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What is Contemporary Art ? Defining an Ever-Evolving Movement

Writer: Cherry DoddCherry Dodd
Nov 27, 2024

Contemporary art - the art of our era, the current, the now... but what actually is contemporary art? How do you define a current, consistent, evolution in our cultural sphere? For many abstract expressionism is seen as the turning point from modernism into our contemporary era. This movement, beginning in 1940s America, birthed new forms of expressionism such as action  and colour-field painting into the art realm. Abstract expressionism challenged, it provoked, and it usurped pre-consisting conventions about what painting was and what painting should do. Most significantly, it saw the introduction of art not centred in pictorial representation. Instead, emphasis was placed on the actions that created the work. This new approach to art, a tension between what action has been taken and what actions art was making, redefined our understanding of art. suddenly art did not need representation and, due to technological advancement, representation did not need art. We began to see the symptoms of this in modernism, but its’ full side effects were not realised until phenomena such as conceptual art rose to popularity.


Lee Krasner, Combat, 1965, Oil on canvas 179 × 410.4 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1992 (IC1-1992) © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation


Joseph Kosuth, One of Three Chairs, 1965, Chair, photograph of chair, and photographic enlargement of dictionary definition of “chair”, Installation dimensions variable, Dallas Museum of Art. © 2024 Joseph Kosuth


It also impossible to ignore the influences of capitalist culture on our current contemporary art. With movements such as pop art and appropriation art we saw pop culture references appearing in art more frequently than ever. In a contemporary world where the overconsumption of media is normalised and unavoidable it is no surprise that these traditionally 'low culture' influences have integrated themselves into the 'high culture’ realm. This late-stage capitalist experience of consumption and regurgitation is exemplified specifically in the work of Mike Kelley. Recently I visited the Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit exhibition at Tate Modern and was astounded at his re-use of pre-existing material in his work. I may be showing my age here but despite hearing Kelley's name I was entirely unfamiliar with his work prior to attending this show. Despite this when walking into this documentation of 50 years’ worth of work it was undeniable that Kelley's fascination with "adolescence as a liminal space between childhood and adulthood" was heavily based in his own media experience. We saw Kelley dressing up as children's tv character Banana Man; We saw him representing notions of architecture and memory through the visual language of Superman comics; and we saw him recreating photographs from extra-curricular activities documented in US high-school yearbooks.


Mike Kelley, Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #10 (Group Portrait), 2004-05, Chromogenic print and inkjet print, 161.3 × 69.9 cm © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts


This process of re-interpreting, re-staging and re-experiencing media has lived on from the hey-day of appropriation art in the 1980s. As a current art school student, I see it throughout my university's studios every day. This is a symptom of the fact that art, by nature, is a series of ideological re-births as well as this evolution in contemporary arts concurrence with increased globalization, technological advancements, and commentary on socio-political concerns. Since the 1950s we have become increasingly more connected through social media and other internet channels. Ideas and movements now cross not just countries but entire continents making the phenomena of modernist 'isms' almost extinct as they often relied on country/continent specific experience. Yes, we still get our epochs, and every few years a new unsuspecting town will become home to an influx of artists choosing to flock there because it is the place to be (shoutout Margate). Yet, the discourse in which artists now work concerns not just local but global dilemmas. For example, it is no coincidence that the current frequency of ecologically and sustainably centred practices exists at a time where our global temperature is at its highest point.


Laura Messing, Biomaterials From Potatoes, © Laura Messing


It is true that art has previously mirrored the socio-political concerns of its producers, after all contemporary arts modernist predecessors did endure two world-wars, however the rate at which catastrophic events from across the world reach us through new media channels provides an overwhelming amount of source material. There is constantly a source of anger in our contemporary world, a source of injustice and hatred that will impact communities globally. It is this that comes to define our current contemporary art. I once overheard someone, with far more years in the art world than myself, say in a hesitant tone: 'all exhibitions are now an exhibition of identity politics'. This term 'identity politics' slaps you across the face and asks to know where you stand. It illustrates the concerns of marginalised racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and gender groups. It highlights struggles accumulated through years of war, societal, political, and technological change. Recently, despite the term’s origins in civil rights, gay liberation, and second-wave feminist movements I have also seen it used as a buzz word to undermine the arguments of those it concerns. When used like this the term becomes an encapsulation of all that is deemed 'woke' and 'snowflakey' by traditionalists. I wonder how often this criticism reflects the art concerned verses how often it encapsulates fear that historical, patriarchal, western dominance is being threatened. The threat of identity politics for these stooges then is therefore not just putting our contemporary existence in the balance but the entire canon of ‘our’ cultural history.


Sonia Boyce, The Audition in Colour, 1997/2020, Colour prints of digital images © Sonia Boyce.

Guerilla Girls, Are There More Naked Women than Women Artists in UK Museums? 2021, Advertisement board, © Guerilla Girls

Claye Bowler, Top, 2022, Multi-Media exhibition, Henry Moore Institute © Claye Bowler


With this in mind, I am inclined to agree with my art-world veteran, all exhibitions are exhibitions of identity politics, not because they choose to be, but because the discourse of contemporary culture (art and beyond) is instrumentally tied to our world experience. Contemporary art responds to a world where systems of power provide inequality, where persecution and oppression are rife, where all day everyday we hear of how our current existence is in a perpetual state of conflict. It sounds bleak and it is. However this is absorbed into the outputs of the world's creatives and becomes transformed into presentations that aim to either combat or embrace the turmoil.


Ultimately, it is impossible to define what is constantly changing. However, it is not impossible to spot the patterns emerging within our contemporary scene. Globalisation, Identity and Media are inherent to our daily experiences. They shape our understanding, they become vessels for communication and education. Therefore, I have no doubt that they are the defining features of contemporary art. Will they continue to be ? only time - and the art it breeds - will tell.





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