It can be difficult gain perspective on your own time, but these artists manage to do just that.
1960–now
Beginner's guide
Art has never been more diverse, but here's a good starting point.
videos + essays
A-Level: Sample set of works for British and American contemporary
Anything goes—from portraits to performance, what we call ‘art’ has changed considerably in the last 50 years.
A-Level: Chris Ofili, The Holy Virgin Mary
Why did the mayor of New York City threaten to close the museum exhibiting Ofili’s painting of the Virgin Mary?
A-Level: Contemporary Art, an introduction
Since 1960, artists have come up with countless ways to engage audiences on a huge spectrum of topics.
A-Level: Lynda Benglis, Omega, and Judy Chicago, Pasadena Lifesaver, Blue Series, Number 4
Purity and geometry, knotted and explosive: two approaches to feminist art from the early 1970s.
A-Level: Mary Kelly, Post-Partum Document
Motherhood is explored and documented—but not sugarcoated—in Kelly’s five-year-long project.
A-Level: Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn’s floating head, garishly colored, functions as the Virgin Mary in a Byzantine icon.
A-Level: Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych
Warhol used a quasi-mechanical process of silkscreen to reproduce Marilyn Monroe’s familiar face again and again.
A-Level: Why is this art? Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans
By putting this in the museum, we see this as art. But what if it weren’t there?
