LESSON 1:

WHAT IS
CONTEMPORARY
ART?
 What is Contemporary Art?
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced
by artists who are living in the twenty-first century.
Their art is a dynamic combination of materials,
methods, concepts, and subjects that challenge
traditional boundaries and defy easy definition.
 Examples
of Contemporary
Arts
Carcass-Cornucopia, 1987 © Agnes Arellano The Fruit Gatherer, 1950 © Fernando Amorsolo
Victorio Edades, The Builders Carlos Francisco, Magpupukot

‘The Fishermen', 1981 © Ang Kiukok

Contemporary Art

CONTEMPORARY
ARTISTS
Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972)
Labeled the country’s first National Artist in 1972 by then President Marcos,
Fernando Amorsolo is often known as the ‘Grand Old Man of Philippine Art’. The
Spanish-trained realist developed a backlighting technique, where his colorful
depictions of local people reflect the radiance of the Philippine sun. The figures
and illuminated landscapes magically glow on the canvas. Despite his
deteriorating health and failing eyesight, he remained prolific until the end,
producing up to 10 paintings a month until his death at the age of 80. Amorsolo’s
creativity defines the nation’s culture and heritage to this day.

Agnes Arellano (1949-present)

Born to a family of prominent male architects, sculptress Agnes Arellano is best

known for her surrealist and expressionist work in plaster, bronze and cold-cast
marble. Her sculptures highlight the female body and draw from themes
surrounding sexuality, religion, and mysticism. Borrowing from the term of poet
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Agnes attributes her work to ‘inscapes’, that assert an
internal unity among various elements in her installations and sculptures.
Drawing from the tragic death of her parents and sister from a house fire in 1981,
her work explores themes of creation and destruction, and the cycles of life from
birth to death.
Ang Kiukok (1935-2005)
Born to Chinese immigrants, Ang Kiukok is the pioneer of Philippine
modern figurative expressionism. Rewarded as the country’s National
Artist in 2001, he was one of the most successful commercial figures on
the local art scene from the 1960s until his death from cancer in 2005.
Like Amorsolo, his paintings are popular at auctions and have received
exceptionally high bids at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. He is known for his
distinct cubist and surrealist portrayals of the crucifixion of Christ and
mother and child. However, he is acclaimed for hisseries of Fishermen
at Sea, which connects both energy, faith and the struggle of fishermen
under a vibrant crimson sun labouring together to bring in the haul for
the day.
 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW : PHILIPPINE ART
FORM Pre-Conquest Spanish American Japanese Postwar 70s-
Period 1521- Period 1898- Period 1941- Republic Contemporar
1898 1940 45 1946-1969 y
PAINTING Potter; body Religious (icon Landscape, Wartime scene Modern, Figurative,
and portraiture, (aggression,
adornment, genre, interior, nationalism,
conservative, non-
ecclesiastical)
ornament still life atrocities, bastract, figurative, art
secular
(portraiture) symbolic, experimental for art sake,
protest, , public art multimedia,
SCULPTURE Pottery, Santos, Free standing, aspiration for
peace)
mixed
carving and furniture, reliefs, public
reliefs, altar Propaganda media,
woodwork, Indigenizing and transmedia
pieces, jewelry,
metalwork metalwork,
orientilizing
works, genre,
and fieta, idyllis (Amorsio,
expression ornamentation Francisco,
Ocampo)

