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WHAT IS
Modern and Contemporary Art ?

Education and Community Programmes,

Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA

THE WHAT IS
IMMA Talks Series
?

There is a growing interest in Contemporary Art, yet the ideas and theo-
retical frameworks which inform its practice can be complex and difficult
to access. By focusing on a number of key headings, such as Conceptual Art,
Installation Art and Performance Art, this series of talks is intended to
provide a broad overview of some of the central themes and directions in
Modern and Contemporary Art.

03

This series represents a response to a number of challenges. Firstly, the

inherent problems and contradictions that arise when attempting to outline
or summarise the wide-ranging, constantly changing and contested spheres
of both art theory and practice, and secondly, the use of summary terms to
describe a range of practices, many of which emerged in opposition to such
totalising tendencies.

CONTENTS
What is __? talks series
Introduction: Modern and Contemporary Art
How soon was now? What is Modern and Contemporary Art?
-Francis Halsall & Declan Long
bibliography and Further Reading
Glossary of terms
Modern and Contemporary Art Resources

page 03
page 04
page
page
page
page

08
20
21
25

Taking these challenges into account, this talks series offers a range

of perspectives, drawing on expertise and experience from lecturers, artists,

curators and critical writers and is neither definitive nor exhaustive. The intention is to provide background and contextual information about the art and
artists featured in IMMAs exhibitions and collection in particular, and about
Contemporary Art in general, to promote information sharing, and to encourage
critical thinking, debate and discussion about art and artists. The talks series
addresses aspects of Modern and Contemporary Art spanning the period from
the 1940s to the present.

Each talk will be supported by an information leaflet which includes

a summary, the presenters essay, a reading list, a glossary of terms and a

resources list. This information can also be found on IMMAs website along
with more detailed information about artworks and artists featured in IMMAs
Collection at www.imma.ie.

Image: Hughie O Donoghue,

Crossing the Rapido VI: Painting Caserta Red, Artist studio, Ireland, 2003.

WHAT IS
Modern and Contemporary Art ?

What is Modern Art

and What is
Contemporary Art?

Within the context of art history, the term MODERN ART refers to art theory
and practice, predominantly in Western Europe and North America, from the
1860s to the late 1960s - the period associated with MODERNISM. Modern Art is
defined in terms of a linear progression of styles, periods and schools, such as
IMPRESSIONISM, CUBISM and ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. In general usage,
there is considerable overlap and confusion between the terms MODERN and
CONTEMPORARY, both of which refer to the present and recent past. Modern
is a term which has a broad application depending on the context in which it is
used. It can refer to the present or the contemporary. In terms of social, political

Introduction

04

The Irish Museum of Modern Art is the national cultural institution for the col-

and philosophical discourse, modern refers to the period that began with the

lection and presentation of Modern and Contemporary Art in Ireland. IMMA ex-

Enlightenment in the seventeenth century. More generally, modern can be used

hibits and collects Modern and Contemporary Art by established and emerging

to refer to all things since the early RENAISSANCE. The relative and temporal

Irish and international artists. The Temporary Exhibitions Programme features

nature of the term resists a clear or fixed definition, and is subject to consider-

work by established and emerging artists ranging from painting, sculpture,

able debate in terms of meaning and timeframe.

installation, photography, video and performance. IMMA originates many of its

exhibitions but also works closely with a network of international museums and

tice. Attributed, approximately, to the period from the 1970s to the present, it

galleries. IMMAs Collection includes artworks spanning a range of media and

also refers to works of art made by living artists. Contemporary Art tends to be

genres, acquired through purchase, donations, loans and commissions, many in

assessed thematically and subjectively, drawing on an expanded range of theo-

association with IMMAs Temporary Exhibitions Programme and, on occasion,

IMMAs Artists Residency Programme.

