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The Big Picture Contemporary Art in 10 Works by 10 Artists Pdf

What is Contemporary art? And how would you ascertain a contemporary artist?

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The loose, simple definition is: fine art that has been fabricated in the present day or in the relatively recent past. However, the term gimmicky art indicates more than that. Before delving into it, information technology is necessary to empathise the difference between gimmicky art and its previous artistic period: Modernistic art.

The fact that "contemporary" and "modern" in vernacular English are synonyms does not help. In fact, it often leads to confusion and conflation of the terms modern fine art/artists and gimmicky art/artists. In the art world, these 2 terms refer to two distinct times of creation and to very dissimilar scopes and approaches to art production. The term Modern Art describes fine art fabricated from around the 1860s to the 1970s.  In this period, art started breaking rules and traditions too as embracing experimentation with different materials. Modern artists developed a new way to intend fine art, moving away from figurative art towards abstraction.

In that location is no definitive agreement on when contemporary art started. For many, the cut-off period marking the end of Modern Art, and so the outset of contemporary art, is identified  with the nascence of Postmodernism in the 1970s. Rejecting a uniform organising principle or label, contemporary art is eclectic and diverse. Gimmicky artists commonly work with different materials and methods too every bit with a diversity of concepts and subject matters that challenge the boundaries of what fine art and an artwork tin exist. In comparison to Modernistic Art and other historical art periods, gimmicky art lacks a shared thought and vision also as unified modes of expression: gimmicky artists proceed to experiment, question and re-evaluate the notion of art itself. Yet the broad scope of gimmicky art, there are some common themes that are typical of contemporary artworks. The topics explored by contemporary artists very often reflect relevant and heated issues that define  our order, such as technology and the digital world, identity politics, the body, globalisation and migration, time and retention. Another important element of contemporary fine art, which actually differentiates it from modern art, is the relevance given to the viewer'south experience of the artwork. Contemporary artists frequently center their works on the effect that they can accept on the viewer. Art is not anymore most the "genius" artist behind it, or almost the artwork'southward beauty and form. Art now has dissimilar forms, sometimes ephemeral ones (such every bit performance art or street art) and lives outside conventional spaces.

41 Influential Contemporary Artists

The aim of this listing is to give a good comprehensive overview of the diverseness of forms of artistic expression establish in contemporary art. The artists have been selected not simply for their influential and groundbreaking contributions, merely also as exponents of the prolific artistic movements and trends that characterise contemporary art. The list reflects a loose ranking, with the most influential artist at number i. The ordering is based on the impact of the artists' contributions in the fine art world and in our culture, besides as on their value on the the market. And so, stick until the terminate to know which artists are shaping contemporary art!

41. Anselm Kiefer

b. 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany

Anselm Kiefer is a German sculptor and painter, who creates monumental works using unusual materials, such as ash, shellac, atomic number 82, straw, and glitter. These pieces oft allude to commonage memory and controversial facts from our history, such equally the Nazi dominion, literary works, mythology, as well as historical figures the creative person admires. In his piece of work, Kiefer aims at confronting his civilization's dark past.

Anselm Kiefer, The boundless tangle of nature, with a real axe … from'due south series Der Gordische Knoten, 2019. Courtesy White Cube

40. JR

b. 1983 in Paris, France

JR is a French street artist and lensman, who is all-time known for his large blackness and white photographs flyposted in public places. His fine art comes from activism. While in his works he focuses on local and concrete issues, he always has a wider universal picture in mind, a strong (and idealistic) belief in the good of humanity. Amidst JR's nearly important projects we find: Confront 2 Face, in which he pasted on the West Bank barrier portraits of Palestine people side by side to Isreali people to fight against prejudices; Inside Out Project, which inspired people all around the world to use photographic portraits to narrate untold stories of their communities; and Women are Heroes, in which he highlighted the strength and resilience of women in the places with the highest rates of social distress.

JR, Inside Out NYC, May 2013

39. Hito Steyerl

b. 1966 in Munich, Germany

Hito Steyerl is a filmmaker, moving image artist and innovator of the essay documentary. She is interested in engineering, the global circulation of images, and, in particular, in the effect that those images have on our society. She is primarily known for her video works which often push the boundaries of filmmaking as such and are soaked in conceptuality. Steyerl's works could exist seen in prominent biennials including the ones in Venice, Istanbul and Shanghai. Her films are rich, mixing fiction and facts, figurer-generated images and documentary footage. They explore heated bug of our time, amid them militarisation, surveillance, corporate domination, alienated labor, but also protest culture and the rise of alternative economies. This dense political content is commonly combined with appealing pop aesthetic and witty sense of humour.

