ART IS EASY

SIMON REESSenior Curator, CAC Vilnius

“Contemporary Art Collecting” SeminarNational Gallery of Art Vilnius

January 28, 2010

WHAT DEFINES “CONTEMPORARY” ART

•TEMPORALITY or TIME: in which it was made, that it represents, as an element of its production, as an

element of its reception or viewing

•THE EVERYDAY: closeness to everyday life, use of common or household objects, referring to situations that we are all familiar with

•THE SOCIAL: involves rituals or behaviors (in performance) that are familiar, or are borrowed

from well-known dramaturgy, the work might require interaction from the audience

•THE POPULAR: as in POP, or popular consciousness, or the collective unconscious (memory)

WHAT DEFINES “CONTEMPORARY” ART… continued

•REFERENTIALITY: refers to other artworks (often well-known ones), refers to ‘artworks’ that evolve from other media such as cinema or music, refers to its own status (its production, as a painting, as a work by X)

•THE ALLEGORICAL: is made as a part of a series, or serially, deliberately repeats something

•HUMOUR… in all its delightful and myriad forms

WHAT’S MISSING?

University/Art Academy

• Artspaces/Art Associations

• Curator[s]

• Block Buster

• Career Survey

• Art Fair

• Foundations

• Audience

• Collector[s]

• The Artist

IMPORTANT PUBLISHING HOUSES

THAMES & HUDSON*

PHAIDON*

TASCHEN*

RIZZOLI

SCALO

HATJE CANTZ

SUGGESTED READING — SERIALSThe New York Times [USA, online]

The Guardian [UK, online]Frankfurter Allgemeine [DE, online]Sueddeutsche Zeitung [DE, online]Neue Zurcher Zeitung [CH, online]

Artnewspaper [UK, online]www.artforum.com

The Financial Times [UK, weekend print edition plus special

supplements/Tuesdays]The London Times

[UK, weekend print edition]The Times on Sunday [UK, print edition]

Vanity Fair [US, magazine]New Yorker [US, magazine]Parkett [CH, periodical]

SUGGESTED READING — BOOKSSeven Days in the Artworld by Sarah Thornton

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: the curious economics of contemporary art by Don Thompson

The Lives of Artists by Calvin Tomkins

Let’s See: writings on art from the “New Yorker” by Peter Schjedahl

Shark-Infested Waters: the Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s by Sarah Kent

Art Lover: a biography of Peggy Guggenheim by Anton Gill

True Colours: the real life of the artworld

by Anthony Haden-Guest

Alfred H. Barr: missionary for the modern

by Alice Goldfarb Marquis

SUGGESTED VIEWING/READING

Robert Hughes author, critic, broadcaster

The Shock of the New & ‘The New’ Shock of the New

book and BBC TV series

American Visions: the epic history of art in America book and PBS TV series

Matthew Collings art journalist and broadcaster

This is Modern Art

book and Channel 4 (UK) TV series