In this introductory text we provide a brief overview of Modern and

Contemporary Art. Terms associated with both Modern and Contemporary Art

05

The term CONTEMPORARY ART refers to current and very recent prac-

retical and practical disciplines. Contemporary Art can be driven by both theory
and ideas, and is also characterised by a blurring of the distinction between art
and other categories of cultural experience, such as television, cinema, mass
media, entertainment and digital technology.

are indicated in CAPITALS and are elaborated on in the glossary on p. 21. We in-

vited Francis Halsall and Declan Long, lecturers in Visual Culture in the National

MODERNISM, a social, cultural and intellectual movement characterised by a

The period from the 1970s onwards is also described in terms of POST-

College of Art and Design and coordinators of the MA Art in the Contemporary

rejection of notions of linear progression, grand totalising narratives and critical

World to write an essay How soon was now? What is Modern and Contempo-

consensus associated with Modernism, favouring an interdisciplinary approach,

rary Art? This essay provides an overview of Modern and Contemporary Art,

multiple narratives, fragmentation, relativity, contingency and irony.

identifying some of the challenges that arise when attempting to define this

complex and contested sphere of theory and practice. Their essay includes

characterised by significant social, cultural, technological and political develop-

examples of modern and contemporary artists and artworks, some of which

ments in the western world. Industrialisation, urbanisation, new technology, the

are included in IMMAs Collection. By focusing on IMMAs Collection, we hope

rise of the middle class, the secularisation of society and the emergence of a

to draw attention to the range of artworks in the Collection that span both

consumer culture resulted in new conditions in which art was created, exhibited,

Modern and Contemporary Art, including paintings by Jack B. Yeats, Cecil King,

discussed and collected. The open market replaced patronage as the means of

William Scott, Louis le Brocquy, Tony OMalley, Sean Scully and Elizabeth Magill;

financing art, giving artists the freedom to engage in more experimental and

drawings by Kathy Prendergast, Tom Molloy, Alice Maher and Brian ODoherty/

innovative forms of practice. Inspired by new developments in technology, in

Patrick Ireland; sculptures by Dorothy Cross, Iran do Esprito Santo, Louise

particular PHOTOGRAPHY and FILM, traditional practice and methodologies,

Bourgeois, and Rebecca Horn; prints by Victor Vasarely, Robert Motherwell and

including perspective and representation, were discarded in favour of more

Antoni Tapies; installations by Gerard Byrne and Liam Gillick; and lens-based

experimental approaches, such as ABSTRACTION, resulting in new forms of

work by James Coleman, Willie Doherty, Jaki Irvine, Pierre Huyghe and Philippe

expression. Such innovative practice was referred to as AVANT-GARDE, and

Parreno. We also hope to highlight the potential of IMMAs exhibitions and Col-

Modernism comprises a series of sucessive avant-garde movements, such as

lection as resources for further investigation and enquiry into the subjects of

Impressionism, FAUVISM and DE STIJL. The modernist period was character-

Modern and Contemporary Art.

ised by a belief in the progressive tendencies of modernity, evident in move-

In art history, the period associated with Modernism, 1860s 1970s, is

ments such as Cubism, CONSTRUCTIVISM and FUTURISM, and in architecture

in the INTERNATIONAL STYLE and movements such as the BAUHAUS.

During the course of the twentieth century, disillusionment with aspects of the
modernist enterprise: the impact of industrialisation, global war and developments in military technology, resulted in some artists adopting strategies of disruption and subversion, evident in movements such as DADA and SURREALISM.
Alternatively, some artists resorted to more personalised and emotional forms
of practice, such as the EXPRESSIONIST movements DER BLAUE REITER and
DIE BRCKE. After World War II, the centre of Modernism shifted from Europe
to America and was dominated by ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. Underpinned
by a theoretical framework of FORMALISM, which emphasised form rather than
content in both the creation and reception of the artwork, this art for arts sake
argument contributed to the increased objectification and commodification of
the artwork.