Hito Steyerl, Manufactory of the Sun, 2015. Courtesy of Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

38.  Njideka Akunyili Crosby

b. 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria

Njideka Akunyili Crosby creates compelling big-calibration figurative compositions, drawing from political, fine art historical and personal references. She depicts familiar everyday scenes and social gatherings, in what appears as a quiet and pensive way. Her works are densely packed with reflections on postcolonial life and the urgency of the issues of global migration.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Something Split and New, 2013.Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London.

37.  Mark Bradford

b. 1961 in Los Angeles

Marker Bradford is a gimmicky artist working primarily with abstraction. He is known for grid-similar, large-scale artworks combining paint with collage, incorporating items of his daily life such as remnants of found posters or business organisation cards. In his piece of work, Bradford explores social and political issues such as marginalisation of communities and of vulnerable populations by those in power. He describes his styles equally "social abstraction". His last series "Quarantine Paintings" reflects on creativity in isolation and on the purpose of art in this complex time of societal indetermination.

Mark Bradford, Q1, 2020.Courtesy of the artist. Photograph: JOSHUA WHITE/JWPICTURES.

36. Wolfgang Tillmans

b. 1968 in Remscheid, Germany

A unique and sensitive observer of our world, Wolfgang Tillmans is a High german photographer working with photo-reportage, portraiture and large-scale abstraction. In his work, Tillmans constantly pushes the boundaries of the medium, creating a compelling and varied body of work. In 2006, he was the first not-British person to receive the prestigious Turner Prize. Tillmans' works speak to the viewer, as the creative person himself explained: "I want the pictures to be working in both directions, I accept that they speak about me, and yet at the same fourth dimension, I desire and wait them to role in terms of the viewer and their experience."

WOLFGANG TILLMANS, DAN, 2008

35. Olafur Eliasson

b.1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark

The Danish-Icelandic gimmicky artist Olafur Eliasson is widely known for big-scale, site-specific fine art installations that make utilise of h2o, light and air temperature to create an immersive viewer'due south experience. The major themes of his body of work are our human relationship with nature, peculiarly now in the current climate emergency, and human perception. His virtually famous works are: The Weather Project (2003), a giant artificial dominicus installed inside the Tate Modern in London; and Water ice Watch (2019), huge ice blocks left to melt in major cities, aiming to enhance awareness about the climate crisis.

Read more about Eliasson's latest exhibtion at Fondation Beyeler.

Olafur Eliasson, The Conditions Project, Turbine Hall, Tate Modernistic, London, 2003 Courtesy of Studio Olafur Eliasson.

34. Luc Tuymans

b. 1958 in Mortsel, Kingdom of belgium

Luc Tuymans is a Belgian figurative artist. His sparsely-coloured, mysterious and muted paintings explore the relationship between memory, history and people. He draws inspiration from motion picture and television set images that he translates with quick brush strokes and re-contextualises into paintings. He works with soft palettes of browns, whites and greys, creating blurred, emotional and haunting compositions. Tuymans investigates cultural memory and people'due south ability to ignore information technology, and thus, he depicts primarily historically significant people and places.

Luc Tuymans, The Cry 1989

33. Shirin Neshat

b. 1957, in Qazvin, Iran

Shirin Neshat is a visual artist, working with photography, video and moving-picture show. In her artworks, she explores the relationship between women and the Islamic cultural and religious system of values. In item, her aim is that viewers "accept away with them not some heavy political statement, just something that really touches them on the about emotional level".

Shirin Neshat, Rahim (Our Business firm Is on Burn down), 2013 Courtesy Gladstone Gallery. Photo: Larry Barns

32. Banksy

b. 1974 in Bristol, UK

Banksy is the pseudonym of ane of the most famous street artists and political activists, whose identity is simply known to his family, his closest collaborators and a handful of fellow artists. Banksy'southward artistic practice includes urban interventions and illicitly hung artworks in museums. His art is provocative, witty and irreverent. Through his street art and installations, he unremarkably criticises consumerism, capitalism, political authority and the art world. He is as well famous for having shredded his artwork "Daughter With Balloon" immediately afterwards it was bought at a Sotheby's sale in 2018. The shredded artwork, now "Honey Is in the Bin", has been re-sold for $25.4 1000000.

