The craziest types of contemporary art. The most unusual art in the world: Brilliant creations of our time

Nowadays, in order to see inspiring works art, you don't have to go to the museum. The Internet has given people the opportunity to appreciate and enjoy art by providing endless stream masterpieces. However, finding something that excites you is a completely different matter. Need to reconsider different types arts such as artwork, sculptures, photographs and installations. But this is not at all easy and takes a lot of time. Therefore, today we will present to your attention some of the most popular trends in art in last years. From book sculptures to immersive installations, these are the trends that people continue to admire.

1. Sculptures and installations from books

2. Beautiful installations from umbrellas

3. Interactive street art

4. Creativity made from thousands of things

5. Epic Lego sculptures

6. Creativity in all the colors of the rainbow

7. Sets of little people

8. Thousands of LED light bulbs

9. Installations made from threads

10. Exciting interactive installations

Contemporary art of the 21st century, more precisely, the late 20th - early 21st centuries. This will be discussed in this article - the third in the series. Guide to Contemporary Art. We will continue our acquaintance with contemporary art. Let's consider the most bright directions late 20th - early 21st centuries.

Art in which there is little meaning, but a lot of meaning (Alexander Genis)

Art of the late 20th - early 21st centuries- omnivorous, ironic, poisonous, democratic - called sunset great era. Postmodernists are in a situation where everything has been said before them. And all they have to do is use what they have created, mix styles, create, albeit not new, but recognizable art...

In the 2 previous articles of the series we looked at:

• Part 3. The end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century ( we'll look at it in this article)

As in the 2 previous articles, for each type of art places will be indicated - cities, museums, sites, where you can see the works of their prominent representatives. This article, like the previous two, may become another an incentive for you to travel again!

From the article you will learn: art - the most striking trends of the late 20th century - early 21st centuries.

1. Neorealism;
2. Minimal art;
3. Postmodern;
4. Hyperrealism;
5. Installation;
6. Environment;
7. Video art;
8. Graffiti;
9. Transavantgarde;
10. Body art;
11. Stuckism;
12. Neoplasticism;
13. Street art;
14. Mail art;
15. No-art.

1. NEOREALISM. This is the art of post-war Italy, which fought against post-war pessimism.

The new front of art united abstractionists and realists and lasted only 4 years. But they came out of it famous artists: Gabrielle Muchi, Renato Guttuso, Ernesto Treccani. They vividly and expressively depicted workers and peasants.

Similar trends appeared in other countries, but the most striking school is considered to be the school of neorealism, which appeared in America through the efforts of the monumentalist Diego Rivera.

See: Renato Guttuso - Chiaramonte Palace (Palermo, Italy), frescoes by Diego Rivera - Presidential Palace (Mexico City, Mexico).

Detail of Diego Rivera's fresco for the Prado Hotel in Mexico City, “A Dream of a Sunday in Alameda Park,” 1948

2. MINIMUM ART. This is the direction of avant-gardeism. Uses simple forms and excludes any associations.

This trend appeared in the USA in the late 60s. The minimalists called Marcel Duchamp (readymade), Piet Mondrian (neoplasticism) and Kazimir Malevich (suprematism) their direct predecessors; they called his black square the first work of minimal art.

Extremely simple and geometrically correct compositions - plastic boxes, metal gratings, cones - were made at industrial enterprises according to artists' sketches.

Look:

Works by Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt - Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), Museum contemporary art(New York, USA), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA).

3. POSTMODERN. This is a large list of unrealistic trends of the late 20th century.

Cyclicity is characteristic of art, but postmodernism was the first example of the “negation of the negation.” In the beginning, modernism rejected the classics, and then postmodernism rejected modernism, just as it had previously rejected the classics. Postmodernists returned to the forms and styles that existed before modernism, but at a higher level.

Postmodernism is a product of the era latest technologies. Therefore it characteristic feature is a mixture of styles, images, different eras and subcultures. The main thing for postmodernists was citation, deft juggling of quotations.