Social, cultural and political changes during the 1960s resulted in

considerable shifts in arts practice. Artists were concerned with the increasing commodification of art and the role of the art institution the museum or
gallery and its relationship to broader socio-economic and political processes.
Informed by new developments across a range of theoretical and practical
disciplines, such as FEMINISM, POSTCOLONIAL THEORY, PSYCHOANALYSIS

06

and CRITICAL THEORY, and drawing on earlier strategies of disruption, artists

devised new forms of practice, such as temporary, textual, performative or

07

didactic work, to complicate the perception of the art object as commodity.

increase in the number of GALLERIES, COLLECTORS, DEALERS and ART

CONCEPTUAL artists emphasised the primacy of the idea over the material art

FAIRS, and also the establishment of many large-scale ART MUSEUMS and

object. Rejecting assumptions about art historical continuity and critical con-

galleries in major cities. A growing trend towards collaboration between

sensus associated with Modernism, artists pushed out the boundaries

artists and curators contributed to the raised profile of the CURATOR. In the

of what was possible in the creation, presentation and reception of art.

late 1990s, a renewed interest in the role of the viewer as participant and in

Experimental forms of practice, such as FLUXUS, MINIMALISM, POP ART

situating the artwork within a social context, contributed to the emergence

and PERFORMANCE ART, emerged in response to the perceived constraints

of new forms of collaboratory and RELATIONAL practice.

and limitations of Modernism.

Emerging concerns about the ecology and the environment are evident

Contemporary Art in the twenty-first century comprises an ever-expand-

ing field of practice. Concerns with regard to the commodification and objecti-

in LAND ART and ENVIRONMENTAL ART. Reconsideration of the relationship

fication of the artwork continue to inform both the production and critique of

between the artwork and its context, in particular its re-location outside the

contemporary art. Attempting to identify the way forward, some theorists and

parameters of the museum or gallery space, contributed to the development

practitioners are revisiting the possibilities of Modernism, while others identify

of SITE SPECIFIC, INSTALLATION, SOCIALLY ENGAGED and PARTICIPATORY

the need for a new modernism, what the French curator Nicolas Bourriaud

PRACTICE. Equally, feminist and postcolonial discourse concerned with identity

refers to as ALTERMODERN, which addresses the globalised, transient, hybrid

formation, challenged the linear narrative of Western, Eurocentric, male-domi-

nature of Contemporary Art.

nated art history, favouring multiple narratives and HYBRID practice.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the rise of the art market resulted in an

Advances in technology, particularly in FILM, VIDEO and Digital Technol-

For bibliography and further reading see page 20.

ogy, contributed to the development of NEW MEDIA ART. The disestablishment

of the museum or gallery as the primary locus of display and consideration of

Lisa Moran, Curator

art, resulted in the emergence of a broader range of forums, such as BIENNI-

Education and Community Programmes

ALS, PUBLIC ART and ARTIST-LED Initiatives.

Sophie Byrne, Assistant Curator

Talks and Lectures Programme

Image: Vong Phaophanit,

Line Writing, 1994.

How soon was now?

What is Modern and
Contemporary Art?

2 What Does
Modern mean?

The two examples above were both made in the last ten years. But are they
also modern? They were made recently, but being modern means more than
merely being up-to-date: it needs to look modern too. For example theres a

Francis Halsall &

Declan Long

Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum, who has spent the last 30 years trying to
paint like Rembrandt. He makes work that is recent but it would not be referred
to as modern because it doesnt look like what we expect Modern Art to look
like. Instead, it is deliberately old fashioned. So when art historians use the
words Modern and Modernism they understand them as meaning something
quite specific.

1 In a Dark Room

08

(i)
In a dark room, on a large screen, three Indonesian kids in matching purple

(i) When was Modernism?