Read more well-nigh Banksy

Banksy, Honey is in the Bin, 2018. Courtesy of Sotheby's.

31. Ana Mendieta

b. 1948 in Havana, Cuba. Died in 1985

"Through my globe/body sculptures, I become one with the earth ... I become an extension of nature and nature becomes an extension of my trunk." This is how Ana Mendieta described her own art. She worked with photographs and video footage of her body immersed and inconspicuous in a natural environment. Her works offer an interesting expect on the relationship between the female trunk and landscape.

Ana Mendieta, Alma, Silueta en Fuego, 1975. Courtesy of The Manor of Ana Mendieta Drove, LLC, Galerie Lelong, New York.

thirty. Ai Weiwei

b.1957 in Beijing, China

Considered "China'due south dissident artist", Ai Weiwei has gotten in trouble multiple times for existence openly critical towards his country'southward regime. His studio has been destroyed, his passport confiscated, and he himself was likewise arrested. Still, that never stopped him from making meaningful artworks commenting on human rights and democracy besides as openly criticising the Chinese Government. Ai Weiwei's oeuvre is provocative and controversial. His brilliant artwork, "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn", where the artist smashed two precious artifacts from the Han Dynasty, shocked the art world.

Read more about Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995. Courtesy of the Artist.

29. Tracey Emin

b. 1963 in Croydon, UK

Tracey Emin's works are deeply autobiographical and confessional. Her do includes drawing, paintings, film, photography, sculpture and sewn appliqué. Emin expresses timeless themes such every bit beloved, loss and grief in an intimate, visceral and honest way. "The nigh beautiful affair is honesty, even if it's actually painful to look at", Emin remarked. In her famous artwork "My Bed", the artist displays a bed with actual secretions stain and messy bedchamber objects such as condoms, underweres, that were inspired past Emin depressive withal sexual stage when she remained in bed for four consecutive days drinking only alcohol. The installation gained a lot of media attention, causing a furore.

Tracey Emin, My Bed, 1998. Courtesy of the artists and White Cube. Photo: Stephen White.

28.  Liu Xiaodong

b. 1963 in Jinzhou, China

Liu Xiaodong tin exist described equally the chronicler of modern life. One of the most prominent figures within the Chinese Neo-Realist group in the early 1990s, he often paints en plein air, exploring and documenting the developing economy of People's republic of china. His manner is characterised by loose, thick brushstrokes that, on the one hand, maintain a high degree of realism, and, on the other, emphasise the abstract nature of the medium. Xiaodong depicts scenes of everyday life. In particular, as the artist said: " When I paint someone, I desire to capture their environment, their living country. I want to testify the personal story behind the paradigm of the person."

Liu Xiaodong, Into Taihu, 2010.

27. Takashi Murakami

b. 1962 in, Itabashi City, Tokyo, Japan

Takashi Murakami's "superflat" aesthetic is widely recognised. The artist has drawn from traditional Japanese painting and popular culture to create a distinctive colourful and bi-dimensional style. His oeuvre comprises paintings, sculptures, prints and even merchandise and collectibles. These include repeated motifs such as grin flowers, cartoon characters (Mr. DOB), and animals.

Takashi Murakami, Tan Tan Bo – In Communication, 2014. Courtesy of Takashi Murakami, Kaikai Kiki Co, Gagosian gallery.

26. Sean Scully

b. 1945 in Dublin, Ireland

1 of the near influential abstruse artists of his generation, Sean Scully is famous for his grid-like paintings, consisting of brushy layers of brightly coloured stripes and squares. Scully's artworks are inspired by the artist's memories of objects and places. Yet, his work is non-figurative. Explaining his works displayed in the 2015 exhibition "State Sea", he affirmed: " In making these paintings I was preoccupied with my memories of Venice, the movement of the water, how information technology heaves confronting the brick and stone of the city".

Sean Scully, Paul, 1984. Courtesy of the artist.

