What is contemporary art? We all are asked ourselves this question in class the other day. We all stumbled across trying to think of a precise definition of "contemporary art" and names of contemporary artists that are up and coming. Slightly embarrassed of my limited knowledge, I remember raising my hand and stating that I believed we were all having a difficult time speaking of contemporary art because it was lacking in all of our public school art curriculum growing up. Old, chunky textbooks of art history that lay around art rooms in schools certainly have character and plenty of information on various famous artists such as Monet or Picasso, but they lack being up to date. I personally have always thought of art as being a subject that is accepting of everything and constantly hungry for the next, innovative thing. Styles, media and artists are always changing in the art world which is something artists and students should admire. Good art education should constantly have the students' attention and should be enough to inspire them to create. Cave paintings from the depths of French caves or Monet's paintings may inspire some young artists, but new media artists or video game design may inspire others! Students need to be aware of all of the artistic opportunities that are out there today.
This week's reading touched on the idea of contemporary art and the lack of it in today's art education programs and elementary classrooms specifically. I personally really enjoyed the article and agreed with the author; Anne Thulson. We sometimes begin to open the doors to contemporary art in middle school or high school level classrooms but why not elementary? Children from the ages of 5 to 12 are also open to thinking "outside of the box" like many new artists and can get as excited about new and innovative takes on art like older students. I agree with most art educators in teaching the important basics such as the color wheel or terms such as line or value to young art students, but why not also teach them vocabulary such as installation, new media, photography, and so on. We continue to teach the importance and make room for new technology knowledge for students such as typing skills, we teach current events in social studies classes and have changed our math lessons to more condensed formulas and newer findings. We should simply do the same with our art lessons!
...Other thoughts that came to my mind after our 211 class today with the video dealt with again, what is contemporary or abstract art? What defines something as a "good" artwork? And why is much of modern art trying to prove something or have a sarcastic tone/stick it to the man feel to it? Do we like that as viewers or even artists ourselves? I certainly like that art that is created now is often more than a well done realistic still life. I hope to open up conversations and show examples of contemporary art in my future art classroom someday.
Cool site for your eyeballs and brain..
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