See: Tate Gallery (London, UK), National Museum contemporary art Center Pompidou (Paris, France), Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA).

4. HYPERREALISM. Art that imitates photography.

This art is also called Superrealism, Photorealism, Radical realism or Cold realism. This trend appeared in America in the 60s and 10 years later became widespread in Europe.

Artists of this movement exactly copy the world as we see it in the photo. In the artists’ works one can read a certain irony of man-made technology. Artists mainly depict scenes from the life of a modern metropolis.

Look: works by Chuck Close, Don Eddie, Richard Estes - Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), Brooklyn Museum (USA).

5. INSTALLATION. This is a composition in a gallery that can be created from anything, the main thing is that there is a subtext and an idea.

Most likely, this direction would not have existed if it were not for Duchamp’s iconic urinal. The names of the world's main installers: Dine, Rauschenberg, Beuys, Kunnelis and Kabakov.

The main thing in the installation is the subtext and the space where artists collide banal objects.

See: Tate Modern (London, UK), Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA).

6. ENVIRONMENT. This is the art of creating a 3-dimensional composition that emulates a real environment.

As an art direction, Environment appeared back in the 20s of the 20th century. The Dadaist artist was several decades ahead of his time when he presented to the public his work “Merz Building” - a three-dimensional structure made of various items and materials, not suitable for anything other than contemplation.

Half a century later, Edward Kienholz and George Siegel began working in this genre and succeeded. They necessarily introduced a shocking element of delusional fantasy into their work.

See: works by Edward Kienholz and George Siegel - Museum of Modern Art (Stockholm, Sweden).

7. VIDEO ART. This trend arose in the last third of the 20th century thanks to the advent of portable video cameras.

This is another attempt to bring art back to reality, but now with the help of video and computer technology. American Nam June Paik shot a video of the Pope passing through the streets of New York and became the first video artist.

Nam June Paik's experiments influenced television, music videos (he founded the MTV channel), and computer effects in films. The works of June Paik and Bill Viola made this art direction a field of activity for experimentation. They laid the foundation for “video sculptures,” “video installations,” and “video operas.”

Watch: Video Art From Psychedelic to Social (Popular in China, Chen-che-yen on Youtube.com)

8. GRAFFITI. Inscriptions and drawings on the walls of houses, carrying a daring message.

Appeared for the first time in the 70s North America. Gallery owners from one of the Manhattan districts were involved in their appearance. They became patrons of the creativity of the Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans who lived in their neighborhood. Graffiti combines elements of urban and ethnic subculture.

Names from the history of graffiti: Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Mathom, Kenny Scharf. Scandalous famous person- British graffiti artist Banksy. Postcards with his works are in all British souvenir shops

Watch: Graffiti Museum (New York, USA), works by Banksy - on the website banksy.co.uk.

9. TRANSAVANTGARDE. One of the trends in postmodern painting. Combines the past, new painting and expressiveness.

The author of the term transavantgarde is the modern critic Bonito Oliva. With this term he defined the work of 5 of his compatriots - Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicolo de Maria. Their work is characterized by: a combination classic styles, lack of attachment to the national school, focus on aesthetic pleasure and dynamics.

See: Peggy Guggenheim Museum-Collection (Venice, Italy), Museum of Modern Art at Palazzo (Venice, Italy), Gallery of Modern Art (Milan, Italy)

10. BODY ART. One of the directions of actionism. The body acts as a canvas.

Body art is one of the manifestations of punk culture of the 70s. Directly related to the then fashion for tattoos and nudism.

Live paintings are created right in front of the audience, recorded on video and then broadcast in the gallery. Bruce Nauman depicting Duchamp's urinal in the gallery. The duo Gilbert and George are living sculptures. They portrayed the type of average Englishman.

See: for example, on the website of the artist Orlan orlan.eu.

11. STACKISM. British art association for figurative painting. Opposed the conceptualists.

The first exhibition was in London in 2007, as a protest against the Tate Gallery. According to one version, they protested in connection with the gallery’s purchase of artists’ works in circumvention of the law. The uproar in the press drew attention to the Stuckists. There are now more than 120 artists in the world. Their motto: an artist who does not draw is not an artist.

