What is

Contemporary
Art?
 ART
The expression or application of human
creative skill and imagination, typically in a
visual form such as painting or sculpture,
producing works to be appreciated primarily
for their beauty or emotional power.
 ART AS A FORM OF
• Self-expression
(paintings, music, poetry,
fashion, etc)
• Therapy
• Aesthetic
• Inspiration
• Motivation
• Awareness
What is Contemporary
Art? Is it similar with
Modern Art?
 Modern
being up to date and technologically
advanced.
Art that is current and new
is also referred to modern
as opposed to ”traditional”
or “conservative”
Contemporary VS Modern

HISTORICAL AND
CHRONOLOGICAL
 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: PHILIPPINE ART
FORM PRE-CONQUEST SPANISH PERIOD AMERICAN JAPANESE POSTWAR 70S
PERIOD PERIOD REPUBLIC
1521-1898 CONTEMPORARY
1898-1940 1941-1945 1946-1969
PAINTING Pottery, body Religious secular Landscape, Wartime scene Modern, Figurative, non-
adornment interior, still life for propaganda conservativea figurative, art for art
bstract, public sake, multimedia
(Amorsolo, art
SCULPTURE Pottery, carving, Santos, Free standing,
Ocampo, etc)
woodwork furniture, altar, relief, public
jewellery, pieta

ARCHITECTURE Dwellings and Church, City planning Public works Real estate, safe housing, condos,
houses, lighthouse, etc parks, etc.
shelters, waterfronts,
worship areas apartments
Contemporary V S Modern

1960 –still emerging

1880 - 1960
Produced by artists living
today “Traditional”
 HR
Ocampo

The Contrast
 Xyza
Bacani

Man in Stairs
 2000's Man in
Stairs Xyca Bacani

1960's The Contrast

HR Ocampo
NOW AND THEN
 Arturo Luz
- produced paintings in 90's and
well into 21st
- hard-edged and abstract
minimalist style
National Artist
Contemporary is a fluid term and
its use can change depending of
context
 Historical and
Stylistic Context
VICTORIO EDADES
- Father of Philippine Modern Art
- Initiating the Modern Art
movement that challenged the
Neoclassic style, which was
dominant that time
Artist in Modern Art
Styles
 Neoclassic Art
depicts reality as closely as
possible and idealizes it: beautiful
and pastoral
 “The Palay
Maiden, 1920”
Fernando
Amorsolo

“Mora Girl, 1950”

Victorio Edades

Neoclassic Art VS Modern Art

 Modern Art
depict what might be taught of as
“ugly” and unpleasant
 “The Palay
Maiden, 1920”
Fernando
Amorsolo

“Mora Girl, 1950”

Victori Edades

Neoclassic Art VS Modern Art

 Modern Art
- Modern artists do not aim to copy
and idealize reality.
- They change colors and flatten
the picture instead of creating
illusions of depth.
Artist in Modern Art
Styles
Neoclassic Style Modern Art

creates illusions of depths, they change colors and

near and fa flatten the picture instead

familiar and comfortable new looking and shocking

r

Neoclassic art is “academic” as it was and

continues to be taught in school (UP Fine
Arts) where Fernando Amorsolo and
Guillermo Tolentino are influential.
 Modern art is referred to as “traditional”,
compared to Contemporary Art.

Contemporary Art is the art of the present,

which is continuously in process and in flux.

 Comparison and
Contrast of
Contemporary Art and
Modern Art
Man and Carabao ([Link])

Morning Dance (Cesar Legaspi)

Social Realist/Neo-
Realist
Social Realist of the 70s are
considered heirs of Neo-
realist

Neo-Realists
 Contemporary art is
influenced by Social Realism

Neo-Realists
 Imelda Cajipe-
Endaya
is a social realist but
the style and medium
of installation is
markedly different

Filipina DH
 STYLISTIC OVERVIEW
FORM PRECOLONIAL SPANISH/ AMERICAN MODERN POSTMODERN/
ISLAMIC COLONIAL CONTEMPORARY
COLONIAL
PAINTING Religious, Religious, Classical, Abstract, Collaborative
community- formal idyllic, neorealist,
based, inter- naturalistic nostalgic surreal,
ethnic expressionist
relations,
SCULPTURE collective Abstract Junk/scrap,
history. Expressionism performance art,
hybrid
ARCHITECTURE Worship- Neoclassic, International Filipino
related, etc. art deco industrializing architecture,
cosmopolitan, etc.
 Aside from style, it is also
very useful to know where
the artists are coming from
and the circumstances of
making and disseminating
their art.
 CULTURAL OVERVIEW
FORM Indigenous Islamic or Folk or Lowland Popular Urban
Southeast Asian Philippine Muslim and mass based

PAINTING Ritual and Governance Colonial and Post Mass Produced

Colonial and Market
Oriented

SCULPTURE

ARCHITECTURE
Characteristics of
Contemporary
Art
 Site-specifi
- they cannot be experienced in
the same way if removed from their
original places of exhibit whether in
the gallery, out on the streets, in
the forest, on the internet, etc.
c

 Process-base

- integrate various medium and art

d

forms
Collaborative and Interactiv

- the art is never complete without

the audience’s active input.

- Contemporary Art is distinguishable

from Modern Art in historical,
stylistic and cultural terms
- Contemporary Art is never fixed, but open
to many possibilities
- To study and appreciate the contemporary
is to experience and understand art as a
window to the Philippine contemporary life.
.