Contemporary Art and Art Essay

Modern Art

Contemporary and modern art has been characterized by increased focus on significant aesthetic and political work of artists across the globe. As a result, contemporary art is largely different from conventional work because of the shift in focus on elements of art. Actually, art has undergone significant changes throughout its history as a result of different influences across different time periods. Some of the major influences of contemporary and modern art include material culture, technology, consumerism, rise of graffiti, protest and posters, land art, mass media, representation strategies, political self-awareness, and expanded cinema. These influences have played major in art production in the contemporary world and contributed to new practices in art. Contemporary art has shifted from medium specificity as the organizing principle for advanced production to the concept of sites and systems because of the numerous factors that have influenced art over the years.

The Shift from Medium Specificity

Conventional art was based on the idea that art could be realized through recognizing the material and formal essence of the media committed to the practice of art such as sculpture and painting. The concept of medium specificity, which was introduced by Clement Greenberg in the beginning of the 1940s, dominated traditional art (Reyes-Garcia, Chatel-Innocenti & Zreik, p.17). In this case, awareness of the specificity of the aesthetic medium helped in changing the classical role of art as mere visual representation. During this period, the centrality of the medium was utilized as the basis for exploring artistic potentials and avoiding any illusory and romantic ideals for art production. Medium specificity was utilized as a concept for advanced art production because it emphasized the centrality of the medium and enabled the pursuit of purity in modern art practices (Shanken, p.18). Based on the concept of medium specificity, the essence of art was understood as the use of medium as the only objective element in art.

However, in the past few decades, there has been a shift away from medium specificity as the basis for advanced art production to practices that are based on sites and systems because of various influences. One of the major influences was the pictorial technique, which was based on obtaining control of the medium to explore its artistic possibilities and limitations. For instance, John Pollock's work, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) of 1950 was a creation of new compositions that involved moving the canvas to the floor in order to control the medium. Pollock's works evoked rhythm in action and moved from the centrality of the medium to exploring its artistic possibilities and limitations (Stiles & Selz, p.15).

In the late 1950's the emergence of consumerism and mass culture i.e. film, television and advertising brought a shift…