Smarthistory Logo
Smarthistory Logo
  • About
      • ABOUT SMARTHISTORY
      • What is Smarthistory?
      • Who is Smarthistory?
      • Is Smarthistory reliable?
      • Museum and institutional partners
      • Major donors
      • Press coverage
      • Our blog
      • Give us feedback
      • Contact us

      • At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        With 503 contributors from 201 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world.

  • For Learning
      • ART HISTORIES
      • Start here
      • Prehistoric
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
      • Medieval Europe + Byzantine
      • The Islamic World
      • Europe 1300–1800
      • Europe 1800–1900
      • Pacific Islands
      • Modernisms 1900–1980
      • Art since 1980
      • TOPICS & COURSES
      • Art Appreciation
      • AP® Art History
      • A-Level Art History
      • History of photography
      • Creating and conserving
      • SPECIAL PROJECTS
      • The U.S. Civil War in Art
      • Seeing America
      • Not your grandfather’s art history: a BIPOC Reader
      • ARCHES: At-risk Cultural Heritage
      • Expanding the Renaissance
      • Across Cultures
      • Virtual Visits
  • Books
      • SMARTHISTORY BOOKS
      • Reframing Art History, a new kind of textbook
      • Guide to Byzantine Art
      • Guide to Ancient Roman Art
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 1 (#1–47)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 2 (#48–98)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 3 (#99–152)
      • See complete collection of titles
      • NEW TITLES
        • reframing art history cover smReframing Art History
          a new kind of textbook
        • Byzantine cover jpgGuide to Byzantine art
  • For Teaching
      • TOOLS FOR TEACHING
      • All content for teaching
      • Webinars past & present
      • Teaching with images: K-12
      • Syllabi
      • Do-it-yourself tools
        • UPCOMING EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Oct.18.2023

            1:00–1:30 PM ET

            BIPOC Reader: Teaching Practices and Strategies with…

        • PAST EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Apr.06.2022

            The Kaaba with Dr. Nancy Demerdash

  • Support
      • SUPPORT SMARTHISTORY
      • Donate
      • Contribute an essay

      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.

