As far as I understand, Modern art and Contemporary art **can** be visually and thematically the same, with the difference that one is deemed contemporary because is made in the present.
Thus it seems that Contemporary art is just an umbrella term for art made in the present (according to the art world, that seems to be since the later half of the 20th century) cause, although it can look like any other style, if its made recently (and has some sort of justification or “hidden meaning”), its contemporary. I have come to this conclusion because regardless of the style a “present-time” artists uses, they call themselves (or other people call them) a “contemporary artist”.
Am I mistaken? Is there any other definition I´m missing?
Thanks in advance.
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“Modern” means anything from 19th century to the present day.
“Contemporary” means anything from the last 25 to 50 years or so.
I’m not an art historian, but an art major and painter. In visual arts, “Modern” refers to a movement in art that generally began with the Impressionists and carried on into the mid 1900s. There are many other movements or “schools” within Modernism, like Cubism or Expressionism. The word “contemporary” simply refers to art being made at the current moment. So, in 1920 contemporary art was also Modern art, but today Modern art is not contemporary art.
Modern Art is art from a specific time period, which has been called “Modern” by art historians and is broadly defined as coming from 1860’s to 1970’s. The actual definition of the word “modern” doesn’t entirely matter any more, just like “Jurassic” now means things from the Jurassic time period. I believe the current art age is called Post-Modern, and it might get a distinct name eventually but it’s a name that works for now. Just as we can still create Baroque or Classical sounding music we can continue to make Modern looking art.
Contemporary art, on the other hand, is “art that is contemporary”, and the word’s definition still matters. Specifically, contemporary means “having to do with the same time period” (con = same, temporary = time). So all things from 150 years ago are contemporary with each other. In the art history world, 50 or so years is a working definition of contemporary (about how long a person lives and might be able to meet another person). If a time frame for contemporary isn’t otherwise mentioned, then the time frame being referenced is today’s time.
I’ve seen “contemporary” to refer to the current art age, but that is primarily because art history doesn’t need to name any art age until it has finished and can be defined distinctly from whatever is the new contemporary.
I think what you’ve got is basically right, with maybe just a bit of confusion caused by thinking of “Modern” as a word and not an arbitrary label.
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