Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art After 1980 [Paperback]

.Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980,Fifth Edition, offers students and readers an introduction to recent art. The primary focus is an examination of themes that are widespread in contemporary artistic practice. Individual chapters analyze thematic content in eight groupings: Identity, The Body, Time, Memory, Place, Language, Science, and Spirituality. These eight thematic categories provide a significant sample from which readers can grasp influential concepts that stretch across much of the art of our time. Profiles of key artists and works enhance student understanding of these major themes and the individual approaches and key movements in the world of contemporary art.ContentsPREFACEINTRODUCTIONThemes of Contemporary Art: What, Why, and HowA Brief OrientationCHAPTER ONEThe World Changes, The Art World ExpandsOverview of History and Art History: 1980-2020Traditions Survive, New Trends ArriveGlobalizationTheory Flexes Its MusclesImpact of the Digital*Social Experience as ArtArt Meets Contemporary CultureArtists Respond to the AnthropocenePROFILE: Hito Steyerl*CHAPTER TWO: IdentityA Focus on Identity in Art HistoryIdentity Is Collective and RelationalIdentity PoliticsOtherness and RepresentationEssentialism Versus DiversityAuthenticity and HybridityIdentity Is ConstructedDeconstructing DifferenceThe Fluidity of IdentitySynthetic IdentitiesFictional IdentitiesAre We Post-Identity?PROFILE: Shirin NeshatPROFILE: Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie FitchCHAPTER THREE: The BodyPast Figurative ArtPerforming BodiesThe Body BeautifulGrotesque BodiesThe Body Is a BattlegroundSexual BodiesGazing at BodiesMortal BodiesClassifying Humans in the Genomic AgePosthuman BodiesPROFILE: Ren?e CoxPROFILE: Zhang HuanCHAPTER FOUR: TimeChanging Views of TimeTime and Art HistoryTime as a MediumLive ArtFilm and VideoProcess ArtExploring the Structure of TimelƒW