched inwardly to investigate the nature of reason and how we are able to reason in the first place.

This not only affected the way people thought but also the way Artists treated their work. It was during the modern times artists started pushing the boundaries and began further exploring the meaning of art. With the introduction of photography, art was sent to an identity crisis which called for this search for meaning. After all, with a machine that’s able to capture the world in perfect detail. Which begs the question: what is now the purpose of art?

From here art grew and changed, deviating from the traditional art. Modern art became all about artists representing the world the way it represented itself. It became simply recreating the world in the canvass the way photography does. In modern art, “the conditions of representation themselves become central, so that art in a way becomes its own subject.” (Greenberg, 1961; Danto, 1997) It is here, art becomes non-mimetic, something almost abstract and non-object, breaking away from its mimetic traditions, but retains a certain structure to its images. Unlike traditional mimetic artworks, Modern paintings are less concerned with proportion and accuracy.

Greenberg said that modern art began in France in the 1860’s with Edouard Manet, supposedly being the first Modernist painter. Greenberg said “Manet's became the first Modernist pictures by virtue of the frankness with which they declared the flat surfaces on which they were painted." (Greenberg, 1961) Manet’s paintings from what I’ve noticed uses really bright and vibrant colors yet still tries to be realistic in a way, resembling that of a photograph due to its richness in detail. It’s this style that paved the way for the rising of the first modernist art style, Impressionism. Unlike Impressionism’s predecessor, Romanticism, it wasn’t born out of a reaction against its previous style. Impressionism, according to Arthur Danto, is simply a new point in awareness which is reflected in paintings, where artists don’t simply try to aspire for a mimetic representation, but to reflect on the means and methods of representation themselves, again emphasizing Modernity’s theme of self-awareness. As modern art evolved, paintings began to digress more and more from its traditional roots reaching radical heights in non-mimeticism. From here some would say Contemporary Art was born.

Contemporary Art

The term “Contemporary Art” was first used in 1910 by an art critic named Roger Fry who created the name for the Contemporary Art Society in London. Since Modern Art became the name of the art movement rather than a temporal description used to denote the currency, it was imperative that they find a replacement word for “modern” to avoid confusion. (Little Art Talks, 2014) First and foremost Contemporary art is used to describe the present era of art. It’s usually difficult to distinguish the current era of art, so it helps to have a temporary name before changing it. For example in the early 20th century, the contemporary art then was Impressionism.

Contemporary Art started in somewhere around 1960-70 and is still running until today. A common trouble among art historians is pinpointing when Contemporary Art actually began, because it was strange time for the art world in the 70’s. Firstly though, what art historians do

agree is that it was around the 70’s Contemporary art begun because it was during this time, one of the more styles closely related to Contemporary Art, “Post-modernism” came to be. It’s through Post-modernism artists begun challenging the structure and boundaries of art exploring more medium to express their craft. Take note it doesn’t mean Post-modernism emerged during this time that Modernism ended. It’s because of the rapid emergence of other art styles, the timeline of Modernism blurred making it near impossible to find where it actually ended. Until now it’s still difficult to actually see when modern art actually ended. Secondly, it was around this time art movements and art styles became difficult to distinguish since so many artists came up with their different names for their own visions and style. (Esaak, 2000s)

Contemporary Art although is a bit convoluted and messy, what make contemporary art so special is the amount of freedom artists have the days. Through post-modernism and conceptual art, art begun being expressed through mediums other than the paint and canvass. Installations, collages, photographs, video, mixed-media pieces and way more began to be considered as “art”. Such a freedom was triggered because of Post-modernism’s philosophy that tackles with the challenging of the structures in art completely destroying the notion that the canvass is the only way one can make art. Contemporary art though does not have anything against art in the past, on the contrary the past art is there for artists today to take care of. (Danto, 1997) Max Ernst gave a definition for collage that almost best describing the current mindset of the contemporary. He said that the collage is “the meeting of two distant realities on a plane foreign to them both." It doesn’t completely capture the contemporary paradigm though because these days it’s difficult to find a foreign plane to help differentiate the different arts. (Danto 1997) Another way to put it is through Belting’s thesis that Contemporary Art "manifests an awareness of a history of art but no longer carries it forward.”

Another characteristic of Contemporary art is that a significant number of art from the past few decades, to a degree, tackle on social issues such as feminism, racism, equality, global warming, and the like. What’s more important with the contemporary is the idea or concept behind the artwork rather than skill or materials used behind the artworks. (Visual Arts Cork, 2000s) It’s the ideas that keep Contemporary Art alive by making its way to the news, further spreading its popularity and by constantly engaging its audience. Some would describe Contemporary Art as “visually colorful” and maybe interactive because of how its presented in multiple mediums due to this culture’s constant bombardment with spectacle-like media.

EXAMPLES

Some notable art movements under Modern Art include Impressionism, Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Some popular artists include Edouardo Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and, Jackson Pollock. Van Gogh’s The Starry Night is one of the more known artworks that best embody what Modern Art is. As said earlier Modern Art deals with the non-mimetic representation of different objects (landscapes

included which The Starry Night is); It deals with how the object is represented and looking at The Starry Night, the style of which Van Gogh uses to portray the landscape is one of the more crucial elements of the painting; Lastly, the painting contains elements that that of an Post-Impressionist artwork contains making it a modern artwork. Locally, a good example of a modern art work is Mauro Malang Santos’ Barong-Barong, which follows a very Cubist aesthetic which is also a Modern art style.

On the other hand, some notable movements under Contemporary Art Include Post-Modernism, Low Brow, Graffiti Movement, Conceptualism, Performance, and Pop-Art. Some popular artists include Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Gerard Richter, and Jeff Wall. Hamilton’s Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? is one of the more known Contemporary Art pieces today because of the medium it uses, which is collage, an art form which doesn’t deal with pain, rather it uses cutouts from printed media to form a singular artwork; The piece is one of the earliest works in Pop-art which is a notable movement in Contemporary art. Locally, a good example of a contemporary art work is Mideo Cruz’s Banquet, since it uses sculpture and performance art.

Sources:

Danto, A. (1997), After the End of Art; Chapter 1: Introduction, Princeton University PressEsaak, S. (2000s), What is Contemporary Art?, Arthistory.About.comGreenberg, C. (1961), Modernist PaintingFoucault, M. (1984), The Focault Reader, Pantheon Books, New YorkLittle Art Talks (2014), The Difference between Modern art, Postmodern art and

Contemporary Art, YouTube.comSmith, T. (2001), What is Contemporary Art? Tate Modern, Sydney Style, and Art to

Come, Lecture from the University of SydneyQuora User (2012), What is the difference between modern and contemporary art?, Quora.comVisual Art Corks, (2000s), Contemporary Art, Visual-Art-Corks.com