25. Maurizio Cattelan

b. 1960 in Padua, Italy

If Marcel Duchamp were live today, he would probably take loved Maurizio Cattelan and the kind of satire he uses to shock the globe of art. An Italian contemporary artist, he is best known for hyperrealistic sculptures of people such as the Pope (killed past a meteor) and Hitler (begging for mercy on his knees), only too artworks like the aureate toilet he installed at the Guggenheim in 2016, which he provocatively titled "America".

Can Art E'er Exist Funny?

24. Edward Ruscha

b. 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska

Ed Ruscha combines words and images in collages, using everyday objects equally art materials. In his work, Ed Ruscha is able to transform the ordinary in extraordinary. For his artworks, he takes inspiration from the imagery and techniques of commercial art and advert, in a way that resembles the approach of Popular artists. His rich body of work is characterised by the use of words and phrases, playing with language and figures of spoken language such as puns, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and contrasting meanings. The outcome is a varied oeuvre infused with dry humour and coolness.

Always distinctively LA ... Ed Ruscha's The Back of Hollywood (1977). Photo: Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon.

23.Nan Goldin

b. 1953 in Washington, D.C.

Nan Goldin is an influential American photographer, whose body of piece of work focuses on LGBTQ+ bodies and intimacy, equally well as on the HIV crisis and the opioid epidemic. "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" (1986) is i of her most significant photographic artworks. It is a visual diary, documenting the postal service-Stonewall gay subculture and her family and friends, in a turmoil-taken New York City of the 1970s and 80s. More recently, the photographer lunched a series of  protests at Guggenheim Museum in New York against the museum's decision of accepting money from the Sackler family. The family owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin, a drug linked to the current American opioid crisis.

Nan Goldin Twisting at my altogether political party New York City 1980 © Nan-Goldin

22. Jenny Holzer

b. 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio

Over the by few decades, many public spaces have often been taken over by one of Jenny Holzer'south works. Holzer is a feminist Neo-conceptual artist, who produces large-calibration installations, such as billboards, projections on buildings and illuminated electronic displays. LED signs of provocative and powerful statements are her distinctive and nearly visible medium. Holzer'south choice of incorporating words in her artworks is motivated past the desire to "offering content that people – not necessarily art people – could understand", as she explained.

Read more almost one of the most known and provocative female artists on Kooness

© Jenny Holzer

21. Kara Walker

b. 1969 in Stockton, California.

Kara Walker is a conceptual artist best-known for her vignettes of big cut paper silhouettes portraying images of racial stereotypes, such as mammies and pick ninnies. In her work, she explores the themes of race, gender, sexuality and identity, powerfully representing the origins of the systemic injustices and racial inequalities that are embedded in our cultural mores, in our history and in our myths.

Kara Walker, The Keys to the Coop, 1997. Courtesy of the creative person

20. Marina Abramović

b. 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia

Marina Abramović, considered "the grandmother of performance fine art" is an influential conceptual and performance artist. She is a pioneer of trunk art, endurance art and feminist art. In her works, she explores the notion of identity, the limits of the torso, the possibility of the mind. I of her nearly iconic performances is "The Creative person is Present'' held at MoMa in 2010. Abramović sat immbile for viii hours a twenty-four hours for most 3 month in the museum'southward atrium while visitors were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. She met the gaze of over 1000 sitters. Spectators described the experience as very powerful, intense and emotional.

Read more than about Marina Abramović

Marina Abramović, The Artist is Nowadays, 2010, Museum of Mod Fine art. Image by Andrew Russeth.

nineteen. Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo b. 1935 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. Died in 2020. Jeannne-Claude b.1935 in Casablanca, Marocco. Died in 2009.

Born on the same day, Christo and Jeanne-Claude worked together for decades until she died in 2009. He and so continued their take chances alone. Their environmental artworks, which usually involve wrapping architectural objects in recyclable plastic or surrounding islands with it, are visually impressive and controversial. The preparation of these site-specific ecology installations normally took years, fifty-fifty decades.

Their works could be enjoyed past audiences in cities like Miami, New York, Paris, and Basel. The most recent ones include Floating Piers in Italia and the wrapping of Fifty'Arc du Triomphe in Paris in 2021.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Floating Piers, 2016.

