As modern art or modernism is called the art history period from 1860 to 1970, and a basic characteristic is the rejection of traditionally accepted forms, with an emphasis on (individual) experimentation. The basic characteristics of modern art are the concentration on abstraction, the stable, clean, plain forms, and the use of art as a statement.
The art movements that were born during the modernist period in chronological line were: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art, and Op Art.
Some of the most significant Modern Artists are Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, Raymond Duchamp, Ernst Kirchner, Giacomo Balla, Alexander Rodchenko, Robert Rauschenberg, Henry Moore, and Andy Warhol.
As contemporary art is considered the art that is made today by living artists. However, the term contemporary art can be confusing as it was used also during the modern art period; because an art history period defines the period from the 1960s-1970s even from the 1950s till today. This is why it can make sense also during the modern period. Then there was art made today by living artists. Some movements of modern art and contemporary art coincide.
The art movements that were born during the contemporary art period are Postmodernism, Pop Art, Word Art, Conceptualism- Conceptual Art, Performance Art, Fluxus movement, Installation, Video Installation, Minimalism, Korean Minimalism, Hyperrealism (photorealist art), Land art or environmental art (earthworks), Arte Povera, Contemporary Photography, Supports-surfaces, Contemporary realism, Postminimalism, Feminist Art, Neo-Expressionism, New Subjectivity, London School, Street Art, The pictures generation, Appropriation Art, Transavanguardia, Britart-British Young Artists, Deconstructivist Design, Body Art, Chinese Cynical Realism, Neo-Pop, Stuckism, New Leipzig School, Projection Art, Computer Art, Digital Art.
Some of the most significant contemporary artists are Cindy Sherman, Jean Michel Basquiat, Liu Xiaodong, Takashi Murakami, George Condo, Jeff Koons, Mark Bradford, Anselm Kiefer, Damien Hirst, Lee Ufan, Keith Haring, Christopher Wool, Yayoi Kusama, Shirin Neshat, Jenny Saville, Adriana Varejão, Marlene Dumas, Barbara Kruger, Becky Suss, Tracey Emin, Bracha L Ettinger.
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Sources
Dictionary.com https://www.dictionary.com/browse/modern-art#:~:text=noun,emphasized%20individual%20experimentation%20and%20sensibility.
H. Arnason & E. C. Mansfield, History of Modern Art, Prentice Hall Publisher, 2009, 6thEd.
Ian Chilvers & John Glaves-Smith, Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 2009, p. 466-467, 153.
Invaluable.com
available at https://www.invaluable.com/blog/modern-vs-contemporary-art/ (Accessed: 21 February 2023).
Encyclopedia Britannica available at https://www.britannica.com/art/degenerate-art (Accessed: 21 February 2023).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art available at https://www3.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/modern-and-contemporary-art#:~:text=The%20Modern%20and%20Contemporary%20Art,from%201890%20to%20the%20present. (Accessed: 21 February 2023).
Visualartscork.com available at http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/contemporary-art.htm (Accessed: 21 February 2023).
Σταυρος Τσιγκογλου, Σύγχρονη Τέχνη, εκδ. Καστανιώτη, 2014, σελ. 13-20.
Ian Chilvers & John Glaves-Smith, Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 2009, p. 466-467, 153
