In everyday language, the terms “modern”

and “contemporary” are often used

interchangeably. In the context of art,
however, they designate two distinct
moments in art history. There are specific
definitions for both terms, and these
definitions will help us to establish an
understanding of the images and themes
that emerge in both styles of art.
 Modern art is a term that signifies the
philosophy and style of the artworks
produced during the 1860-1970 era.
 This art broke with convention, dealt with
new subject matter, focused on conceptual
concerns, and changed the position of the
artist within society.
 The main objective of Modern art was to
set aside the traditions of the past and put
more emphasis on experimentation with a
new perspective of seeing the world.
 Many styles of art developed during the
modern period, including impressionism,
fauvism, cubism, expressionism, surrealism,
pop art, op art, art nouveau, and art deco.
HOW MODERN ART USHERED A NEW ERA
IN THE WORLD OF ART?
 The Modernism movement introduced
many fresh concepts in the world of art.
All of a sudden many artists started
exploring dreams, symbolism, and
personal iconography as their signature.
Modern artists also experimented with the
expressive use of color, non-traditional
materials and mediums.
 Simple and straightforward
 The term “contemporary art” is generally
regarded as referring to work made between
1970 and the present.
1. The 1970s saw the emergence of "postmodernism". The affix was a
clue that whatever followed was segregated from its precursor.
2. The 1970s saw the decline of the clearer identified artistic
movement.
Contemporary Art
 It also implies art that is made by living
artists, but essentially contemporary art
is seen as something that has never
been done before
 It emphasizes a rejection of the
commercialization of the art world, but
it is often connected to the
contemporary consumer-driven society.
Contemporary Art
 The Contemporary Art era is known
to produce more experimental works
and tackles a wider variety of social,
economic and political issues. It made
art as a whole to reflect the current
issues that hound our world today, such
as racism, globalization, third-world
country oppression, feminism among
many others.
 • Modern and contemporary art build on existing
subject matter, themes that artists have incorporated
into their work for ages. However, changes in the
world, new developments in art technologies, a revised
conception of art materials, and an expanding view of
the definition of “art” have changed the images artists
create and the art forms artists choose to use

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 CONTEMPORARY ARTS

Napoleon Leading the Army “Pictures of Garbage,” by The Weather Project by

over the Alps by Kehinde Vik Muniz Olafur Eliasson
Wiley

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 CONTEMPORARY ARTS

Gray Ground by Ronald Ventura

Isla Hubad by Neil Pasilan

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 MODERN ARTS

Country Road in Provence At the Moulin Rouge: Two The Large Bathers by Paul Cézanne
by Night by Vincent Van Women Waltzing by Henri
Gogh de Toulouse-Lautrec

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 MODERN ARTS

Models (Les Poseuses) by Georges Seurat Spirit of the Dead Watching

by Paul Gauguin

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 ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
 Broad movement in American
painting that began in the late
1940s and became a dominant
trend in Western painting
during the 1950s.
The most prominent American
Abstract Expressionist painters were
Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz
Kline, and Mark Rothko.

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  It is the term applied to new
forms of abstract art.

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SOCIAL CONTEXT: IN BETWEEN MODERN AND
CONTEMPORARY ART
 Modern art refers to the period that
began in the 1880s and that lasted until
the 1960s.
 Artists like Van Gogh and Manet are
credited with revolutionizing the art in
the 1880s and giving a new realm to it.
 They emphasized on the subjective
representation of subjects rather than
focusing on realism that was prevalent
before the 1880s.
 Modern art focused on surrealism rather
than depicted life as perceived by the church
or the influential in society.
 It lasted for an entire century.
SOCIAL CONTEXT: IN BETWEEN MODERN AND
CONTEMPORARY ART

 Contemporary art can be said to be the

art that was developed after the 1960s
and is still emerging.
 Contemporary art is one created by artists
who are still living. The late 1900s saw
major social, political, and cultural
 reformations across the world which had
greatly influenced this art form.
SOCIAL CONTEXT: IN BETWEEN MODERN AND
CONTEMPORARY ART

 Every topic of relevant significance like

globalization, global warming, human
rights, environmental destruction were
reflected in the contemporary arts.
 It is the art of today. it is defined by the
artist’s ability to innovate and bring out a
modern masterpiece
SOCIAL CONTEXT: IN BETWEEN MODERN AND
CONTEMPORARY ART

