contemporary art essay questions

Top Experts Answer the Big Questions About Contemporary Art

From the director of the hayward gallery to artist mat collishaw.

By Google Arts & Culture

Words by Leonie Shinn-Morris

Rose (2007) by Ann Veronica Janssens Hayward Gallery

what is contemporary art what is contemporary arts what is modern art what is a contemporary artist what is contemporary art? what does contemporary mean? what does contemporary mean in art what does contemporary art mean what is contemporary arts? what is the difference between modern and contemporary art what is the meaning of contemporary art These are just a few of the most-searched-for questions on Google relating to contemporary art. Contemporary art takes so many different forms, and is so wide-reaching in content, style and intent, that it can often be hard to define; no wonder people are turning to Google search. We asked 5 experts in the art world to help shine some light on the deceptively simple question: what is contemporary art?

Rose, 2007, Ann Veronica Janssens (From the collection of theHayward Gallery)

What is contemporary art?

TARATANTARA (1999/1999) by Anish Kapoor BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art

TARATANTARA, 1999, Anish Kapoor (From the collection of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art)

Ben Vickers, writer and Curator of Digital at Serpentine Galleries 'Contemporary art' is a stand in term for all the art we see being made in the present. Frozen in time, it signals the inability to move beyond the current moment and imagine new horizons for art making - given that it continues to describe artworks made decades ago. To me, it signals stagnation but in it I see the possibility of renewal, transformation and the birth of something else which will only become clear in the decades ahead. With it will come new language and terms that will allow us to travel beyond the 'contemporary'. Aaron Cezar, Director of the Delfina Foundation Contemporary art expresses an idea or concept that’s related to current thinking and concerns. It might reference history, aesthetics, politics, romance, or a range of subjects, either in abstract or concrete terms, and through diverse mediums, from painting to performance. Each artwork can mean different things to different people.

Untitled (2016/2016) by Cecilia Bengolea Art Night

Untitled, 2016, Cecilia Bengolea (From the collection of Art Night)

Susan Silton: Inside Out (2007) by Susan Silton Pasadena Museum of California Art

Inside Out, 2007, Susan Silton (From the collection of Pasadena Museum of California Art)

How do you respond to people who say, “a four-year-old could do that”?

The First Part of the Return from Parnassus (1961) by Cy Twombly (American, 1928–2011) The Art Institute of Chicago

The First Part of the Return from Parnassus, 1961, Cy Twombly (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)

What’s your favorite contemporary artwork and why?

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Ralph Rugoff I'm not much of a list-maker by nature, and my opinions change from month to month. But one of my long-time favorite artworks was included in the first exhibition that I ever curated – it's a piece by the American artist David Hammons called Air Jordan , 1988, which features a hopelessly flattened inner tube pinned to the wall. In its functional life, the inner tube belongs to the technology of mobility, but in this work it serves as an emblem of deflated hopes and the certainty of going nowhere fast. The title, meanwhile, frames up a specific reference to the illusory allure of professional basketball as a way out of urban poverty. What's magical about this work for me is how the artist manages, with the most minimal means and material, to create something that is poignant, socially charged and unexpectedly elegant. Aaron Cezar It’s hard to choose one but for the sake of argument, I would say Frequencies by Oscar Murillo, which is a collection of works produced by children. The project issues canvases to schools around the world that is fixed to desktops, and students are free to draw or write on. Frequencies represents a collective stream of consciousness that takes the pulse of a generation.

Frequencies (an archive, yet possibilities) (2013/2015) by Oscar Murillo la Biennale di Venezia - Biennale Arte 2015

Frequencies (an archive, yet possibilities), 2013/2015, Oscar Murillo (From the collection ofl a Biennale di Venezia - Biennale Arte 2015)

Explore more: - What's the Difference Between Modern and Contemporary Art? - Explaining Contemporary Art With Emojis

GIARDINI - Central Pavilion

La biennale di venezia - biennale arte 2015, henri matisse 1869-1954: a retrospective exhibition, hayward gallery, kosmic krylon garage, pasadena museum of california art, alice theobald and atomik architecture. it’s not who you are, it’s how you are (2016), baltic centre for contemporary art, art night 2016, padiglione centrale, anthony caro, susan silton: inside out, fiona tan: depot (2015), kinetics: an international survey of kinetic art, retna mural on pmca façade, sara barker and ryder architecture: the subtle knife (2013).