Adidas tracksuits, wrap-around sunglasses and sun-visors are singing a karaoke

In the sense of modern meaning up to date, all art was modern once. The in-

version of a song by the 1980s pop group The Smiths. It is equally serious and

novative artists of the past have always tried new technologies, new media and

joyous. The piece is part of Phil Collinss work The World Wont Listen. It is a

new styles. Crucially, these new technologies and new mediums allowed for the

great work of contemporary art and Phil Collins is an important artist because

possibility of new artistic forms. For example, when Giotto was painting the

his work is richly suggestive of a number of significant questions about national

Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, 1305, his use of fresco (watercolor on wet plaster)

identity, popular culture in a global context, and the role of the mass media in

as a medium was innovative and modern, and it allowed him to achieve the

representing these.

integrated aesthetic scheme of the painting cycle. Over 500 years later Impres-

09

(ii)

sionists like Monet were not only responding to the challenge of photography
and its ability to capture an impression of the world, but also using portable

Another dark room, another projected scene: an evening view of an obscure

easels and the newly invented, industrially processed, readymade tubes of paint

rural location. In the near-distance we see an odd elongated piece of archi-

to make pictures outside of the studio in the open air.

tecture: a fragile but imposing shelter, an elaborate cylindrical tent that seems

simultaneously out of place and yet somehow at home in this natural landscape.

it be that what was once modern can cease to be modern? Other art histori-

The images are from French artist Philippe Parrenos curious film The Boy from

cal periods do not have the same associated problems. So, whilst there may

Mars, and they arise out of his involvement with an environmental art project in

be some disagreement as to the specific dates of the Renaissance, Roccoco,

rural Thailand. Yet, watching these images it is never quite clear what, or where,

Baroque or Neo-Classicism, it can be agreed that they were periods that had

it is that we are observing.

beginnings, middles and ends.

Collins and Parreno make use of recognisable conventions of visual art

But, if art has always been modern; does it ever reach a sell-by date? Can

Perhaps then, one way to think about modern is as a period of time with

from our own and earlier eras (portraiture in the former; landscape in the

a clear beginning, middle and end. Thought about in these terms modern might

latter). Yet, both seem as interested in an unfolding, many-staged creative

mean the period of 100 years that began with Manets painting Djeuner sur

process as they are with any finished product or with the possibilities of an

lHerbe, 1863, which was seen as shocking and rejected from the prestigious

accepted art discipline. As such, they practice types of art, that, as the influen-

Salon of fine art, not only because it was badly painted with rough brush-

tial curator Nicolas Bourriaud has argued, remain around the edge of any defi-

strokes and inaccurate perspective, but also because it showed a contemporary

nition drawing on much from what would customarily be considered beyond

scene of public nudity. This period is often regarded as ending with Pop Art

the frame of art, urging us to consider the place of art in the contemporary

in the mid 1960s, when art became increasingly difficult to distinguish from

world, while offering up images and experiences characterised by uncertainty

everyday consumer objects and the output of the mass media. What this would

or disconcerting intensity.1

mean is that art made after this period would be after, or post, modernism.
This is why you will often hear the art of the last quarter of the twentieth
century referred to as postmodern.

(ii) How is Modernism?

Another way of thinking about what modern means in art is to think of it as an
attitude to making. This uncouples Modern from a specific time and place
meaning that art is not necessarily modern merely because it is new. It would
also mean that examples from history could be identified as modern in their
outlook, such as El Greco, the seventeenth century painter whom Picasso
claimed was the originator of Cubism. Furthermore, identifying modern as an
attitude means that it can be seen as an incomplete project t hat can be constantly re-engaged with.

This is probably what Jackson Pollock had in mind when he made this claim for
his own modernist art:

10

However, such neat slicing up of the history of art is problematic. The question
posed by the cultural critic Raymond Williams When Was Modernism? is a
tricky one. On the one hand, art seems to lag behind modernism in other fields.
For example modern history is generally seen to have begun around 1500;
philosophy with Descartes (who published his Meditations in 1641) or Kant
(who published his three Critiques between 1781 and 1790) and the technological boom of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century is also seen as
an origin of modernity. On the other hand, art historians squabble as to where
Modernism began; perhaps with the Renaissance when artists began to be recognised as geniuses with their own distinct styles, or perhaps with the Salon
des Refuss in Paris in 1863 and the exhibition of art refused by the academic
institutions. As Charles Harrison observed: In writing about art, the term
Modernism has only been regularly used with a capital M since the 1960s
Before the 60s the term Modernism was generally used in a vague way, to
refer to what it was that made works of art seem contemporary whatever
that meant.

