Spencer Museum of Art

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Art movements and styles have multiplied and changed so rapidly since the early 1950s that audiences often have difficulty keeping up with them. Many major art movements have become remote from the taste and understanding of the public at large. At the same time, artists, like other professionals, have become more specialized and often depart from traditional concerns such as representation and beauty to focus on other aesthetic, philosophical, and political issues.

Art is always linked to the cultural and political environment surrounding its production. Notice that most of the art in this gallery was made in the United States. In the first half of the 20th century, Paris was the center of Western artistic development. As World War II loomed, many European artists fled to the United States, where they influenced the young American artists. After the war, as the economic and political power shifted to the United States, New York seized the artistic spotlight. By the late 1970s, however, European artists were again becoming internationally prominent.

Since 1945 Western society and its art have undergone more rapid changes then ever before in history, spurred on by the same technological advances that have brought us television, computers, supersonic air travel, and heart transplants. Technology has put men on the moon, but has also brought the dangers of nuclear holocaust and ecological disaster. Our knowledge of ourselves and our universe has expanded, but so has our vulnerability to feel overwhelmed by change and alienated from traditional values and beliefs.

As artists during this time period have responded to the changing economic, social, and political climate, their priorities and styles have changed as rapidly as has the world around them. With burgeoning galleries and museums and a growing art publications industry, artists can readily view each other’s work. These factors have created an environment in which artists have reacted against or been inspired by other artists to an extent never before experienced. Exposure to other works of art, coupled with a culturally generated desire for new commodities (i.e. a market), has resulted in a culture that rewards stylistic innovations at an every-increasing rate.

There are a great many styles of contemporary art. The guide organizes these styles into three groups: art that focuses on its own form, art that is involved primarily with ideas and concepts, and art that addresses social and political issues. These types of art coexist, and some works combine aspects of all three groups.