by Shelly Mcrae

Created on: May 12, 2008   Last Updated: May 02, 2012

During the Renaissance and into the early 19th century, an artistic style would dominate for years, even decades. Apprentices learned from the established artists of the time, and the contemporary techniques were taught. The apprentices would perpetuate the style; alterations to it were idiosyncratic and defined the artist, not the style.

But from the 1950s onward, information spread quicker, immigration became more prevalent (thus creating multi cultural cultures), and consumerism became an art form in itself. These factors, and more, gave rise to a plethora of artistic styles, from modern to post modern to pop and beyond.

So what is contemporary art? It is the collection of artistic works that are evidence of diversity and isolation, of rampant consumerism and poverty, of social causes and social apathy. Contemporary art is art of the 20th century and beyond. It is the artistic endeavors of artists both disenfranchised from and wholly integrated into their societies whose works reflect both their inner selves and their perspectives of the world around them.

Andy Warhol is perhaps one of the best-known pop artists of the 1960s. His painting of Campbell soup cans is iconic. Andy Warhol depicted the world he saw, the exterior.

Judy Chicago is well known for her feminist art, depicting through the use of plant imagery the essential being of womanhood. Her work, though exhibiting elements of the exterior world, portray an inner world of self.

Robert Maplethorp created political turmoil with his exhibitions of sadomasochistic and homoerotic photography. He was explicit in his need to express an kind of sexuality that had remained hidden from society.

Robert Smithson used the land as his canvas, and was known as an earth artist. He created such environmental works as the Spiral Jetty at Rozel Point. Smithson's work is global, using the earth itself as his canvas.

This vast diversity of artistic styles and mediums all fall under the name of contemporary art.

How then, can the art world, the critics and historians, move on from this label? How can an artist in these times bring to the world a new and innovative style of artistic endeavor without simply becoming yet another contemporary artist?

No one can yet say when, or whether, the term contemporary art will someday fade and critics begin identifying artworks in more definitive terms. Future art historians may have a more onerous task; they will need to define the styles that made up contemporary art, and somehow convey to students the complexities of diverse and divergent artistry captured by one label.

For now, though, contemporary art is the arts that have been created since the end of World War II. It is the arts that have been exhibited in galleries and parks and public buildings. Contemporary art is not a style, but a time. It is the art of an age.

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