11

My opinion is that new art needs new techniques. And the modern artists

have found new means of making their statements. It seems to me that

the modern painter cannot express this age of the aeroplane, the atom

bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past

culture. Each age finds its own technique.3

Just as the times change, so too must art. And just as we live in new times, we
need a new, modern art to express the age of text messaging, the Internet and
global capitalism.

The art critic Clement Greenberg offered a slightly different definition of

modernism. He claimed that modernist art was art that was about art . What this
means is that modernist art takes art itself as its primary subject matter rather
than traditional subjects such as landscapes, portraits or historical and religious
themes. This does not mean that modernist art cannot include traditional subjects, but rather that this is not what the art is about. Look, for example, at the
William Scott painting Jug. The subject matter is a jug and a bowl. Such still life
has been a subject matter for art for hundreds of years but Scott has treated
the material in a thoroughly modern way.
(iii) Defining Modernism
The definition of modernist art that emerges is thus: that it provides a meaningful expression of, and gives artistic and aesthetic form to three things: (i) the
specific time and place where it was made, (ii) the medium that it is made of,
and (iii) how it was made. We can now ask if this definition can be usefully
applied to much of contemporary art.

Image: Julian Opie,

Escaped Animals, 2002.

3 - When, What and

Howis contemporary
art?

(i) Contemporary Whatever That Means

Yet, many celebrated contemporary art practices frustrate this view.

The tricky task of identifying a working definition of modern is accompanied

For a great deal of todays critically acclaimed art is not quite so obviously

by the equally testing challenge of defining the word contemporary. Indeed,

confrontational or so antagonistic towards older methods or values. If, for

recent might be one easy definition for contemporary, allowing us to think of

example, a great deal of recent art shows hostility towards principles of aes-

contemporary art as that made within recent memory. Another closely related

thetic refinement in art, there remains a significant strain of art, highly regarded

and very straightforward meaning of contemporary, and one that is entirely

by contemporary critics, curators and collectors, that is concerned with

true to the linguistic sources of the word, is with the times (from the Latin

retrieving, or positively re-imagining, seemingly outdated notions such as craft

con, meaning with, plus temp meaning time). As such, to be contemporary

and beauty. The paintings of William McKeown for instance, make a sophisti-

is to be alert to the conditions of a particular moment in time, to be moving

cated and unorthodox case for beauty in art today, hinting to us that this idea

with the tides of living history. And this sense of the word is widely used in

is essential as a way of freeing, and at the same time grounding, our imagina-

understandings of contemporary art. Back in the 1980s, for instance, curators

tions. Similarly for Isabel Nolan, beauty is to be found in the vulnerabilities of

at the Tate Gallery in London decided that the art of the past ten years, on a

both commonplace and more complex ways of representing or understanding

rolling basis, would provide a suitable set of parameters as they made plans

the world around us: her formally diverse work inventively employs traditional

to develop a new Museum of Contemporary Art.4 Contemporary art in this

craft techniques in capturing moments from everyday life and ideas from

regard, comes pretty close to modern art particularly, perhaps, to Jackson

advanced science.

Pollocks claim that the art of each age should find its own technique.

But Pollocks comment also returns us to how modern can be under-

stood as identifying an attitude towards making art, an attitude perhaps result-

12

ing in a certain type of art. Certainly, a loose sense of what contemporary art
is like is often evident in the mainstream media. Coverage of exhibitions such
as the annual Turner Prize show, for instance, will often be based on hostile
presumptions about the prevailing tendencies in art today, with artists regularly
being characterised as pranksters or self-promoting provocateurs rather than
masters of a recognisable medium. However accurate such pictures are, it is of
course essential to remember the vital role played not just by the media but
also by the art market in manufacturing particular versions of a contemporary
art world (as has always been the case throughout the history of art), with
certain forms of art reaching prominence as a result of their marketability.