The term Stuckism was proposed by Thomson. Artist Tracey Emin exclaimed to her boyfriend Billy Childish: your painting is stuck, stuck, stuck! (eng. Stuck! Stuck! Stack!)

Watch: on the Stuckist website stuckism.com. Works by Charlie Thomson and Billy Childish at the Tate Gallery (London, UK).

12. NEO-PLASTICISM. Abstract art. The intersection of perpendicular lines of 3 colors.

The ideologist of the movement is the Dutchman Piet Mondrian. He considered the world to be illusory, therefore the artist’s task is to cleanse painting of sensual forms (figurative) in the name of aesthetic (abstract) forms.

The artist proposed to do this as succinctly as possible using 3 colors - blue, red and yellow. They filled the spaces between perpendicular lines.

Neoplasticism still inspires designers, architects and industrial graphic artists.

Look:works by Piet Mondrian and Theo Vannoy Doesburg at the Municipal Museum of The Hague.

13. STREET ART. Art for which the city is an exhibition or canvas

The goal of a street artist: to instantly engage a passerby in a dialogue with the help of his installation, sculpture, poster or stencil.

In Europe, “shufiti” (installations of shoes hung on trees) and “knitta” (inscriptions made of knitted bright fabrics on traffic lights, trees, car antennas) are now popular.

IN South America"pis" or "muralism" (masterfully executed plot drawing or inscription) are popular.

See: La Llotja, Old School of Art, Barcelona. Entire sections of street art began to be exhibited at Sotheby’s in London.

14. MAIL ART. International non-profit movement. Uses email and postal mail to distribute art.

Initially, mail art was formed as a union of popular art directions in the 60s - conceptualism, book art, video art, body art.

Mail art is the sending of a work of art by mail. The original is sent to only one recipient. And reproductions can be sent to several recipients by email or regular mail.

Artists working in the mail art style use letters, envelopes, postcards, parcels, stamps, and postmarks. The most common technique is collage. It was popularized by American artist Ray Johnson is a prominent figure in the network. The galleries often host mail art exhibitions.

A work of mail art is not just postcards designed by artists or amateurs, but those that have passed through the mail have stamps, stamps, and inscriptions. Thus, postal workers are co-authors of mail art.

See: mail art works on the website.

15. NO-ART. These are projects that exist exclusively online.

But this is not network design. Recognizing works of net art is not so easy. They are characterized by simplicity and straightforwardness.

They differ from the works of artists working in professional programs in their drive, lack of bias and speed.

Artists of past times could hardly imagine what strange forms modern art would take.

And this took the following forms:

1. Anamorphosis. This type of contemporary art involves a painting technique that can only be fully understood by looking at it from a certain location or angle. Some paintings can only be seen by looking at them in the mirror. This art form appeared during the time of Leonardo da Vinci (15th century).
Over the centuries, anamorphosis has developed in modern form looks like street art. With this type of drawing, artists actually imitate cracks in the ground or holes in the walls.

Work by István Orosz

2. Photorealism. This type of art originated in the 60s of the last century, and artists tried to reproduce such realistic images that they would not differ from photography. The smallest details captured by the camera created a “picture of the picture of life.” Critics have mixed views on photorealism, with some believing that the mechanical production of art takes precedence over ideas and style.

3. Drawings on dirty cars. Professionals of this art form do not strive to depict the banal inscription “wash me” on a dirty car. Specialists use special brushes and brushes for their work. In this area, the 52nd Scott Wade (graphic designer) is considered the leading master. He created many original and amazing designs using just dirt on car windows. By the way, he started by using a layer of dust on Texas roads as a canvas. There he drew caricatures using small branches and his own fingers.
Today, Wade is invited to advertise his products by large corporations and art exhibitions.