18. Kehinde Wiley

b. 1977 in Los Angeles

Kehinde Wiley is best-known for his depiction of black subjects in traditional settings found in Erstwhile Masters' paintings. In early 2018, he became the starting time Black and openly gay artist to paint the potrait of an American President, Barack Obama. Wiley adopts the visual vocabulary of glorification, heroism and familiar iconography to give his contemporary, "urban" Black figures the same power that was long detained only past white subjects.

Kehinde Wiley, Portrait of Barack Obama, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

17. Anish Kapoor

b. 1954 in Mumbai, India

Anish Kapoor is an influential and controversial conceptual artist, specialising in sculpture and art installations. He creates elegant sculptures with organic forms that are as well challenging engineering works. He deals with mirrors, convex and concave surfaces, creating optical illusions. One of his most famous artworks is "Cloud Gate" (2006), a reflective stainless steel sculpture deputed past the city of Chicago.

Discover more about Landscape Artists

Anish Kapoor, Sky Mirror, 2018. Photo: Punkt Ø.

sixteen. Robert Mapplethorpe

b. 1946 in Floral Park, New York. Died in 1989

Robert Mapplethorpe is an American lensman, all-time known for his iconic portraits of celebrities and moving self-portraits, as well as for his depictions of the gay male BDSM subculture and delicate photographs of flowers. He worked almost exclusively in blackness and white. Limerick, lite and shadow, and form were fundamental aspects of all his body of work, since he focused on portraying the classical and traditional values of tone and beauty. He emphasised symmetry and balance.

Observe out American Beat creative person William S. Burroughs photographed by Mapplethorpe in 1982 on Kooness.

Robert Mapplethorpe,Dennis with flowers |Courtesy of Palazzo Reale di Caserta, CollezioneTerrae Motus

15.  Yayoi Kusama

b. 1929 in Matsumoto, Nagano, Nihon

Yayoi Kusama is an incredibly influential Japanese creative person, who became an art-world phenomenon in the age of social media and selfies. Her exercise is based in Conceptual Art, Feminism, Minimalism, Surrealism, Art Brut, Abstract Expressionism and (of form) Pop Art. She works primarily in sculpture and installation, but she is also active in performance, film, style, verse, fiction and painting. Kusama'south artwoks are infused with autobiographical, psychological and sexual content. Her immersive installations attract lots of visitors with tickets sold out in few hours after their release. One of Kusama's largest installations, "Infinity Mirror Rooms", is currently at Tate Modernistic in London and is sold out until 31 March 2022.

Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Rooms, 1965. Courtesy of Tate

14.  Louise Conservative

b. 1911 in Paris, France. Died in 2010

Throughout her long and prolific artistic career, Louise Bourgeois has been creating a visual profile of her life through numerous artworks, many of which produced on a grand scale. Her babyhood traumas and relationships with her parents are portrayed in such a fragile, yet haunting style. "I need to brand things. The physical interaction with the medium has a curative effect. I need the physical acting out. I demand to have these objects exist in relation to my body."

Read more well-nigh 50. Bourgeois on Kooness.com

Louise Bourgeois, Maman in Zürich, Switzerland, 2011.

thirteen.  Kerry James Marshall

b. 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama

Depicting subjects that are " unequivocally black, emphatically black ", Kerry James Marshall explores the idea of black identity in the US as well equally in Western Art. He works with a wide array of pictorial traditions. His work portrays richly-textured narrative scenes inspired from his personal life or historical events, exploring the furnishings of the Ceremonious Rights move on the life of African Americans. His painting "By Times" (1997), sold for $21.1 million in 2018, becoming the most expensive painting of a gimmicky Blackness artist e'er sold in an sale.

Kerry James Marshall, Past Times, 1997. Courtesy of Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authorization, McCormick Place Art Drove.

12. Cindy Sherman

b. 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey

Cindy Sherman is one of the most influential living photographers and filmmakers. Her piece of work offers a sharp critique of gender norms and identity. Sherman uses her own torso to create roles and personas. Her groundbreaking series, "Untitled Film Stills", consists of 70 black-and-white pictures of herself, portraying female stereotypes establish in telly, advertisement and film. In her artworks, she explores the idea of femininity every bit a social construct, distorting it. As the artist explained: " It seems slow to me to pursue the typical thought of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious mode to see the world. It's more than challenging to look at the other side. "

11. Judy Chicago

b. 1939 in Chicago, Illinois

Judy Chicago is a feminist artist, known for her large collaborative fine art installations in which she explores the role of women in culture and history. Her installation artwork "Dinner Party" (1974-79) is considered one of the pivotal artworks of the 20th century and the first epic feminist artwork. The artist, with the help of numerous volunteers, has installed a table with 39 identify settings for 39 important historical and mythical women. Each table setting consisted of a table runner embroidered with the name and symbols relating to the woman'south applishments, together with utensils, a napkin, a globet and a ceramic plate hand-painted by Chicago. Dinner Party'southward aim is to "terminate the ongoing wheel of omission in which women were written out of the historical record".

