Rose (2007) by Ann Veronica JanssensHayward Gallery
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These are just a few of the most-searched-for questions on Google relating to contemporary art. Contemporary art takes so many different forms, and is so wide-reaching in content, style and intent, that it can often be hard to define; no wonder people are turning to Google search. We asked 5 experts in the art world to help shine some light on the deceptively simple question: what is contemporary art?
Rose, 2007, Ann Veronica Janssens (From the collection of theHayward Gallery)
What is contemporary art?
TARATANTARA (1999/1999) by Anish KapoorBALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
TARATANTARA, 1999, Anish Kapoor (From the collection of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art)
Ben Vickers, writer and Curator of Digital at Serpentine Galleries
'Contemporary art' is a stand in term for all the art we see being made in the present. Frozen in time, it signals the inability to move beyond the current moment and imagine new horizons for art making - given that it continues to describe artworks made decades ago. To me, it signals stagnation but in it I see the possibility of renewal, transformation and the birth of something else which will only become clear in the decades ahead. With it will come new language and terms that will allow us to travel beyond the 'contemporary'.
Aaron Cezar, Director of the Delfina Foundation
Contemporary art expresses an idea or concept that’s related to current thinking and concerns. It might reference history, aesthetics, politics, romance, or a range of subjects, either in abstract or concrete terms, and through diverse mediums, from painting to performance. Each artwork can mean different things to different people.
Untitled (2016/2016) by Cecilia BengoleaArt Night
Untitled, 2016, Cecilia Bengolea (From the collection of Art Night)
Is it art?
Susan Silton: Inside Out (2007) by Susan SiltonPasadena Museum of California Art
Inside Out, 2007, Susan Silton (From the collection of Pasadena Museum of California Art)
How do you respond to people who say, “a four-year-old could do that”?
The First Part of the Return from Parnassus (1961) by Cy Twombly (American, 1928–2011)The Art Institute of Chicago
The First Part of the Return from Parnassus, 1961, Cy Twombly (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
What’s your favorite contemporary artwork and why?
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Ralph Rugoff
I'm not much of a list-maker by nature, and my opinions change from month to month. But one of my long-time favorite artworks was included in the first exhibition that I ever curated – it's a piece by the American artist David Hammons called Air Jordan, 1988, which features a hopelessly flattened inner tube pinned to the wall. In its functional life, the inner tube belongs to the technology of mobility, but in this work it serves as an emblem of deflated hopes and the certainty of going nowhere fast. The title, meanwhile, frames up a specific reference to the illusory allure of professional basketball as a way out of urban poverty. What's magical about this work for me is how the artist manages, with the most minimal means and material, to create something that is poignant, socially charged and unexpectedly elegant.
Aaron Cezar
It’s hard to choose one but for the sake of argument, I would say Frequencies by Oscar Murillo, which is a collection of works produced by children. The project issues canvases to schools around the world that is fixed to desktops, and students are free to draw or write on. Frequencies represents a collective stream of consciousness that takes the pulse of a generation.
Frequencies (an archive, yet possibilities) (2013/2015) by Oscar Murillola Biennale di Venezia - Biennale Arte 2015
Frequencies (an archive, yet possibilities), 2013/2015, Oscar Murillo (From the collection ofl a Biennale di Venezia - Biennale Arte 2015)
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