Artwork by Scott Wade

4. The use of body fluids for the production of works of art. This is naturally strange, but many artists use body fluids in their works. Any educated person I heard about it, but 100% what he heard about is just “the tip of the unpleasant iceberg.”
For example, Hermann Nitsch, an Austrian artist, uses his urine or the blood of cattle for his work. These addictions began to develop during World War II, when he was a child. And now, due to his addiction to unusual looking art, he was brought to justice several times.
Brazilian artist Vinicius Quesada uses only his own blood in his works, without resorting to animal blood. His paintings have sickly shades of green, yellow and red and have a very dark surreal atmosphere.

Hermann Nitsch and his works

5. Paintings with your own body. In contemporary art, not only artists who use their own body fluids to produce paintings are popular. Masters who paint works with their bodies are quite famous and in demand.
Kira Ain Varseji creates abstract portraits using her breasts. She is criticized quite a lot for this. However, this woman is a full-fledged artist who works according to the classical scheme, using paints and brushes.
Is there some more weird artists who, instead of using a brush to paint pictures, use body parts that are not intended for this purpose. For example, Ani K. - draws with her tongue and Stephen Marmer (school teacher) - draws with her buttocks.

"Ani K at work"

6. Three-dimensional image. The most famous artist in this area is the Los Angeles master Mid Alex. His works use non-toxic acrylic paint, thereby making his assistants look like inanimate two-dimensional paintings. Mead presented his equipment to the public in 2009. Another significant figure in this field is Detroit artist and photographer Cynthia Greig. She uses ordinary and practical everyday objects rather than people in her artwork. She covers them with white paint or charcoal. This makes things look flat and two-dimensional from the outside.

One of Alexa Meade's works

7. Art and shadows. It is completely unknown when humanity began to use shadow for works of art. But, in spite of everything, modern artists have reached unprecedented heights. Masters use shadows to position a variety of objects and even to create shadow images of words, objects and people.
Shadow art has a slightly creepy reputation, however, this does not prevent “shadow artists” from using this style to develop themes of devastation, decay, and horror.

Work by artist Teodosio Aurea

8. "Reverse Graffiti" This art form involves creating paintings by removing dirt, but without adding paint. Very often, artists use washing machines to remove dirt from the facades of houses, while creating beautiful works of art. This type of art is considered quite controversial by the public, which is why people who engage in “reverse graffiti” almost constantly have clashes with the police.

Artwork by artist Moose

9. Body art illusions. Humanity has been painting on the body literally since its inception. Both the Mayans and the ancient Egyptians practiced body art. This type of art involves using the human body as a canvas on which a work of art will be created that can deceive the observer from different angles. Illusions on the body can take the form of a wound, a car, or an animal. Japanese master Hikaru Cho became famous for drawing cartoon characters on the human body.

Artwork by Hikaru Cho

10. Drawing with light. Light painting began to be used in 1914, for practical purposes - in production, management recorded the movements of workers. After processing the data, employees either quit or looked for ways to find an easier way for staff to work.

In 1935, surrealist artist Man Ray used a camera with the shutter open to film himself standing in streams of light. For quite a long time, no one could guess what kind of light curls were displayed in the photo. Only in 2009, thanks to technological progress, it became clear that these were not random curls, but a mirror image of the artist’s signature.

One of the main ways we think. Its result is the education of the most general concepts and judgments (abstractions). In decorative art, abstraction is the process of stylizing natural forms.

IN artistic activity abstraction is constantly present; in its extreme expression in visual creativity it leads to abstractionism, special direction in the fine arts of the 20th century, which is characterized by a refusal to depict real objects, extreme generalization or complete rejection of form, non-objective compositions (from lines, dots, spots, planes, etc.), experiments with color, spontaneous expression inner world the artist, his subconscious in chaotic, disorganized abstract forms (abstract expressionism). This direction includes the painting of the Russian artist V. Kandinsky.

Representatives of some movements in abstract art created logically ordered structures, echoing the searches rational organization forms in architecture and design (the Suprematism of the Russian painter K. Malevich, constructivism, etc.) Abstractionism was less expressed in sculpture than in painting.

