Contemporary Abstract

Our examination of the contemporary art and the contemporary artists has shown that it is characterized by the pluralism of different art movements and styles, that there is no distinctive representative style of the contemporary artist. Still, it is realistically safe to say that contemporary abstract art will have a significant place in future art history books, where experts will analyze art movements of our time.

There are some people who will tell you that abstract art and contemporary art are the same thing. Though the terms are often used interchangeably, their meanings do differ. As our shows have shown that contemporary art is a classification of art. The classification of abstract art is not particular to any one period and that is the essential difference.  Rather than describing a specific art movement, the phrase ‘abstract art’ is a very broad umbrella term encompassing a huge range of styles and approaches. Because abstraction first appeared in the early 20th century, the term is usually applied to modern and contemporary art made during and after this time, including the art of today. Modern art refers to the beginning of Impressionist period that happened around 1870 and were not always abstract. Thus the use of modern art to describe abstract art is a fallacy. Ultimately, the evolution of abstract art—like the evolution of modern art more broadly—has been a series of responses to the experience of life in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The contemporary art genre finds a vast amount of quality abstract art being made today, and the best of it is every bit as good as the best abstract art of the past. The formal qualities of an abstract painting or sculpture are significant not in the aesthetics sense but as part of the work’s message or overall meaning. Artists work by reviving and transforming archetypes from the unconscious of modern culture. Therefore, the most useful questions to ask about contemporary abstract painting or sculpture are: What themes and forms does it retrieve from the tradition of modern art? How have they been changed? And how has the artist used them to express the social, political, and spiritual experience of our own time?