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974–79. Courtesy of  Brooklyn Museum, photo: Eric Wilcox

10. Damien Hirst

b. 1965, in Bristol, U.k.

The "enfant terrible" of contemporary fine art, Damien Hirst is the richest British living artist. His practice explores themes such every bit religion, science, and death. The latter is a primal topic of Hirst's work; he, in fact, became famous for a series of controversial artworks in which he immersed dead animals, sometimes dissected, in formaldehyde in articulate brandish cases. For case, in the "Physical Impossibility of Expiry in the Mind of Someone Living" (1991), he put a iv.three m tiger shark in a articulate tank.

Observe more than artworks by Damien Hirst on Kooness

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991. Courtesy of Damien Hirst and Scientific discipline Ltd.

ix. Lucian Freud

b. 1922 in Berlin, Germany. Died in 2011

Lucian Freud is ane of the near of import figurative painters of the twentieth century. He depicted portraits, very often nudes, of friends, family unit and celebrities with honesty, tenderness and disturbing corporeality. Freud is all-time-know for his ability to translate the complexity of human psychology and the interior turmoils of his subjects into paintings. With loose brushstrokes and richly practical colours, Lucian Freud created raw, intense portraits and nudes that are at present considered masterpieces.

Lucian Freud,Reflection (Self-portrait), 1985. Private Collection. On loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Fine art, IMMA Collection: Freud Project 2016–21 ©the Lucian Freud Archive/Bridgeman Images.

eight. Keith Haring

b. 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Died in 1990.

Keith Haring's pop art and graffiti-like work emerged from the legendary New York subculture of the 1980s. His blithe playful imagery, such equally the barking domestic dog or the radiant baby, has become an iconic, recognisable and distinctive visual linguistic communication. Haring'southward body of work responded to political and social problems. In particular, he fought to raise awareness well-nigh the AIDS epidemic, to finish Apartheid and to promote LGBTQ+ rights. He drew in the subway station, in empty poster spaces, with the aim of making art as accessible as possible, interacting with a diverse audience. As the artist himself commented: " All kinds of people would stop and look at the huge drawing and many were eager to comment on their feelings toward it. [...] These were not the people I saw in the museums or in the galleries simply a cantankerous-section of humanity that cut across all boundaries. "

Discover here Keith Haring'southward artworks on Kooness or read more about his career.

Keith Haring, Silence = Death, 1989. Courtesy of Keith Haring Foundation.

7.  Barbara Kruger

b. 1945 in Newark, New Bailiwick of jersey

Barbara Kruger is an important conceptual gimmicky creative person. Her artworks, sometimes as big as billboards, apply cropped, black-and-white photographic images, usually from advertisements, juxtaposed with assuming, curtailed, and raucous aphorisms stated in white Futura bold or Helvetica Ultra Condensed typeface againsts black or bright cherry-red text bars. Among the more famous aphorisms in that location are: "I shop therefore I am", "Your torso is a battleground", "Pro-life for the unborn, Pro-decease for the built-in". In her work, Kruger addresses and sharply criticises consumerism, sexism, cultural constructions of power and identity.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your trunk is a battleground), 1989. Courtesy the artist, The Broad Art Foundation and Sprüth Magers.

six. David Hockney

b. 1937 in Bradford, UK

David Hockney is ane of the most recognisable and influential contemporary artists. Hockney is all-time-known for his vividly colored, large-scale portrays of domestic life and evocative images of Southern California lifestyles. Throughout his prolific career, he has worked with different mediums, including contemporary engineering science such every bit light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation photocopies, and even iPad and iPhones. His painting "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at Christie'southward in New York in 2018 for $ninety.3 million, remaining the second near expensive work sold by a living artist at auction.