Abstract art was a response to the general disharmony of the modern world and was successful because it proclaimed the rejection of consciousness in art and called for “giving in to the initiative to forms, colors, colors.”

Realism

From fr. realisme, from lat. realis - real. In art, in a broad sense, a truthful, objective, comprehensive reflection of reality using specific means inherent in the types of artistic creativity.

The general features of the realism method are reliability in the reproduction of reality. At the same time realistic art has a huge variety of ways of cognition, generalization, and artistic reflection of reality (G.M. Korzhev, M.B. Grekov, A.A. Plastov, A.M. Gerasimov, T.N. Yablonskaya, P.D. Korin, etc. )

Realistic art of the 20th century. acquires bright national traits and variety of forms. Realism is the opposite phenomenon to modernism.

Avant-garde

From fr. avant - advanced, garde - detachment - a concept that defines experimental, modernist endeavors in art. In every era, innovative phenomena arose in the fine arts, but the term “avant-garde” was established only at the beginning of the 20th century. At this time, such trends as Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, and Abstractionism appeared. Then, in the 20s and 30s, surrealism occupied avant-garde positions. In the 60-70s, new varieties of abstract art were added - various forms of actionism, working with objects (pop art), conceptual art, photorealism, kineticism, etc. Avant-garde artists express with their creativity a kind of protest against traditional culture.

In all avant-garde movements, despite their great diversity, common features can be identified: rejection of the norms of classical imagery, formal novelty, deformation of forms, expression and various playful transformations. All this leads to the blurring of the boundaries between art and reality (ready-made, installation, environment), the creation of an ideal open work art that directly interferes with the environment. Avant-garde art is designed for a dialogue between the artist and the viewer, active interaction a person with a work of art, participation in creativity (for example, kinetic art, happenings, etc.).

Works of avant-garde movements sometimes lose their pictorial origin and are equated with objects of the surrounding reality. Modern trends of avant-gardeism are closely intertwined, forming new forms of synthetic art.

Underground

English underground - underground, dungeon. A concept meaning an “underground” culture that opposed itself to the conventions and restrictions of traditional culture. Exhibitions of artists of the movement in question were often held not in salons and galleries, but directly on the ground, as well as in underground passages or the metro, which in a number of countries is called the underground (subway). Probably, this circumstance also influenced the fact that this direction in the art of the 20th century. this name was established.

In Russia, the concept of underground has become a designation for a community of artists representing unofficial art.

Surrealism

Fr. surrealisme - super-realism. Direction in literature and art of the 20th century. developed in the 1920s. Having emerged in France on the initiative of the writer A. Breton, surrealism soon became an international trend. The surrealists believed that creative energy comes from the sphere of the subconscious, which manifests itself during sleep, hypnosis, painful delirium, sudden insights, automatic actions (random wandering of a pencil on paper, etc.)

Surrealist artists, unlike abstractionists, do not refuse to depict real-life objects, but present them in chaos, deliberately devoid of logical relationships. Lack of meaning, rejection of a reasonable reflection of reality is the basic principle of the art of surrealism. The very name of the direction speaks of its isolation from real life: “sur” in French “above”; artists did not pretend to reflect reality, but mentally placed their creations “above” realism, passing off delusional fantasies as works of art. Yes, in number surreal paintings included similar, inexplicable works by M. Ernst, J. Miró, I. Tanguy, as well as objects processed by the surrealists beyond recognition (M. Oppenheim).

The surrealist movement, which was headed by S. Dali, was based on the illusory accuracy of reproducing an unreal image that arises in the subconscious. His paintings are distinguished by a careful brushwork style, accurate rendering of light and shade, and perspective, which is typical for academic painting. The viewer, succumbing to the persuasiveness of illusory painting, is drawn into a labyrinth of deceptions and insoluble mysteries: solid objects spread, dense objects become transparent, incompatible objects twist and turn out, massive volumes acquire weightlessness, and all this creates an image impossible in reality.

