Late 20th Centuryinto the 21st Century

Contemporary / Post-Modern Art

• Contemporary Art (Late 20th Century – Now)

• Pluralism (many different styles)

• Post-Modern Art - Combines a Variety of Styles from Past and Present

• New Mediums

• Technology

• Ephemeral Art (art that is temporary)

• Challenges the Viewer, Shocks, Surprises, Humor

• Deals with Current Issues – Society and Politics

Super-realism

• American Art Movement in late 1960’s – 1970’s

• Extension of Pop Art (similar subjects, but different style)

• Highly detailed and realistic (sometimes called Photorealism)

Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1967 – 1968, Acrylic on Canvas (8’11” x 11’2”)

Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1967 – 1968, Acrylic on Canvas (8’11” x 11’2”)

Large Scale Portrait Paintings based on Photographs

Avoided creative compositions, flattering lighting, and facial expressions

Comparison

Site-specific Art / Environmental Art

• Progressive Movement developed in the 1960’s in USA

• Increased concerns about environment (pollution, litter, urban sprawl)

• Challenges traditional assumptions about art

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Running Fence

(California, USA), synthetic fabric,

cable, steel, 1972 -1976

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Running Fence (California, USA), Pink woven synthetic fabric, 1972 - 1976

5.5 meters high

40 Kilometer long nylon fence

Environmental art project

Artists claim that the art has no meaning. Their goal is to create something beautiful and to see the landscape in a new way.

Money raised by selling their preliminary drawings

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, Black rock, salt crystals, earth, red water (Utah, USA)

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, Black rock, salt crystals, earth, red water (Utah, USA)

Manipulated the earth the create an environmental sculpture

“enduring power of nature”

Inspired by the location and the molecular structure of salt crystals that coat the rocks

Spiral Jetty under water

Andy GoldsworthyKnotweed StalksLand Art (sticks in water)1998

Andy GoldsworthyKnotweed Stalks(Land Art - sticks in water)1998

- Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist

- Artist only uses natural materials (leaves, flowers, sticks, ice, rocks, etc.)

- Photography plays an important role in the work because the art is temporary

- Artist is the subject of a documentary film, Rivers and Tides, 2001

Post-Pop

• Artists still influenced by Pop Art from the 1960’s

• Consumerism and Popular culture

• Humor

Jeff-Koons, Pink Panther, 1988, Porcelain sculpture

Jeff-Koons, Pink Panther, 1988, Porcelain sculpture

Magazine centerfold with well-known cartoon character

Commercialism / Consumerism

Kitsch (bad taste)

“everything wrong with contemporary American society”

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1985, Mixed Media on Canvas

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1985, Mixed Media on Canvas

Keith Haring started by drawing in NY Subways (related to Grafitti art / Street Art)

Keith Haring friends with Andy Warhol

East-Village New York style

Art for “the people”

Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession, Installation (balloons and vinyl), 2011

Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession, Installation (balloons and vinyl), 2011

Japanese avant-garde artist (and writer) who brings together pop art, minimalism, feminism, surrealism, abstract expressionism

Mediums: sculpture, painting, film, fashion, performance art, fiction, installation (art in a space that creates an environment)

Lived in New York in 1960s where she met Andy Warhol (Now lives in Tokyo)

In 2008, her art sold for a record 5.1 million US dollars (highest price ever for a woman artist)

Yayoi Kusama

Art and Society

• Art as a social tool used to help change society

• Social and Political issues

• Art by and for minorities (issues of gender, race, sexuality)

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #35, 1979, Black-and-white photograph

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #35, 1979, Black-and-white photograph

Sherman plays different roles in her photographs (dressed in costume) -

Not a Self-Portrait

Feminism - Questions how women have been portrayed in movies, photography, art

Photography shows the shutter release cable on the floor (artist took her own photograph)

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am),

1987, Photographic silkscreen on vinyl

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am), 1987, Photographic silkscreen on vinyl

Look of Advertising

Challenges Advertising (Kruger worked as a graphic designer before becoming an artist)

Deceptiveness of Media’s messages

“I think, therefore I am” - Philosophical statement by Descartes

Coca-Cola VaseAi WeiweiPainted Neolithic vase (5000BC)2007

Coca-Cola Vase, Ai WeiweiPainted Neolithic vase (5000BC)2007

- Critical of the effects of Capitalism in China

- Highly and openly critical of the Chinese government’s stance on democracy and human rights

- Reference to Pop Art (Warhol)

- Ai Weiwei creates sculpture, installation art, sculpture, photography, and film, and soon to release heavy metal rock music album

Ai Weiwei dropping a Han Dynasty urn (2000 Year old vase), Performance

Never SorryDocumentary Film

about Ai Weiwei2012

Performance Art

• Avant-garde art form started in 1960’s

• Action as an artform

• Multimedia

• New way to express ideas / concepts

• Ephemeral art form (temporary, element of time)

Joseph Beuys, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965, Performance art

Joseph Beuys, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965, Performance art

Sacred ritual

“the condition of modern humanity”

Head coated with honey and covered with gold leaf (spiritual power)

Laurie Anderson, O Superman, 1985, Performance Art

Laurie Anderson, O Superman, 1985, Performance Art

Anderson wrote music and lyrics

Experimentation with sound (electric violin and synthesized voice)

Feminist art combining elements of pop art, pop music, World music, dada

Technology and Art

• Video, Digital Imagery

• Artists started experimenting with video in 1960’s

• Looking at an image in a video monitor / screen (related to Renaissance idea of looking through a frame into a picture)

• Element of time

Jenny Holzer, Protect Me From What I Want, 1988, LED Electronic Signboard (Times Square, New York City)

Jenny Holzer, Protect Me From What I Want, 1988, LED Electronic Signboard (Times Square, New York City)

Social Consciousness

Uses advertising format to deliver messages

Art in Public Spaces

Cao FeiCOSplayers Video Still2004

Cao Fei, COSplayers, Video Still, 2004

Chinese Artist (Guangzhou, China)

Post Modernism / Mixture of Cultures and Influences

Discrepancy between reality and dreams

Focus on the individual’s longings and the way they imagine themselves

Discontentment and disillusionment of China’s younger generation