One of the biggest challenges of teaching art is the problem of contemporary art: How do you keep abreast of current trends and movements in contemporary art, and how do you determine which artists are relevant, lasting, or universal? It is too vast an ocean, it seems, and too deep with varieties of approach. Factors that helped create some formal or aesthetic commonality in the past – regional identity, shared faith, academic canon, mutual ideology – just do not exist the same way in our global culture. Is it a massive web of interrelated artists drawing from some collective database of influences, or a sea of individuals making art for a personal experience (a post-postmodernism?)
There are resources to help sift through the diaspora: online resources, local galleries and art magazines all offer some taste of what is currently happening in art. But perhaps the best resource is a series of books, webpages and videos made for PBS called Art: 21. The series focuses on current artists and organizes them according to themes such as romance, power, death, and so on. The artists chosen represent many different approaches, aesthetics, and nationalities, but all share an innate passion for art and creativity (and some degree of professional success). It is a well-presented series that offers a thoughtful and accessible overview of current trends in contemporary art.
So what movement are we in? Haven’t the foggiest.
Instead, I will post a few words about artists I discover here and there. Artists who interest me, or may be interesting to my students. Some come from Art: 21, some come from my own exploration, some… I don’t know where they come from. Perhaps after looking at several posts it will be possible to see a direction that contemporary artists are taking, but this will certainly be too incomplete a list to be indicative of anything more than my own passing fancy.
First up: Marcel Dzama.
4 comments:
Love it, bring it on...it reminds me of ruminations I've had myself in the context of the burningman interactive art type of experience, wondering how art that involves your direct participation fits into art movements...
anyway, looking forward to the explorations...
Good point, jjosh! It gets trickier when you extend the definition of art to include visual culture, which burningman is definitely a good example of. Things like street art, animation, and graphic design were traditionally denied any serious analysis, but who would question their worth these days?
Sounds incredibly interesting! I know nothing about this, so I am excited to learn from New Art School.
Sometimes I feel similarly about books--I know what I like but I don't know what we'll be teaching in 20 years.
You should keep a similar list of books, if only to revisit it later and see what still interests you. I know my favorite books when I was in high school probably wouldn't be in my top 10 these days.
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