It’s Only Art?

Art historians plot the changes in art’s trends over many centuries. Contemporary art certainly draws on all past art - you can see numerous references to art of ancient civilizations and various tribal influences in many artists’ works. Picasso used African art and Matisse used Moroccan art, just to name a pair of examples.

Whether a contemporary artist goes to the very ancient or renaissance roots of an artistic convention, or reacts to the later fused forms of art of the 20th century, there are many influences that can appear in a unique style. Although these influences appear intentionally many times, some artists using these conventions second-handedly from later fused forms of creativity may not know or intend the reflection of a particular past creative convention.

For contemporary artists, as is done by all creative workers in any field, the artist must use the past to some extent in order to build upon to create a new style. In research science, as in the arts, a worker can adapt and mix technologies in new ways, adding or subtracting, making minor variations here, major variations there. Sooner or later the artist must add their own twist to the experiement or recipe to achieve the unique style to which they aspire. Art historians can trace most of what has been developed in art in this same way.

How does an artist know what works best? It is a personal viewpoint that is derived from numerous experiements and endless workings of the imagination. Creative individuals often work on their problems in their sleep, when out of the office, in their unconscious or subconscious - because the motivation is pervasive.

The story about Einstein’s conceptualizing Relativity while he was riding on a trolleycar quickly passing vertical structures is typical of the creative breakthrough. In actuality, we all have creative problem-solving experiences, some more important than others. The artist or scientist must sort these experiences into categories of unacceptable or acceptable, better to best, and be ready to change and adapt their perception and thinking when a better solution is sensed.

In contemporary art what is important and influential is what works best. All artists who gather and try the tools of the past know it’s their job to surpass or at least provide important variance in creating new tools and new styles. The most influential past creators affect many artists in many fields. Who are the most influential artists? What artists made the most meaningful additions available to contemporary artists?

The answer to who are the most influential artists is actually a subjective matter for individual artists, but if we look at contemporary artists generally we can see which past masters were called upon most frequently and most strongly. Here are some articles that can used to review some of the most influential artists on contemporary art:

Pablo Picasso

Henri Matisse

Wassily Kandinsky

Andy Warhol

Jean DuBuffet

David Hockney

Robert Indiana

Gerhard Richter

Kenneth Noland

Certainly any such list will grow as art progresses and what is now contemporary becomes a matter of history. Important artists can arguably only be recognized when they move roughly just ahead of some point of recognition. An influential artist can be ahead of their time, or the artist can be too far ahead of their time. If too far ahead of their time, their work is seen as completely disconnected from any current recognizable forms. So, in some respects, many complete revolutions in art or any field remain unrecognized for long periods of time.

Contemporary art at least has the self-awareness to know that it must change rapidly to be anything near revolutionary. Influential artists can still make a mark by way of a unique and personal style without a complete revolution. Artists can reach the level of ” important ” with a personal vision, although many historians will refer to them as quirky rather than the “Father” of some major art movement. Unique style, even if not overly revolutionary, should not be completely discounted as un - important because all media have limitations and artists who fill in these areas remain influential in slightly different ways.

Contemporary Art Gallery Magazine has some good reading for anyone interested in the area of contemporary sculpture.  The articles, mostly interviews of the sculptors also show images of the works and some shots of the studio as well.  CAG has written on sculptors including:

Peter Reginato
Liisa Rahkonen
Todd VanDuren
Michael Binkley
Damon Hildreth
John Simms
Pekka Paikkari
Heidi Maiers
Dorothy Edwards
Robin McGee

These sculptors work in a variety of media - steel, clay, stone, mosaic, aluminum, and wood.  While their sculptures run the gamut of styles you can see a real array of contemporary styles in living sculptors.  Whatever style of sculpture you enjoy you should be able to appreciate the creative products of these sculptors.

For a gallery magazine that is only six months online CAG has tried to make sculpture a strong part of its focus.  Sculpture made by each of these sculptors can also be seen at their websites.  Sculptor studios can be seen on almost all of these websites.  CAG believes that any gallery magazine should focus on sculpture and the work of contemporary sculptors doing quality work as often as possible.  And with CAG, it shows.

- Daniel Ferris