David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist ( Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Courtesy of the artists. Via Christie's

5. Jeff Koons

b. 1955 in York, Pennsylvania

Jeff Koons is one of the richest living contemporary artists. He is widely known for his sculptures that depict everyday objects, such as vacuum cleaners and basketballs. By introducing these mass-produced, overlooked objects in his fine art, he elevates them from banal and ordinary to iconic. He draws inspiration from advertizement, commerce and celebrity culture. Koons' artworks are considered destructive and controversial, specially since they are created not by him, just by his big staff, raising questions about authenticity and authorship. Ane of his most iconic works is "Rabbit" (1986). In 2019, the sculpture became the about expensive artwork sold by a living artist at an auction. It was sold for $91.i million.

Detect all Jeff Koons' artworks available on Kooness

Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986. Courtesy of Christie'south.

4. Diane Arbus

b. 1923 in Manhattan, New York. Died in 1971

Diane Arbus was the first photographer to always be included in a Venice Biennale exhibition in 1972, a yr after her decease. Arbus is about known for her portraits of people from the edges of society. She photographed a wide array of subjects in familiar settings, expanding the boundaries of acceptable subject matter in art photography. Her sensitivity and ability of capturing the psychology and emotions of her subjects, which she never objectified, made her one of the most important photographers of our fourth dimension. Her imagery actually helped to normalise marginalised people, highlighting how crucial it is to properly stand for all people. 1 of her near famous artwork is "Identical twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967", which inspired Stanley Kubrick'southward iconic sisters in "The Shining" (1980).

Identical Twins, Roselle, New Bailiwick of jersey 1967 a notable photograph by Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971).

three. Jean-Michel Basquiat

b. 1960 in New York. Died in 1988

A young prodigy gone too soon, at the historic period of 27, Jean-Michel Basquiat left a deep marker on contemporary fine art, but also the streets of 1980s New York, which he marked with his moniker SAMO. Basquiat's art is political, attacking structures of ability and systemic racism. In his paintings, he explores his identity and his experiences as a member of the Black community.

2. Francis Bacon

b. 1909 in Dublin, Ireland. Died in 1992

Francis Salary was a figurative painter, whose piece of work focuses on raw and disturbing depiction of man forms, such as portraits of popes and crucifixions. Explaining his artistic style, Bacon said that he aimed at rendering "the brutality of fact". Amidst his most of import themes, we detect: crucifixion, Popes, reclining figures and screaming mouths. The latter was inspired past the famous still of the screaming nurse in Battleship Potemkin (1925) past Sergei Eisenstein.

Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944, Londra, Tate Gallery.

1. Andy Warhol

b. 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Died in 1987

With his distinctive and irreverent fashion, Andy Warhol'south body of work still influences fine art, way and pattern today. He is an icon of Pop Art, who introduced the world to a make new manner of looking at art and life, and how the two intertwine. His "Marilyn Diptych"(1962) is one of the most famous contemporary artwork: a monumental work consisting of fifty images portraying Marilyn Monroe (//www.kooness.com/p/marilyn-monroe). His New York studio, the Factory, became a hive for celebrities and artists, resonating the effect of the Andy Warhol 'brand'.

Andy Warhol, past Jack Mitchell

This list of forty-ane influential contemporary artists has shown a glimpse of the diversity and richness of contemporary fine art.

Thus, what is a contemporary artist? A gimmicky artist is an artist that, through their work, represents our time and reflects on the complex problems that shape our society. A lot of contemporary artists play with the boundaries of what defines an artwork; others explore political themes such as racism, sexism and power structures; many artists reflect on technology.

What mediums do gimmicky artists use? Gimmicky art has challenged the definition of artwork by adopting a variety of mediums. Often, these go beyond paintings and sculpture to include the artist's body, large scale installations, collage and new technologies.

How do contemporary artists apply text in their work? Texts are usually incorporated in political artworks, expressing aphorisms (for example in the cases of Barbara Kruger and Jean-Michel Basquiat) and forceful statements that strike the viewer with their wit.  Artists also utilize language in their piece of work to exploit the immediacy of words that make an artwork attainable to people not in the fine art world, for example in the works of Jenny Holzer and Edward Ruscha.

Embrace image: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Victor 25448 (1987). Courtesy Phillips

Written past Francesca Allievi

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Source: https://www.kooness.com/posts/magazine/most-popular-contemporary-artists

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