ARCHITECTURE Dwellings Church, plaza City planning Public works Real state, safe housing,
and houses, complex; town parks, accessories, tenements,
planning, waterfronts,
shelters, fortification, civic
squatters, convention arch,
civic/gov’t.,
worship buildings and structures, commercial/ business,
areas, official installations, public works, condos, malls, subdivisions,
residences, private development, low cost
apartments,
residences,
mosque,masj residences, housing
commercial
id, state structures, offices,health
cemeteries, and public
edifices
bridges,lighthous education,
e business chalet
 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW : PHILIPPINE ART
FORM Pre-Conquest Spanish American Japanese Postwar 70s-
Period 1521- Period 1898- Period 1941- Republic Contemporar
1898 1940 45 1946-1969 y
PAINTING Potter; body Religious (icon Landscape, Wartime scene Modern, Figurative,
and portraiture, (aggression,
adornment, genre, interior, nationalism,
conservative, non-
ecclesiastical)
ornament still life atrocities, bastract, figurative, art
secular
(portraiture) symbolic, experimental for art sake,
protest, , public art multimedia,
SCULPTURE Pottery, Santos, Free standing, aspiration for
peace)
mixed
carving and furniture, reliefs, public
reliefs, altar Propaganda media,
woodwork, Indigenizing and transmedia
pieces, jewelry,
metalwork metalwork,
orientilizing
works, genre,
and fieta, idyllis (Amorsio,
expression ornamentation Francisco,
Ocampo)

ARCHITECTURE Dwellings Church, plaza City planning Public works Real state, safe housing,
and houses, complex; town parks, accessories, tenements,
planning, waterfronts,
shelters, fortification, civic
squatters, convention arch,
civic/gov’t.,
worship buildings and structures, commercial/ business,
areas, official installations, public works, condos, malls, subdivisions,
residences, private development, low cost
apartments,
residences,
mosque,masj residences, housing
commercial
id, state structures, offices,health
cemeteries, and public
edifices
bridges,lighthous education,
e business chalet
WHAT IS MODERN ART?
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.
What is contemporary today might become
“academic” or “traditional” at some point. The
examples of modern art for example are now
part of art school curricular and have
become academic. Thus, the distinction
between modern Art and contemporary art
could also be a matter of perception and
reception depending on the contexts.
WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MODERN
AND CONTEMPORARY ART?
Modern and contemporary art are art forms of
two different times. Modern art refers to the
period that begun in the 1880s and that lasted
until the 1960s. Contemporary art can be said to
be the art that was developed after the 1960s and
is still emerging. Contemporary art is one created
by artists who are still living.
 STYLISTIC OVERVIEW
FORM Pre-Colonial Spanish or American Modern Postmodern
Islamic Colonial Colonial /Contemporary

PAINTING Incipient Collaborative,

triumvirate 13 hyper- realist,
moderns, new painting
abstract,
Religious Religious/ neorealist,
Classical, idylitic,
(animist or devotional surreal,
nostalgic
Islamic) Secular Formal expressionist
Community Naturalistic
SCULPTUR based inter-ethic ( homegrown, Abstract Junk/scrap,
relations miniaturismo, Espressinissm duchampian,
E arte covera, neo-
Collective history guild) Academic
(figure and G) indigenous,site-
specific,perform
ance art,hybrid

ARCHITECTURE Worship-related Neoclassic, art International Filipino

and residential deco (Juan industrializing, architecture,
earthquake Arellano, Juan eclectic urban
baroque Hispanic Nakpil, Pablo planning,econo
revivalist Antonio) Art mic zone ,
(neogothic, Nouveau, neovernacular,
neoromanesque, California prefab,
islamic) Mission style regionalist,cosm
opolitan
 CULTURAL OVERVIEW
Indigenous Islamic or Folk or Fine or Popular or
FORM Southeast Philippine lowland world-based urban and
Asian Muslim mass based
(figure H)

PAINTING
Museum-
Ritual and governance Colonial and circulated, Mass
(figure I and J ) post- artist produced,
SCULPTURE colonial centered market
gallery- oriented
distributed

ARCHITECT
WHAT ARE THE GENERAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTEMPORARY
ART?

Contemporary Art is distinguishable from modern art in

historical, stylistic, and cultural terms. The most common
characteristics of Contemporary Art revolve around their being site-
specific, process-based, collaborative, and interactive. However, there
are also artists who use a mixture of contemporary, indigenous,
Islamic, popular and traditional art forms, media, and content.

The most prominent feature of contemporary art is the fact

that it has no distinct feature or a single characteristic. It is defined by
the artist’s ability to innovate and bring out a modern masterpiece.
 THAT’S
ALL
THANK