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"Contemporary
art" refers to recently produced
visual art. The term
"contemporary art" has replaced
the term "modern art", which
used to be used in the same way,
but became identified with the
period of work when it was first
employed and has thus became a
historical term. There is an
overlap of usage of
"contemporary art" with
"Postmodern art", which posits
that a significant inflection
point was reached in the history
of art in about the 1990s.
The term "contemporary art"
The phrase "contemporary art"
is the preferred phrase for
serious art being currently
produced. It contains the
implication of avante-garde,
following on from the "modern
art" tradition and is not
necessarily applied to work
outside this "mainstream", such
as Outsider art, Naïve art, and
Folk art. A commonly recurring
theme, again inherited from
modernism, involves the two
questions: is it art? and is it
good art? The field of
contemporary art is wide, and
almost anything can be
considered "art". It has become
difficult to say that anything
is not art, although a defining
characteristic of what reaches
prominence is not its material
or subject, so much as its
addressing "issues" of concern
to the contemporary art public,
namely that art engages in
"dialogue" with other art to
validate it.
Commentary about contemporary
art is primarily descriptive,
rather than interpretive.
Description can include taking
note of unique identifying
visual characteristics, such as
types of marks, colors, overall
visual impacts, and impressions.
Description can be made about
what is knowable about the
materials used and the
techniques used to bring the
object into existence.
Techniques might include general
categories such as photography,
video, painting, printmaking,
and stone sculpture.
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