MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

CONTEMPORARY ART FORMS BASED

ON THE ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES

At the end of this module, learners will be able to:

 Evaluates contemporary art forms based on the elements and
principles.
 Identify the elements and principles of contemporary art.
 Understand how contemporary artists use the elements of
art to convey ideas, values, and emotions
 Create an integrated artwork that demonstrates the
interrelationship between the arts and their elements.

Contemporary art is an art

produced by the artist today. It is not
restricted to individual experience, but it
is reflective of the world we live in. The
artwork that is created by today’s
contemporary artist has a world view and
sensitive to changing times
Contemporary artists frequently
go beyond these elements and values in
their work, using new ideas and
techniques, in their attempts to establish
meaning in today's world. The elements
and concepts for art are kind of a script.
As writers, artists use phrases, pick,
organize and combine lines, forms,
colors and textures in several ways to
express themselves and build meaning.
Below are the elements and principles
used by the contemporary artists.
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

Elements and Principles of Contemporary Arts

We live in a community where pictures and objects overflow. From
television to the Internet, from the supermarket to the junkyard, we're
surrounded by cheap, or free, and throwaway words, pictures, and objects. This
is not shocking that today's artists integrate this content into their artistic
expression. In this, the first element and principle of contemporary arts born…

Appropriation. It is the process of making new content by taking from

another source pre-existing image — books on art history, ads, the media — and
incorporating or combining it with new ones. Appropriation is a three-
dimensional variant of using found objects in painting. To appropriate is to
borrow. A found object is an actual object— often a manufactured product of a
commonplace nature — given a new identity as an artwork or part of an art piece.
Some common sources of stolen images are artworks from the distant or
recent past, historical records, media (film and television), or popular culture
(advertisements or products). The source is sometimes unknown, but the artist
may have personal associations. The source of the appropriate image or object
may be politically charged, symbolic, ambiguous, or may push the limits of the
imagery considered to be acceptable to art.
Appropriate imagery can be photographically or carefully imitated,
reproduced by mechanical infers such as an overhead projector, joined of the
time re- create an address or repaint it, changing its scale or design to make
unused meaning. Experts can as well compare
2 differing pictures or objects, layer
them with other pictures, break them into parts, or contextualize them, with
recommends to reconsider pictures or objects by a setting them in a cutting-edge
setting.
Appropriation refers to the act of borrowing or reusing existing
components inside a modern work. Postmodern apportionment craftsmen,
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

counting Barbara Kruger, are sharp to deny the idea of creativity. They accept
that in borrowing existing symbolism or components of symbolism, they are re-
contextualizing or appropriating the first symbolism, permitting the audience to
renegotiate the meaning of the initial in distinctive, more important, or more
current.
Images and elements of culture that have been appropriated commonly
involve famous and recognizable works of art, well known literature, and easily
accessible images from the media. The first artist to successfully demonstrate
forms of appropriation within his or her work is widely considered to be Marcel
Duchamp. He devised the concept of the ‘readymade’, which essentially involved
an item being chosen by the artist, signed by the artist and repositioned into a

gallery context. By asking the viewer to consider the object as art, Duchamp was
appropriating it. For Duchamp, the work of the artist was in selecting the object.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=DGZ78tbd&id=70A3ADCD264DAFFAF51D211067052400A00CD4E2&thid=OIP.DGZ78tbdC5Hyzjtxu0zqCQHaEv&
mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2f2.zoppoz.workers.dev%3a443%2fhttp%2f2.bp.blogspot.com%2f_oAztAyltyy4%2fTKSNl1biIYI%2fAAAAAAAAAE4%2fq-siTtIVaBM%2fw1200-h630-p-k-no-nu%2f061907_pablo_picasso-
artwork.jpg&exph=292&expw=456&q=example+of+appropriation+art&simid=608019235562327940&ck=5AE409176D99AE5E467A2A9638512D9A&selectedIndex=1&ajaxhist=0
Whilst the beginnings of appropriation can be located to the beginning of the 20th century through the innovations of Duchamp, it is often said that if the art of the 1980’s could be epitomized

by any one technique or practice, it would be appropriation. (crafted:http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1661/appropriation-in-contemporary-art )

The modern shape of contemporary art – which risen out of Happenings

and Conceptual art ended up a major frame of avantgarde art amid the late
1960’s and 1970’s – takes as its medium the artist himself: the real work of art
being the artist’s live actions. Presently prevalent with an expanding number of
postmodernist specialists.