This fact is known. Once at an exhibition, a viewer stood for a long time in front of a work by S. Dali, peering carefully and trying to understand the meaning. Finally, in complete despair, he said loudly: “I don’t understand what this means!” The viewer's exclamation was heard by S. Dali, who was at the exhibition. “How can you understand what this means if I don’t understand it myself,” said the artist, thus expressing the basic principle of surrealist art: to paint pictures without thinking, without reflecting, abandoning reason and logic.

Exhibitions of works by surrealists were usually accompanied by scandals: spectators were indignant at the absurd, strange pictures, believed that they were being deceived and mystified. The surrealists blamed the audience, declaring that they were lagging behind and had not matured enough to catch up with the work of “advanced” artists.

The general features of the art of surrealism are fantasy of the absurd, alogism, paradoxical combinations of forms, visual instability, variability of images. Artists turned to imitation of primitive art, the creativity of children and the mentally ill.

Artists of this movement wanted to create on their canvases a reality that did not reflect the reality suggested by the subconscious, but in practice this resulted in the creation of pathologically repulsive images, eclecticism and kitsch (German - kitsch; cheap, tasteless mass production designed for external effect).

Some of the surrealist finds were used in commercial areas decorative arts, For example optical illusions, allowing you to see two different images or scenes in one picture depending on the direction of view.

The works of the surrealists evoke the most complex associations and can be identified in our perception with evil. Frightening visions and idyllic dreams, violence, despair - these feelings are in various options appear in the works of surrealists, actively influencing the viewer; the absurdity of the works of surrealism affects the associative imagination and psyche.

Surrealism is a controversial artistic phenomenon. Many truly advanced cultural figures, realizing that this trend was destroying art, subsequently abandoned surrealist views (artists P. Picasso, P. Klee and others, poets F. Lorca, P. Neruda, Spanish director L. Buñuel, who made surreal films ). By the mid-1960s, surrealism was replaced by new, even more striking directions of modernism, but the bizarre, mostly ugly, meaningless works of the surrealists still fill the halls of museums.

Modernism

Fr. modernisme, from Lat. modernus - new, modern. A collective designation for all the latest trends, trends, schools and activities of individual masters of art of the 20th century, breaking with tradition, realism and considering experiment as the basis of the creative method (Fauvism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, abstract art, Dadaism, surrealism, pop art, op- art, kinetic art, hyperrealism, etc.). Modernism is close in meaning to avant-garde and opposite to academicism. Modernism was negatively assessed by Soviet art critics as a crisis phenomenon in bourgeois culture. Art has the freedom to choose its historical paths. The contradictions of modernism, as such, must be considered not statically, but in historical dynamics.

Pop Art

English pop art, from popular art - popular art. Art direction Western Europe and the USA since the late 1950s. The heyday of pop art came in the turbulent 60s, when youth riots broke out in many countries of Europe and America. The youth movement did not have a single goal - it was united by the pathos of denial.

Young people were ready to throw overboard the entire past culture. All this is reflected in art.

A distinctive feature of pop art is a combination of challenge and indifference. Everything is equally valuable or equally priceless, equally beautiful or equally ugly, equally worthy or unworthy. Perhaps only advertising business based on the same dispassionate and businesslike attitude towards everything in the world. It is no coincidence that advertising had a huge influence on pop art, and many of its representatives worked and are working in advertising centers. The creators of advertising programs and shows are able to cut into pieces and combine washing powder and famous masterpiece art, toothpaste and Bach's fugue. Pop art does the same.

Motifs of mass culture are exploited by pop art in different ways. Real objects are introduced into the picture through collage or photographs, usually in unexpected or completely absurd combinations (R. Rauschenberg, E. War Hall, R. Hamilton). Painting can imitate compositional techniques and billboard techniques; a comic book image can be enlarged to the size large canvas(R. Lichtenstein). The sculpture can be combined with dummies. For example, the artist K. Oldenburg created the likes of display models of food products of enormous size from unusual materials.

