This document provides an overview of contemporary art and how it can be recognized at a glance. It discusses how contemporary art often addresses viewers directly using aggressive language, images or combinations that violate social norms. It also presents dissenting views of dominant culture and uses unconventional materials. Words became an important part of contemporary art through artists like Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger who incorporated text into their works. Their work was influenced by precedents using words and images together from artists like Hannah Höch, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

1. {
CONTEMPORARY
ART
how to recognize it at a glance
part one

2.  Addresses the viewer directly and in a fairly
aggressive manner, whether with words,
images, or a combination of the two.
 Violates social norms, crossing implicit
boundaries of politeness and decency.
 Presents dissenting views of the dominant
culture, including the perspectives of cultural
“Others.”
 Is composed of unconventional “non-art”
materials as often as traditional artistic media.
 Is large in size.
 Expands beyond the confines of a single object
to become a larger environment.
 May not even be an object at all but more of an
experience, situation, or interaction.
quick checklist

3.  Shouts more often than whispers, using
language to
command, question, surprise, shock, or attack.
verbal confrontation

4. Jenny HOLZER
born 1950
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/jenny-holzer/#_

5. Jenny Holzer
Truisms
1977-9

6. Jenny Holzer, Abuse of Power Comes As No Surprise (Truisms)
Times Square Spectacolor Board, 1982

7. Click on this link for documentary footage on the Times Square signboard

8. Airplane Banner Truisms
For New York City
Oct.26 - Nov. 7 2004
Photo: Charlie Samuels
Jenny Holzer, Abuse of Power Comes
As No Surprise, printed on a T-shirt

9. Click for MoMA
catalogue entry on
the Truisms series.

10. Holzer had a retrospective (Jenny
Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT) at
the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Chicago in 2008-9 that then
travelled to the Whitney
Museum of American Art, NYC,
in 2009.
Roberta Smith, “Sounding the
Alarm, in Words and Light,”
March 13, 2009

11. Damage is done by the tacit understanding…, 1981, from the Living Series
text on cast bronze plaque

13. Barbara KRUGER
born 1945

14. Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Your gaze hits the
side of my face)
1981

15. Barbara Kruger
Untitled (You invest in the divinity of
the masterpiece)
1982

16. Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Manias Become Science), 1981

17. Barbara Kruger,
Untitled (Your
comfort is my
silence)
1981

18. Barbara Kruger,
Untitled (You Are
Not Yourself)
1984

19. Barbara Kruger, 1989

20. Barbara Kruger, poster design for the Abortion Rights March, 1989

21. Read the Guggenheim’s account
of Kruger’s career and artistic
development.

22. Richard Hamilton, What Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? 1956
Read about this collage, measuring only 9.75 x 10.25

23. {
Why did words become so
important in the art of Holzer
and Kruger?
What became possible within
visual art by including words?
And, where did this idea
come from? Are there art
historical precedents?

24. Hannah Höch
Cut with a Kitchen Knife
1919-20

25. Roy Lichtenstein, Blam!, 1962

26. Andy Warhol
Tunafish Disaster
1963

27. John Baldessari
What Is Painting?
1968

28. John Baldessari, Tips for Artists, 1966-8

29. Mel Bochner,
Language Is Not
Transparent, 1969
Rubber stamp on
four sheets of
paper, 7.25 x 6.75
inches

30. Glenn LIGON
Untitled: Four Etchings
1992
Portfolio of 4 etchings
25 x 17-1/4 inches
Zora Neale
HURSTON,
"How It Feels to
Be Colored Me,"
(1928)
View the whole
portfolio.

31. Lawrence Weiner, A 36″ x 36″ Removal to the Lathing or Support Wall of Plaster
or Wallboard From a Wall, 1968

32. Lawrence Weiner, A Bit Beyond, 2007

33. Lawrence Weiner
Offsides
2008

34. Christopher WOOL
born 1955

35. Christopher WOOL
artist's website

41. David
HAMMONS
born 1943

42. David Hammons, How ‘Ya Like Me Now, 1988
Information on the piece’s making and history