Performance art is another element of contemporary art which regularly

increases drama, often acting and development to extremes of expression and
continuity that are not allowed within the theater. It interprets various human
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

activities such as ordinary activities such as chores, routines, and rituals, to

socially relevant themes such as poverty, commercialism, and war.

Execution events are hosted in several of the most outstanding exhibitions of

modern craftsmanship in the world, as well as conventional ones. Words are
rarely noticeable, while music and commotions of different kinds are regular. A
number of the most outstanding exhibitions of modern craftsmanship in the
world, as well as conventional centers such as the Metropolitan Exhibition Hall
of Art, are being held for performances. Serbian Marina Abramovic (b. 194) is
one of the most popular examples of modern execution craftsmanship.

Although this brand of postmodernist art is not easy to define precisely, one
important feature is the need for an artist to perform or express his 'art' in front
of a live audience. For example, allowing the audience to view an interesting
assemblage or installation would not be considered Performance Art, but it would
be to watch the artist construct the assemblage or installation.

Performance art refers to art activities

that are presented to a live audience and
can combine music, dance, poetry,
theater, visual art and video. Whether
public, private or videotaped,
performance art often involves an artist
performing an action that can be planned
and scripted, or can emphasize
spontaneous, unpredictable elements of
chance. Various types of performance
art have evolved from simple, often private investigations of everyday routines,
rituals, and endurance tests, to larger-scale site-specific environments and
public projects, multimedia productions, and autobiographical cabaret-style solo
work.

Below are example of performative art emphasizing the different

characteristics of performance art such as spontaneous and one-off, or
rehearsed and series based. It may consist of a small-scale event, or a massive
public spectacle. It can take place almost anywhere and deliberately thin.
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

The immediate stimulus for

Performance art was the series of
theatrical Happenings staged
by Allan Kaprow and others in
New York in the late 1950s. Then
in 1961, Yves Klein (1928-62)
presented three nude models
covered in his trademark blue
paint, who rolled around on sheets
of white paper. He was also
famous for his "jumps into the
void". For more details, see Yves
Klein's Postmodernist art (1956-
62). In the early 1960s several other American conceptual artists such as Robert
Morris (b.1931) Bruce Nauman (b.1941) and Dennis Oppenheim began to
include "Performance" in their repertoires.

Many contemporary artists deal with space by concentrating on real space— the
dimensions of a house, the spaces that we travel through in the city or in the
natural world, the boundless spaces of the sky or the virtual space of the
Internet. We work with fine-art or industrial materials— from wood and stone to
steel and plastic— to frame space or to create space-filling work. Materials such
as electrical lighting, film, video, or digital media can also transform, document,
or create space. Viewers may be surrounded by art, or they can contribute to a
4
concentrated experience or a perception of a real space. When an artist creates
a piece of work for a room or a specific space, it is called installation art. Most
installations are temporary and often require multiple senses, such as sight,
sound and smell.
Space is an art transforming space, for example the flash mobs, and art
installations in malls and parks. It also refers to the distances or areas
surrounding, within, and within the components of a item. Space can be either
positive or negative, open or closed, shallow or deep, and two-or three-
dimensional. Often space is not clearly shown in a piece, but it is an illusion. It
is considered as the breath of art. Space is found in almost every piece of art that
has been made.
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

Photographers capture space,

sculptors depend on space and
shape, and architects create
space. This is a central aspect of
every of the visual arts.
Space provides the audience a
guide for the presentation of an
artwork. For example, you can
draw a larger object than
another to suggest that it is
closer to the viewer. Likewise, a
piece of environmental art can
be installed in a way that leads
the viewer through space.

Negative and Positive Space

Art historians use the term positive

space to refer to the subject of the piece itself—
the flower vase in a painting or the structure
of a sculpture. Negative space refers to the
empty spaces the artist has created around,
between, and within the subjects.