There is often no boundary between sculpture and painting. Piece of art pop art often not only has three dimensions, but also fills the entire exhibition room. Due to such transformations, the original image of an object of mass culture is transformed and perceived completely differently than in a real everyday environment.

The main category of pop art is not artistic image, but its “designation”, which relieves the author of the man-made process of its creation, the image of something (M. Duchamp). This process was introduced with the aim of expanding the concept of art to include non-artistic activities, the “exit” of art into the field of mass culture. Pop art artists were the initiators of such forms as happenings, object installations, environments and other forms conceptual art. Similar movements: underground, hyperrealism, op art, readymade, etc.

Op art

English op art, abbreviated from optical art - optical art. A movement in art of the 20th century that became widespread in the 1960s. Op art artists used various visual illusions, relying on the peculiarities of perception of flat and spatial figures. The effects of spatial movement, merging, and floating of forms were achieved by introducing rhythmic repetitions, sharp color and tonal contrasts, the intersection of spiral and lattice configurations, and twisting lines. In op art, installations of changing light and dynamic structures were often used (discussed further in the section kinetic art). Illusions of flowing movement, sequential changes of images, unstable, continuously rearranging forms appear in op art only in the viewer’s perception. The direction continues the technical line of modernism.

Kinetic art

From gr. kinetikos - setting in motion. A movement in contemporary art associated with the widespread use of moving structures and other dynamic elements. Kineticism as an independent movement took shape in the second half of the 1950s, but it was preceded by experiments in creating dynamic plastic art in Russian constructivism (V. Tatlin, K. Melnikov, A. Rodchenko) and Dadaism.

Earlier folk art also showed us samples of moving objects and toys, for example, wooden birds of happiness from the Arkhangelsk region, mechanical toys imitating labor processes, from the village of Bogorodskoye, etc.

In kinetic art, movement is introduced in different ways; some works are dynamically transformed by the viewer himself, others by air vibrations, and others are driven by a motor or electromagnetic forces. The variety of materials used is endless - from traditional to ultra-modern technical means, right up to computers and lasers. Mirrors are often used in kinetic compositions.

In many cases, the illusion of movement is created by changing lighting - here kineticism meets op art. Kinetic techniques are widely used in organizing exhibitions, fairs, discos, and in the design of squares, parks, and public interiors.

Kineticism strives for a synthesis of arts: the movement of an object in space can be supplemented by lighting effects, sound, light music, film, etc.
Techniques of modern (avant-garde) art

Hyperrealism

English hyperrealism. A movement in painting and sculpture that arose in the USA and became an event in world fine art in the 70s of the 20th century.

Another name for hyperrealism is photorealism.

Artists of this movement imitated photos using painterly means on canvas. They depicted the world of a modern city: shop windows and restaurants, metro stations and traffic lights, residential buildings and passers-by on the streets. At the same time, special attention was paid to shiny surfaces that reflect light: glass, plastic, car polish, etc. The play of reflections on such surfaces creates the impression of interpenetration of spaces.

The goal of the hyperrealists was to depict the world not just authentically, but super-similarly, super-real. To do this, they used mechanical methods of copying photographs and enlarging them to the size of a large canvas (slide projection and scale grid). The paint, as a rule, was sprayed with an airbrush in order to preserve all the features of the photographic image and to exclude the manifestation of the artist’s individual handwriting.

In addition, visitors to exhibitions in this area could meet in the halls human figures made of modern polymer materials in life size, dressed in ready-made dress and painted in such a way that they were completely indistinguishable from the spectators. This caused a lot of confusion and shocked people.

Photorealism has set itself the task of sharpening our perception of everyday life, symbolizing the modern environment, and reflecting our time in the forms of “technical arts” that have become widespread precisely in our era of technical progress. Fixing and exposing modernity, hiding the author's emotions, photorealism in its programmatic works found itself on the border visual arts and almost stepped over it, because he tried to compete with life itself.

