The evolution of contemporary art has witnessed extremes, and it has broken almost every conventional barrier that ever existed and prevailed commonly in the arts. The common misconception associated with contemporary art is that it is synonymous with modern art.
Contemporary art began in the 1960s when modern art concluded, and the traits that set contemporary art apart are the use of themes that challenge the societal themes and the use of diverse materials in making. If you are exploring your ways of contemporary arts, these are some of the common characteristics you must incorporate.
Variety of Materials
It is not like paintings, sculptures, photography, and others didn’t exist before, and these are the common art types that actually prevailed a few centuries ago, but when it comes to contemporary art, it merges everything and a range of materials into one art. Like you can come across a statue made up of sculptures, paintings, newspapers, and even trash materials
Themes
Themes actually came into existence much later in the field of art, and the most common themes surrounding contemporary art mostly include challenging themes reflecting on the ideologies, politics, and regressive culture. Another theme of contemporary art goes exactly the opposite of the ancient arts, which always meant pretty portraits and picture-perfect postcard landscapes.
Invention
Contemporary art also witnessed some of the extreme innovations, like using trash to make a sculpture, creating a collage using newspaper, and so on. There is no perfect and uniform category in this art, and artists are free to choose anything to create their own art without being scared of not getting accepted and judged.
Open to Interpretation
In contemporary art, artists hardly explain what their art represents and leave it for the open interpretation of the onlookers. It is common that a single art piece has multiple meanings, and all are accepted. There is a reason why the abstract theme is one of the most common in contemporary art.
Contemporary arts differ a lot in every aspect from all the former types of arts that have ever existed. It breaks the conventional forms and challenges the societal themes, and these are some of the characteristics a contemporary art must possess.