  • Search

All Results

Generic filters
Search in excerpt

Start here

  • Looking at art
    • Browse this content
    • Why art matters
      • Why art matters (why look at art?)
      • Must art be beautiful? Picasso’s Old Guitarist
      • How art can help you analyze
      • The Power to Look
      • Alejandro Cesarco, What does looking mean?
      • What work of art inspired you?
      • How to enjoy art: Ben Street
    • Elements of Art
      • Line
      • Shape and Form
      • Color
      • Space
      • Texture
      • Surface and Depth
      • Light and shadow
    • Principles of composition
      • Balance, symmetry, and emphasis
      • Movement
      • Proportion and scale
      • Pattern, repetition and rhythm, variety and unity
    • Describing what you see
      • Introduction to art historical analysis
      • How to do visual (formal) analysis
      • Art historical analysis with Goya’s Third of May, 1808
      • Describing what you see: sculpture
  • Approaches to art history
    • Browse this content
    • An introduction to art history
      • Browse this content
      • What is art history and where is it going?
      • Art history and world art history
      • Ever wondered… why people become art historians?
      • Ever wondered…why study art of the past?
      • Art and empathy
      • A brief history of the representation of the body in Western painting
      • A brief history of the representation of the body in Western sculpture
    • The language of art history
      • Browse this content
      • Naturalism, realism, abstraction and idealization
      • Contrapposto explained
      • Foreshortening explained
      • Chiaroscuro explained
      • Linear perspective explained
      • Atmospheric perspective explained
      • Classic, classical, and classicism explained
      • Classical orders of architecture explained
      • What is genre painting?
    • Methods of art history
      • An introduction to iconography and iconographic analysis
    • Brief histories of art and culture
      • Browse this content
      • Common questions about dates
      • What maps tell us
      • A brief history of the cultures of Asia
      • A brief history of Western culture
      • About chronological periods in the Islamic world
      • Africa historical overview: to 1600
      • Africa historical overview: from the 1600s to the present
    • Questions in art history
      • Browse this content
      • What is cultural heritage?
      • Where are the women artists?
      • Why are there so few female artists?
      • Must art be beautiful?
      • Is there a difference between art and craft?
      • What’s the point of realism?
      • What made art valuable: then and now?
      • What does it mean to be an “old master” and to make a “masterpiece”?
    • Current issues in art history
      • Browse this content
      • Why you don’t like art history
      • Cultural heritage “in crisis”
      • How Climate Changes Art
      • The $150,000 Banana
      • Art about Migration
      • What does art tell us about gender?
      • Should Art Be Publicly Funded?
      • Why Do Corporations Buy Art?
      • What does resistance look like?
      • The Art Market and taxes
      • The Case for Copying
      • The case for nudity
      • Trending artists
      • Behind the Banksy Stunt
      • Art, Pride, and the Rainbow Flag
  • Tools for understanding museums
    • Browse this content
    • The case for museums
    • A brief history of the art museum
    • Museums and politics: the Louvre, Paris
    • Art Museums and (Art) Objects
    • Artists in and against the Museum
    • The changing social functions of art museums
    • Looking at Art Museums
    • Local art appropriation in France—a study of the loot in the Louvre Museum
    • Remake the Met
    • How museums shape meaning
    • An interview with Fred Wilson about the conventions of museums and race
  • Tools for understanding religion in art
    • Browse this content
    • Beginner’s guide
      • The five major world religions
      • A brief history of religion in art
    • Christianity
      • Browse this content
      • Christianity, an introduction
      • The Christian Bible
      • A new pictorial language: the image in Early Medieval art
      • The life of Christ in medieval and Renaissance art
      • The lives of Christ and the Virgin in Byzantine art
      • How to recognize the Four Evangelists
      • How to recognize saints
      • Architecture and liturgy
      • The audacity of Christian art
        • Browse this content
        • The problem with Christ
        • Christ is not like a snail: Signs and symbols
        • Putting God in his place: here, everywhere, and nowhere
        • Time and eternity: Yesterday, today, and always
        • This world and the next: Christ on earth; Christ in heaven
        • So near and yet so far: visions and thresholds
        • Unspeakable images: when words fail
    • Islam
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to Islam
      • The Qur’an
      • The Five Pillars of Islam
      • Islamic pilgrimages and sacred spaces
      • Hajj
      • The Kaaba
      • Stories of the modern pilgrimage
      • The complex geometry of Islamic design
      • Introduction to mosque architecture
    • Hinduism
      • Browse this content
      • Hinduism and Buddhism, an introduction
      • Discovering Sacred Texts: Hinduism
      • Sacred texts in Hinduism
      • Hindu deities
      • Beliefs made visible: Hindu art in South Asia
      • Hindu temples
      • Varanasi: sacred city
    • Buddhism
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to Buddhism
      • The historical Buddha
      • How to recognize the Buddha
      • How to recognize a bodhisattva
      • The Buddha and Buddhist sacred texts
      • The stupa
      • Images of Enlightenment: Aniconic vs. Iconic Depictions of the Buddha in India
      • Four Buddhas at the American Museum of Natural History
      • Buddhist meditation and chant
      • Bodh Gaya: center of the Buddhist world
      • Bodh Gaya: The Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment
      • Mudras in Buddhist art
      • Beliefs made visible: Buddhist art in South Asia
      • Bodhisattvas, an introduction
      • Buddhist Monasteries
    • Judaism
      • Judaism, an introduction
      • Jewish history to the middle ages
      • Jewish history 1750 to WW II
      • Jewish history in the post-war period
      • The Torah and its adornment
      • Jewish ceremonial art
  • For the very beginner
    • Browse this content
    • Ancient Near Eastern and ancient Egyptian art
    • Ancient Greek and Roman art
    • Medieval and Byzantine art
    • Renaissance art
    • Baroque and Rococo
    • Nineteenth-century art
    • Introduction to Twentieth-Century Art
    • Introduction to Contemporary Art