 There was no rigid form in contemporary

art, but some rigid forms could be seen in
modern art
 Contemporary art has some social impact.
Moreover, contemporary artists had
significant freedom and liberty to
experiment with all styles.
 ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
 Broad movement in American painting
that began in the late 1940s and became a
dominant trend in Western painting during
the 1950s. The most prominent American
Abstract Expressionist painters were
Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz
Kline, and Mark Rothko.
it is the term applied to new forms of
abstract art.
 Action painting
Color fields

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 Jackson Pollock and Willem De
Kooning who focused on an intensely
expressive style of gestural painting
 It used a style that involved streaks and
overlapping lines of paint which
implied movement in the artwork.
Winter color in beef by Jackson Pollock
 Autumn rhythm by Jackson Pollock

Woman VI by Willem de Kooning

 Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman
and Clyfford Still, who were
concerned with reflection and
mood.
 It focused on color and contrast.
Baby is three by Robyn Denny
Painting by Richard Smith Drought by Kenneth Noland
  is a form of abstract art (specifically
non -objective art) which relies on
optical illusions in order to fool the eye
of the viewer.
 It is also called optical art or retinal art.
 It relates to geometric designs that
create feelings of movement or
vibration.
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By Victor Vasarely By Bridget Riley
 By Jesus Soto

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 By Guenther Uecker

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 By Enrico Castellani

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 By Carlos Cruz-Diez

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KINETIC ART
 is art from any medium that contains
movement perceivable by the viewer or
depends on motion for its effect
 kinetic art is a term that today most
often refers to three-dimensional
sculptures and figures such as mobiles
 that move naturally or are machine
operated
 early 1950’s onward

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 By Naum Gabo

“Linear Construction No.2”

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“Constructed Torso”
 By Alexander Calder

“Pyramid”
44 “Circles and Waves”
 By Jean Tinguely

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 By Theo Jansen

46 “Strand Bees”
 also sometimes referred to as ABC art,
Cool art, Literalist art, Object art, and
Primary Structure art
 emerging in a coherent form in New York
during the 1960s
 it was a major movement of post
modernist art, specifically a style of
abstract painting or sculpture characterized
by extreme simplicity of form: in effect a
type of visual art reduced to the essentials
of geometric abstraction.
Untitled #4 (1977) by Agnes Martin Wall structure blue (1962) by Sol
Le Witt
 Box with the sound of its
own making (1961) by
Robert Morris

Untitled (Stack) by Donald Judd

144 aluminum square (1967) by Dan Andre
 distinctive genre of art that first
“popped” up in post-war Britain and
America.
 the pieces produced by Pop artists in
the 1950s and 1960s commented on
contemporaneous life and events.
 it is popular (designed for a mass
audience), transienr (short-term solution),
expandable (easily forgotten), low cost,
mass produced, young (aimed at youth),
witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big
business.
Gold Marilyn Monroe (1962) by
Andy Warhol
Great American Nude #21 (1961)
by Tom Wesselman

Great American Nude #21 (1961)

by Tom Wesselman

House of fire (1981) by James Rosenquist

 Popeye (1961) by Roy Lichtenstein

View (1960) by Ed Ruscha

 POST MODERNISM
 the most pertinent movement tjat solidfied the
move to contemporary arts
 asociated with scepticism, irony and philosophical
critiques of the concepts of universal truths and
objective reality.
 it embraces many different approaches to art
making, and may be said to begin with pop art in
the 1960s and to embrace much of what followed
including conceptual art, neo-expressionism,
 feminist art, and the Young British Artists of the
1990s.

POST MODERNISM
 the most pertinent movement tjat solidfied the
move to contemporary arts
 There are several characteristics which lend art to
being postmodern; these include bricolage, the
use of text prominently as the central artistic
element, collage, simplification, appropriation,
performance art, the recycling of past styles and
themes in a modern-day context, as well as the
break-up of the barrier between fine and high arts
and low art and popular culture.
10 Marylins, 1967 by Andy Warhol
 La Trahison Des Images (The Treason of President Elect, 1961 by James Rosenquist
Images, "This is not a pipe"), 1929 by Rene
Magrite