Contemporary Art Starting Point: Modern Art – Jacob Shmuel
The warriors of brush and paint, the followers of classic art challenged with mockery the choice of line, texture and color that generate ideas with no artistic meaning, in their opinion, of those finest modern artists from the first half of the 20th century – among others, Matisse, Picasso, Earnest, Mondrian, and Monk.
Contemporary art in Israel and abroad
Starting point: Modern Art
The end of the 19th century brought with it the modern art. Until the 70’s of the 20th century it was celebrated along innovative attempts to present the thing our eyes only see in nature in a different way than the one known in classic art. This approach was characterized, among others, in the idea that creation itself doesn’t have to look exactly as it seems in reality. The Cubist movement that deconstructs objects and presents at the same time different perspectives, the Dada movement that used abstract artistic language to challenge society and politics by shocking the artistic aesthetic judgement, the surreal movement – that chose to emphasize meaningless elements and flood its creations with limitless free thought. These and more have made their way to the painting frames and removed the classical artistic perceptions that held the canvas till that time.
The warriors of brush and paint, the followers of classic art challenged with mockery the choice of line, texture and color that generate ideas with no artistic meaning, in their opinion, of those finest modern artists from the first half of the 20th century – among others, Matisse, Picasso, Earnest, Mondrian, and Monk.
Aesthetic or not, enrich our internal world with valuable quality or not… undoubtedly, modern art published itself in a way that placed it in public awareness. However, voices of criticism began to be heard in the front stage of modern art. This was also the case in theatre and literature, for instance, the play “Art” by French playwright Yasmina Reza. The play began its way in a 1994 premier and from them made his appearances on printed pages in 35 languages, Hebrew included. The play engaged in a person buying “a white painted piece of fabric” for a high amount of money (too high). In 2004, modern art was displayed through the brilliant mind of satirist Efraim Kishon in his book “Picasso’s Sweet Revenge”, in which he severely criticized modern art. By the way, the book brought up both many objections and supports.
“And there will be evening and there will be morning…” The Contemporary Art
Modern art represented for its objectors some sort of social isolation, elitism. It didn’t allow all animals in Noa’s narrow arc that is the art world, voice their opinion of they went too far from the mainstream. This is how contemporary art was born but the apple didn’t fall to far from the tree. Contemporary art was influenced by various artistic movements that were related to modern art. For example, conceptual art – in which style is not bound by subject and it becomes the central expression, and pop art – movement integrating varies cultural elements and offers art that combine out-of-art materials.
Contemporary art encouraged pluralism and rejected unity, promoted integration and discouraged total perspective. It offered harmony and accepting all different ways for artistic expression. And this how a versatile, lively and colorful creation has emerged. Contemporary art is expressed through broader thinking and international perspective that started showing in art and architecture since the 20’s, and in fact it is still alive and kicking. Against the sharp stiffness of modern art, stands out the open door of contemporary art to every style from each movement, any color, texture, structure etc.
One of the prominent characteristics of this perception is that the artist is in the center, the hero of the piece. Contemporary art mechanically distributes any artistic piece through reproduction. Another one of its characteristics is embracing painting of known artists and presenting them in a fresh innovative piece, sometimes cynical or opinionated. This action might relate to another feature of this new art form – political mobilization that placed in the front of the artistic stage opinions regarding war, aids, feminism, colonialism, minorities, homosexuality and more. Its disadvantage might be expressed through the inability of the observer to understand the idea behind the artist or art creation, since in many cases is not followed by an explanation. It is complex and vague, it wishes to renew perspectives, but might create frustration and hostility due to its lack of clarity. Contemporary art uses any available media, any material that can be transformed into a statement (from body fluids to digital art). It touches the abstract and therefore it will not always be defined by critics as art. So what is the different between modern art and contemporary art? We recommend reading about the artist’s characteristics and the movement he belongs to in order to better understand the piece. You didn’t understand? Use your imagination. It can help (maybe).