How to learn to understand contemporary art

1. Understand what it is and why you need it

There are two most common opinions. Or that contemporary art is some kind of swindle, and those who are interested in it are just snobs. Or that in order to understand it, you need to have an art education, and an ordinary person will never comprehend it. But no matter how different contemporary art may be from classical, it often says the same thing: about emotions, the search for oneself, the world around us and our place in it. He just does it in a completely different way.

First, let's see what kind of art is considered "modern". There are two terms in English: modern art and contemporary art. The first is called what was created around the 1900-1970s, and the second - everything after. In Russian, both of these strata of art are called with one word - "modern". But in this article we will only talk about artistic practices that began to take shape from the last third of the 20th century, that is, about contemporary art.

As the authors of the training course "In short, modernity!" Today anything can become a sovrisk: an object, a phenomenon, a process. Yes, it still includes painting and sculpture, but these are only two of the many media options for conveying the artist's intention.

How to learn to understand contemporary art

Do not rush to say that this is not at all for you. Contemporary art is so vast that everyone can find something for themselves: street art, land art, video art, performances, actionism Art becomes a situation created by an artist and having some meaning for him., theater performances with the participation of spectators, modern dance - and that's not all. Surely there is something that will touch you, it will be consonant with your personal experience.

You can start with the more familiar museums and galleries. Just give up the expectation of seeing something “beautiful” at an exhibition, because in contemporary art the main thing is not beauty, but the idea and how it is expressed.

2. Understand the general principles

The first characteristic of contemporary art is diversity. And this applies to everything: materials, forms of expression, concepts and themes. Now there is no single ideology or "ism": artists reflect in their works a motley cultural landscape, draw attention to topical issues. For example, today there are many works on consumerism, the environmental crisis, the search for identity, dependence on technology and social networks, globalization and migration.

This variety is confusing to the untrained viewer. But it is thanks to him that contemporary art, like a mirror, reflects our society and culture.

It becomes a tool with which you can take a fresh look at the familiar and rethink it.

The second important feature is the active participation of the audience in the formation of the meaning of the work. Some artists say that the viewer complements or even completes it by bringing in their own thoughts, interpretations and experiences.

This is especially true for performances and happenings. Actions that take place with the participation of the artist, but are not completely controlled by him, become a work of art. … In them, the viewer is maximally involved in the creation of the work.

Don't confuse these genres with actionism. In it, the emphasis is also transferred from a work of art to the process of its creation, but actions are a pure gesture, a declaration. They are often more radical, political, protest in nature.

And thirdly, the importance of the object of contemporary art lies not in its physical form, but in the meanings that are formed in the process of interpretation. They complement the ideas that originally inspired the author. Through this, art provokes us to reflect on what is happening in today's world.

3. Walk and watch

There are two approaches to getting to know contemporary art. The first is to understand why it arose and how it is related to the previous directions. “Otherwise, we will perceive works only at the level of a picture recognizable by the silhouette, but in contemporary art the first level is often simply not there,” write the authors of the book “Contemporary art and how to stop being afraid of it”. Most often, it is advised to start with the impressionists and trace the history of the development of art to the present day.

The second approach is the exact opposite - just look at the work without going into history.

Stop. Breathe. Relax. Don't think, just watch, let him in. Soak up your surroundings, feel the space in front of you, free your mind, let your inner monologue fade into the background and your eyes get used to it,”writes British art critic Ossian Ward in his book The Art of Watching. He advises looking "at each piece as if you are first encountering something like this, be it a painting, sculpture, or some indefinable installation."

Take the approach that works best for you, and best of all try both. And in any case ask yourself: “What do I see here? What do I feel? What is the author doing to make me feel it? If you have experienced something new, whether pleasant or not, it is likely that you already understand the artist's intention.

Pay attention to what materials the object is made of, what they tell you, what associations they cause. Then consider if he is referring to other works of art. To do this, read the text on the accompanying plate, look for information on the Internet, remember what you have seen before.

If, after all this, the object still causes bewilderment or rejection, that's okay. You don't have to love every piece, even if someone else thinks it's genius. Walk, watch, interact, discuss and you will find something that will cause you a response and a desire to learn more.

Where to go:

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow.
Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA).
National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) with branches in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladikavkaz, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Tomsk, Samara, Saratov.
Center for Contemporary Art "Winzavod", Moscow.
Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg.
Gallery of Contemporary Art, Pushkin Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan.
Gallery "Victoria", Samara.
Sinara Art Gallery, Yekaterinburg.

If these cities are all far away, check out the digital collections of the world's leading museums.

4. Broaden your horizons

read books

If you are completely unfamiliar with contemporary art, start with the first item on the list. This book tells in detail and easily about the origins of sovrisk and its principles. If you want to watch right away without going into history, take the third book. If you are interested in the "wrong side" of the art world, read the sixth. The author tells about the lives of artists, critics, art dealers and curators. Do not ignore the rest of the books from the list.

"Incomprehensible Art", Will Gompertz →
"Contemporary art and how to stop being afraid of it", Sergei Gushchin and Alexander Shchurenkov →
The Art of Looking, Ossian Ward →
A History of Paintings: From the Cave to the Computer Screen, David Hockney and Martin Gayford →
“The art of performance. From futurism to the present day, Roseley Goldberg →
Seven Days in Art, Sarah Thornton →
"On Russian Actionism", Pyotr Pavlensky →

If you are reading in English, check out the library at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2018, he posted over 500 art books that are free to download. In general, look more often at the sites of museums: they regularly display collections of books on a particular topic or advise what to read for some kind of exhibition.

Watch video lectures

Museums often post recordings of their lectures on YouTube. Follow the Garage, NCCA, Winzavod, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center channels. There are a lot of interesting things on the TED conference website. The videos themselves are in English, but there are almost always Russian subtitles. There is also a good selection of videos on the Theory and Practice website.

So that you do not get lost in the abundance of information, we have collected materials that will help you start your acquaintance with contemporary art:

1. Lecture by the artist and art theorist Dmitry Gutov on contemporary art.
2. Gutov's lecture on art in post-Soviet Russia.
3. Lecture on the origins of contemporary art from Moscow State University teacher Ekaterina Kochetkova.
4. A course on Russian art of the 20th century from Arzamas.
5. Lecture series from the Garage Museum.
6. Lecture course on contemporary dance from Arzamas.
7. Interview with Alexandra Staruseva-Persheeva, teacher at the HSE School of Design.
8. Lecture on contemporary theater from the artistic director of the Sadler's Wells Theater, London.
9. Lecture on the connection between contemporary art and science from the curator of the NCCA Dmitry Bulatov.
10. Lecture by critic Natalia Tamruchi "Spectator as an accomplice" on the parallels between classical and contemporary art.

5. Be more open to new ideas

Contemporary art pushes the usual boundaries, which means that in order to understand it, you will have to go beyond your own boundaries of thinking and get rid of stereotypes. Don't dismiss something just because it seems strange and incomprehensible to you. Remember that impressionism, too, was once considered a worthless daub, but now it is perceived as a classic of painting.

"The artist's task is not to give aesthetic pleasure - there are designers for this, but to take a little distance from the world, try to comprehend it or speak about it with the help of ideas, the only purpose of which is to be ideas," the author writes. the book "Incomprehensible Art". Let these ideas into your life and they will become your inspiration.