Quite often, we think of positive as being light

and negative as being dark. This does not
necessarily apply to every piece of art. For
example, you might paint a black cup on a
white canvas. We wouldn't necessarily call the
cup negative because (https://bit.ly/3iaTFyV) it is the subject: The black
value is negative, but the space of the cup is positive. In three-dimensional art,
the negative spaces are typically the open or relatively empty parts of the piece.
For example, a metal sculpture may have a hole in the middle, which we would
call the negative space. In two-dimensional art, negative space can have a great
impact .(https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-space-in-art-182464)

Below is an example of item specific art form that is performed and positioned
in a specific space such as public places.
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

As what you have learned above contemporary artists used various mediums
and techniques, applied different elements and principles in their artworks such
as space, appropriation, and performance. But since we are immersed in a
hybridized environment of reality and augmented reality daily. For artists today,
the choice of materials and media for creating art is wide open. Some artists
continue to use traditional media such as paint, clay, or bronze, but others have
selected new or unusual materials for their arts, such as industrial or recycled
materials, and newer technologies such as photography, video, or digital media
offer artists even more ways to express themselves.
Many artists working today incorporates
more than material or technique in ways that
create hybrid art forms. Combinations of still
image, moving image, sound, digital media, and
found objects can create new hybrid art forms
that are beyond what traditional artists have
ever imagined. Hybridity is another element
and principle used by contemporary artist in
their artworks. It is a usage of unconventional
materials, mixing of unlikely materials to
produce and artwork. For example, coffee for
painting, miniature sculptures from pencils.
The concept of hybridity when applied to
culture conveys elements of all of these
definitions, including positive elements such as diversity, and cooperation, as
well as negative elements such as unviable offspring and unnatural monsters.
In this way the term hybridity contains conflicting
connotations.(https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/15085/1/
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

hybridity-in-new-art) . Hybridity, at the most basic level, implies the mixing of

two or more elements to create a third. Beyond this there is some discussion as
to what cultural hybridity means. How could this idea transfer when we use the
term hybridity to describe contemporary art? What do artists use to make art?
This hybridity in art practice is about transcendence, beyond the visual logic of
the digital or material. In the fluid transaction between states of existence,
algorithm and human error, and different forms of media, something
metaphysical starts to surface in the space between. The concept of hybridity
can be applied to two aspects of art today.

1. Artists today are comfortable using whatever seems best to fully investigate
and express their ideas or concepts and often move among different media and
techniques to express new things in their work.
2. One approach to understanding art today involves identifying what media
and materials the artists chose and considering why they chose to work with
them.
Look at the example below of how contemporary artists apply hybridity in their
craftsmanship.

The first picture shows a product of

mixed media and hybridity obra maestro
by Renee Isaac.
The second picture shows the
creativity of the artists using coffee for his
painting.

What have you observed in their art

works? What are the materials they
used to come up with this
craftsmanship? How does a technique
or medium limit or expand meaning in
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

art? How do artists make choices about materials and techniques for their art?
Well, whatever the decisions of the artists make concerning media and materials
are often affected by ideas they want to express about their experiences living
today.
Furthermore, humans have created art through the ages, but various
cultures have defined it differently. Throughout the history of Western culture,
the nature of art has been debated, leading to the formation of an entire branch
of philosophical study called aesthetics. Today, most experts agree that there
is not only one definition of art, but that it encompasses a variety of ideas,
approaches, and qualities.
So, in this age of transition in which material and digital experience are in
an unprecedented state of coexistence, our understanding of the physical is
being endlessly reshaped by advancements in technology. Consequently, the
very meaning of physicality and its apparent importance to us has become
subject to questioning.
Since the 1960’s the term new media art was coined and it was used to
describe practices that apply computer technology as an essential part of the
creative process and production.

Placing the term under a vast

umbrella known as new
media, computer production, video
art, computer-based installations,
and later the Internet and Post
7Internet art and exploration of the
virtual reality became recognized as
artistic practices. The term, in the
contemporary practice, refers to the
use of mass production and the
manipulation of the virtual world, its
tools and programs as what we called
Technology art. The use of technology
in the creation and dissemination of art works.

As such, designers, and artists to produce commercial pieces or for more

elaborate and conceptual works implement many different computer
programs, such as 3D modeling, Illustrator, or Photoshop. (source:
https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/the-serious-relationship-of-art-and-technology)
 MODULE: HCMA22_CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ARTS

For further reading please refer to the link provided:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxvjHvMTPJ8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i1-bV2desw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yKyVIGG7Nk

References:
https://www.google.com/search?q=gamaba%20awardees&tbm=isch&hl=e
n&sa=X&ved=0CB0QtI8BKABqFwoTCJCfqPjn1e8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAW
&biw=833&bih=788