Ready-made

English ready made - ready. One of the common techniques of modern (avant-garde) art, which consists in the fact that the subject industrial production breaks out of the usual everyday environment and is exhibited in exhibition hall.

The meaning of the readymade is this: when the environment changes, the perception of the object also changes. The viewer sees in the object displayed on the podium not a utilitarian thing, but an artistic object, expressiveness of form and color. The name readymade was first used in 1913-1917 by M. Duchamp in relation to his “ready-made objects” (comb, bicycle wheel, bottle dryer). In the 60s, the readymade became widespread in various directions avant-garde art, especially in Dadaism.

Installation

From English installation - installation. A spatial composition created by an artist from various elements - household items, industrial products and materials, natural objects, text or visual information. The founders of the installation were the Dadaist M. Duchamp and the surrealists. By creating unusual combinations of ordinary things, the artist gives them a new symbolic meaning. The aesthetic content of the installation is a play of semantic meanings that change depending on where the object is located - in a familiar everyday environment or in an exhibition hall. The installation was created by many avant-garde artists R. Rauschenberg, D. Dine, G. Uecker, I. Kabakov.

Installation is an art form widespread in the 20th century.

Environment

English environment - surroundings, environment. An extensive spatial composition that embraces the viewer like a real environment is one of the forms characteristic of avant-garde art of the 60s and 70s. Sculptures by D. Segal, E. Kienholz, K. Oldenburg, and D. Hanson created naturalistic environments that imitate an interior with human figures. Such repetitions of reality could include elements of delusional fiction. Another type of environment is a play space that involves certain actions by spectators.

Happening

English happening - happening, happening. A type of actionism, most common in avant-garde art of the 60s and 70s. The happening develops as an event, provoked rather than organized, but the initiators of the action necessarily involve the audience in it. Happenings emerged in the late 50s as a form of theater. In the future, artists most often organize happenings directly in the urban environment or in nature.

They consider this form as a kind of moving work in which the environment and objects play no less a role than the living participants in the action.

The action of a happening provokes the freedom of each participant and the manipulation of objects. All actions develop according to a pre-planned program, in which, however, great importance is given to improvisation, giving vent to various unconscious impulses. Happenings may include elements of humor and folklore. The happening clearly expressed the desire of avant-gardeism to merge art with the flow of life itself.

And finally the most advanced form of modern art - Superflatness

Superflat

Superflat is a term coined by contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

The term Superflat was created to explain the new visual language actively used by a generation of young Japanese artists such as Takashi Murakami: “I thought about realities Japanese drawing and painting and how they differ from Western art. For Japan, the feeling of flatness is important. Our culture does not have 3D forms. 2D forms approved in historical Japanese painting, akin to the simple, flat visual language of modern animation, comics and graphic design."

Those who believe that contemporary art is just haphazard spots on canvases or exhibitions with unmade beds as exhibits will be very surprised to see the following works, because modern artists, sculptors and other creators often create real masterpieces. They are brave, they are thoughtful, and they are very original! Take a look for yourself, isn't it great?

1. Rubik's Cube Cake

2. Russian subject painting in one picture - “Trouble does not come alone”

3. The artist invites brave visitors to stand under 300 pointed pitchforks hanging from the ceiling

4. Work from the new exhibition of the famous street artist Banksy

5. A huge ship made from paper boats

Work by Claire Morgan “Water on the brain”.

6. Mud art on cars

7. A magnificent chef's dish created from army rations

Chef Chuck George, cinematographer Jimmy Plum and photographer Henry Harges teamed up to create these intriguing installations.

Pig brain with stewed potatoes and beef with red sauce.

Prunes, apple marmalade and processed cheese.

8. What happens if you add some color to famous sports logos?

9. Ceramic kiss

10. Installation “People I see but don’t know”

Thousands of miniature metal figurines by Zadoc Ben-David.

11. Amazing graffiti

12. Ceramic crushed beer cans

13. Installation made entirely from books

14. Miniature cakes