What Is Contemporary Art?

Who gets to say what counts as contemporary art? Artists, critics, curators, gallerists, auctioneers, collectors, or the public? Revealing how all these groups have shaped todays's multifaceted definition, Terry Smith brilliantly shows that a historical approach offers the best answer to the question: What Is Contemporary Art? Smith argues that the most recognizable kind is characterized by a return to mainstream modernism in the work of such artists as Richard Serra and Gerhard Richter, as well as the retro-sensationalism of figures like Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami. At the same time, Smith reveals, postcolonial artists are engaged in a different kind of practice: one that builds on local concerns and tackles questions of identity, history, and globalization. A younger generation embodies yet a third approach to contemporaneity by investigating time, place, mediation, and ethics through small-scale, closely connective art making. Inviting readers into diverse yet overlapping art worlds, Smith offers a behind-the-scenes introduction to the institutions, the personalities, the biennials, and of course the works that together are defining the contemporary. The resulting map of where art is now illuminates not only where it has been but also where it is going. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access level

Onsite

author

Terry SMITH

publisher

The University of Chicago Press (Chicago, United States)

Location code

REF.SMT

Language

English

Keyword

art history, art criticism, art market, perennial exhibition, museum studies

Publication/Creation date

2009

No of pages

329

ISBN / ISSN

9780226764313

No of copies

Content type

monograph

Chapter headings

Introduction: Contemporary Art Inside Out

Part 1 Museums: Modern/Contemporary

Remodernizing Manhattan

Sublime-on-Hudson: Dia:Beacon Now

Sensation=Saatchi

Contemporizing the Tate Modern

Part 2 Spectacles: Architecture/Sculpture

The Experience Museum: Bilbao and Beyond

The Intensity Exhibit: Barneyworld at McGuggenheim

Part 3 Markets: Global/Local

Going Global: Selling Contemporary Art

From the Desert to the Fair

Part 4 Countercurrents: South/North

The Postcolonial Turn

Our Otherness: The Beauty of the Animal