ART IS EASY
SIMON REESSenior Curator, CAC Vilnius
“Contemporary Art Collecting” SeminarNational Gallery of Art Vilnius
January 28, 2010
WHAT DEFINES “CONTEMPORARY” ART
•TEMPORALITY or TIME: in which it was made, that it represents, as an element of its production, as an
element of its reception or viewing
•THE EVERYDAY: closeness to everyday life, use of common or household objects, referring to situations that we are all familiar with
•THE SOCIAL: involves rituals or behaviors (in performance) that are familiar, or are borrowed
from well-known dramaturgy, the work might require interaction from the audience
•THE POPULAR: as in POP, or popular consciousness, or the collective unconscious (memory)
WHAT DEFINES “CONTEMPORARY” ART… continued
•REFERENTIALITY: refers to other artworks (often well-known ones), refers to ‘artworks’ that evolve from other media such as cinema or music, refers to its own status (its production, as a painting, as a work by X)
•THE ALLEGORICAL: is made as a part of a series, or serially, deliberately repeats something
•HUMOUR… in all its delightful and myriad forms
WHAT’S MISSING?
University/Art Academy
• Artspaces/Art Associations
• Curator[s]
• Block Buster
• Career Survey
• Art Fair
• Foundations
• Audience
• Collector[s]
• The Artist
IMPORTANT PUBLISHING HOUSES
THAMES & HUDSON*
PHAIDON*
TASCHEN*
RIZZOLI
SCALO
HATJE CANTZ
SUGGESTED READING — SERIALSThe New York Times [USA, online]
The Guardian [UK, online]Frankfurter Allgemeine [DE, online]Sueddeutsche Zeitung [DE, online]Neue Zurcher Zeitung [CH, online]
Artnewspaper [UK, online]www.artforum.com
The Financial Times [UK, weekend print edition plus special
supplements/Tuesdays]The London Times
[UK, weekend print edition]The Times on Sunday [UK, print edition]
Vanity Fair [US, magazine]New Yorker [US, magazine]Parkett [CH, periodical]
SUGGESTED READING — BOOKSSeven Days in the Artworld by Sarah Thornton
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: the curious economics of contemporary art by Don Thompson
The Lives of Artists by Calvin Tomkins
Let’s See: writings on art from the “New Yorker” by Peter Schjedahl
Shark-Infested Waters: the Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s by Sarah Kent
Art Lover: a biography of Peggy Guggenheim by Anton Gill
True Colours: the real life of the artworld
by Anthony Haden-Guest
Alfred H. Barr: missionary for the modern
by Alice Goldfarb Marquis
SUGGESTED VIEWING/READING
Robert Hughes author, critic, broadcaster
The Shock of the New & ‘The New’ Shock of the New
book and BBC TV series
American Visions: the epic history of art in America book and PBS TV series
Matthew Collings art journalist and broadcaster
This is Modern Art
book and Channel 4 (UK) TV series