Contemporary Art is the foundation of an artist expressing his attitudes in a piece of work. Originating in the 60’s, contemporary art focuses on blocked objects and less detail, therefore opening the minds of the audience to the hidden meaning behind the basic shapes and colors. This includes many forms of contemporary art, possible displaying the same image in different ways:
Sculpture:
Sculptured contemporary art, mainly three dimensional, bodily sculptures, tend to catch an audience of minimalistic designers. As modern day Contemporary artists glorify simplicity. Monochrome tones are regularly used and dynamics are kept to a minimum.
Tony Cragg, born 1941, specializes in outdoor contemporary sculptures. He began using found objects and disregarded metal in order to create his pieces. But as his artistic muse grew, he wanted to minimalize the dynamics in his sculptures. Cragg is a prime example of a contemporary sculpture artist, who focuses his work on specific projects. Even now, when he designs a sculpture, it is specific to the site he is working for.
Cragg aims to work systematically by arranging fragments of mixed materials, in order to capture a range of feelings for his audience; which is what modern day contemporary sculpture artists tend to veer towards.
Painting:
The most common form of contemporary art is painting, with a burst of colors on each piece, contemporary painting seems to be the most diverse way to express an array of feelings to the audience. With a painted piece, colors and textures can be interpreted in different ways depending on who’s looking at it, which is truly the beauty of contemporary art as a whole.
Gheorghe Virtosu, who specializes in painted contemporary, is a classic example of artists who puts their feelings and attitudes into their work. He has strong political and societal attitudes and wants to express that in his pieces. Not only does he want to vent his anger towards these topics, but aims to show his audience a different perspective on how they view the subject. For example, he takes the negative tone of society’s attitude towards Marylyn Monroe, and creates a beautiful deep image, using a mixture of hard and subtle brush strokes to contrast the mix of views towards this Idol.
Installation:
Have you ever seen a piece of art that looks a little odd? Maybe something seemed out of place? Installation is a classic format of contemporary art, in which an object – possibly out of the ordinary – is grouped to create another larger object. An example of this is creating a crowd out of something as simple as buttons or coins. It seems pretty basic from a distance, but take a closer look and see the meaning behind why the Artist chose these smaller objects.
Take Ann Hamilton, for example, creating the piece ‘Words on my wall’. Where she has created a slab of ‘wall’ by using book pages folded into hundreds of pieces. Hamilton portrays that there is far more than what meets the eye at first glance, which is a huge feature of contemporary art.