Start here

  • Looking at art
    • Browse this content
    • Why art matters
      • Why art matters (why look at art?)
      • Must art be beautiful? Picasso’s Old Guitarist
      • How art can help you analyze
      • The Power to Look
      • Alejandro Cesarco, What does looking mean?
      • What work of art inspired you?
      • How to enjoy art: Ben Street
    • Elements of Art
      • Line
      • Shape and Form
      • Color
      • Space
      • Texture
      • Surface and Depth
      • Light and shadow
    • Principles of composition
      • Balance, symmetry, and emphasis
      • Movement
      • Proportion and scale
      • Pattern, repetition and rhythm, variety and unity
    • Describing what you see
      • Introduction to art historical analysis
      • How to do visual (formal) analysis
      • Art historical analysis with Goya’s Third of May, 1808
      • Describing what you see: sculpture
  • Approaches to art history
    • Browse this content
    • An introduction to art history
      • Browse this content
      • What is art history and where is it going?
      • Art history and world art history
      • Ever wondered… why people become art historians?
      • Ever wondered…why study art of the past?
      • Art and empathy
      • A brief history of the representation of the body in Western painting
      • A brief history of the representation of the body in Western sculpture
    • The language of art history
      • Browse this content
      • Naturalism, realism, abstraction and idealization
      • Contrapposto explained
      • Foreshortening explained
      • Chiaroscuro explained
      • Linear perspective explained
      • Atmospheric perspective explained
      • Classic, classical, and classicism explained
      • Classical orders of architecture explained
      • What is genre painting?
    • Methods of art history
      • An introduction to iconography and iconographic analysis
    • Brief histories of art and culture
      • Browse this content
      • Common questions about dates
      • What maps tell us
      • A brief history of the cultures of Asia
      • A brief history of Western culture
      • About chronological periods in the Islamic world
      • Africa historical overview: to 1600
      • Africa historical overview: from the 1600s to the present
    • Questions in art history
      • Browse this content
      • What is cultural heritage?
      • Where are the women artists?
      • Why are there so few female artists?
      • Must art be beautiful?
      • Is there a difference between art and craft?
      • What’s the point of realism?
      • What made art valuable: then and now?
      • What does it mean to be an “old master” and to make a “masterpiece”?
    • Current issues in art history
      • Browse this content
      • Why you don’t like art history
      • Cultural heritage “in crisis”
      • How Climate Changes Art
      • The $150,000 Banana
      • Art about Migration
      • What does art tell us about gender?
      • Should Art Be Publicly Funded?
      • Why Do Corporations Buy Art?
      • What does resistance look like?
      • The Art Market and taxes
      • The Case for Copying
      • The case for nudity
      • Trending artists
      • Behind the Banksy Stunt
      • Art, Pride, and the Rainbow Flag
  • Tools for understanding museums
    • Browse this content
    • The case for museums
    • A brief history of the art museum
    • Museums and politics: the Louvre, Paris
    • Art Museums and (Art) Objects
    • Artists in and against the Museum
    • The changing social functions of art museums
    • Looking at Art Museums
    • Local art appropriation in France—a study of the loot in the Louvre Museum
    • Remake the Met
    • How museums shape meaning
    • An interview with Fred Wilson about the conventions of museums and race
  • Tools for understanding religion in art
    • Browse this content
    • Beginner’s guide
      • The five major world religions
      • A brief history of religion in art
    • Christianity
      • Browse this content
      • Christianity, an introduction
      • The Christian Bible
      • A new pictorial language: the image in Early Medieval art
      • The life of Christ in medieval and Renaissance art
      • The lives of Christ and the Virgin in Byzantine art
      • How to recognize the Four Evangelists
      • How to recognize saints
      • Architecture and liturgy
      • The audacity of Christian art
        • Browse this content
        • The problem with Christ
        • Christ is not like a snail: Signs and symbols
        • Putting God in his place: here, everywhere, and nowhere
        • Time and eternity: Yesterday, today, and always
        • This world and the next: Christ on earth; Christ in heaven
        • So near and yet so far: visions and thresholds
        • Unspeakable images: when words fail
    • Islam
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to Islam
      • The Qur’an
      • The Five Pillars of Islam
      • Islamic pilgrimages and sacred spaces
      • Hajj
      • The Kaaba
      • Stories of the modern pilgrimage
      • The complex geometry of Islamic design
      • Introduction to mosque architecture
    • Hinduism
      • Browse this content
      • Hinduism and Buddhism, an introduction
      • Discovering Sacred Texts: Hinduism
      • Sacred texts in Hinduism
      • Hindu deities
      • Beliefs made visible: Hindu art in South Asia
      • Hindu temples
      • Varanasi: sacred city
    • Buddhism
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to Buddhism
      • The historical Buddha
      • How to recognize the Buddha
      • How to recognize a bodhisattva
      • The Buddha and Buddhist sacred texts
      • The stupa
      • Images of Enlightenment: Aniconic vs. Iconic Depictions of the Buddha in India
      • Four Buddhas at the American Museum of Natural History
      • Buddhist meditation and chant
      • Bodh Gaya: center of the Buddhist world
      • Bodh Gaya: The Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment
      • Mudras in Buddhist art
      • Beliefs made visible: Buddhist art in South Asia
      • Bodhisattvas, an introduction
      • Buddhist Monasteries
    • Judaism
      • Judaism, an introduction
      • Jewish history to the middle ages
      • Jewish history 1750 to WW II
      • Jewish history in the post-war period
      • The Torah and its adornment
      • Jewish ceremonial art
  • For the very beginner
    • Browse this content
    • Ancient Near Eastern and ancient Egyptian art
    • Ancient Greek and Roman art
    • Medieval and Byzantine art
    • Renaissance art
    • Baroque and Rococo
    • Nineteenth-century art
    • Introduction to Twentieth-Century Art
    • Introduction to Contemporary Art

Introduction to Contemporary Art

by Utah System of Higher Education


Video from the Utah System of Higher Education (with special thanks to Dr. Nancy Ross). Video created by Ydraw.

Cite this page as: Utah System of Higher Education, "Introduction to Contemporary Art," in Smarthistory, January 23, 2016, accessed September 28, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-contemporary-art/.
Flickr Icon

Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

Upcoming webinar

minimize arrow icon close icon

BIPOC Reader: Teaching Practices and Strategies

October 18, 1:00–1:30 pm ET

"Not your grandfather’s art history: a BIPOC Reader" is a free, digital art history resource that provides more than 20 essays that seek to re-route the traditional narratives of art history with Europe and whiteness at its center. Join Dr. Maya Harakawa for this teaching webinar.

Register
Check out the BIPOC Reader Close

Smarthistory is a nonprofit organization

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.

  • Donate
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License