But cast an eye over art magazines such as Artforum and Frieze ex-

pensive colour publications packed with ads promoting the interests of the
commercial art scene and the difficulty of finding stable commonalities across
what is celebrated is quite apparent. Such magazines will often introduce us
to much that is overtly edgy:radical performance art that claims to question moral norms, for instance; or varieties of activist art that propose creative
models of political resistance; or versions of installation and conceptual art
that confuse us as to what, and often where, the art actually is. All seem to sit
comfortably side-by-side in such publications. Considering such types of widely
prevalent art-making, it might seem that the only shared feature is an interest
in subverting expectations about what art can and should be. Such tendencies
would, of course, be true to a legacy of avant-gardism in the arts, and in our
effort to capture something of what is contemporary in art we could choose to
prioritise the continuation of a kind of rule-breaking spirit.

Image: Pierre Huyghe,

Block Party, 2002-2004.

13

Much that is well-respected within contemporary art today, therefore, does not

(ii) Themes in Contemporary Art

correspond to the prejudices of conservative critics. Crucially, combinations

Despite the exciting plurality of art today, recognisable constellations have

of notionally opposed approaches to art can often be found alongside each

emerged around which art practices and debates have become clustered.

other in a single exhibition, or even within a single artists oeuvre or single work.

14

Indeed, commentators on contemporary art have often stressed the diversity

a) Participation

of possibilities in art today and definitions and descriptions of contemporary

Participatory art takes the form of artists working with disparate groups of

art will often stress the unregulated openness of this industry, acknowledg-

people from different communities. This is not only a way of generating works

ing its resistance to definition and description. As Linda Weintraub has written,

of art, but is also part of the work itself. Here are three examples: Untitled 1992

contemporary art embraces the maverick and the traditionalist no topic, no

(Free), a working kitchen in a New York gallery set up by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija;

medium, no process, no intention, no professional protocols, and no aesthetic

Tenantspin, 1999, a TV channel for the elderly residents of a Liverpool housing

principles are exempt from the field of art. 5

estate set up by art collective Superflex; and Pimp my Irish Banger, 2009, a

collaborative art project in which artist Terry Blake worked with young people

Such indications of contemporary arts multiple methodologies are cer-

tainly at odds with any belief in the ongoing refinement of form a principle

from Dublin to paint car doors and bonnets that were later displayed in an out-

once central to artistic progress. For the philosopher and critic Arthur Danto,

door space at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. The art historian

the innovations of art after the modernist era have therefore brought about, in

Claire Bishop has identified this trend within contemporary art as a Social Turn,

effect, an end of art. This does not mean, he argues, an end of people making

arguing that while the models of participatory art vary enormously

art, but rather an end of a particular way of understanding art that focused on

all are linked by a belief in the empowering creativity of collective action

the constraints of certain disciplines and mediums. Since pop art, Danto sug-

and shared ideas.7 These are forms of art that ask questions about who is

gests, There is no special way works of art have to be. 6 It is this plurality of
possibilities which most obviously gives us clues as to what contemporary art

15

involved in the making and experience of art.

is today. Yet how we choose to position ourselves in relation to this plurality

b) Site/place

remains one of the most testing questions for those of us hoping to engage

Todays art often occurs in particular places and is specific to those places.

with this eras most challenging contemporary art.

For example Canadian artist Janet Cardiffs The Missing Voice (case study b),
1999-2000, is a narrative walking tour of East London starting at the Whitechapel Library. Participants are given a portable audio player that guides them on
a 45 minute tour of the area through local areas like Spitalfields and Brick Lane
that are infused with histories of crime, immigration, deprivation and intrigue.
In The Birdcages of Dublin, 1999, Danny McCarthy placed five birdcages on the
front walls of The Fire Station Artists Studios in Buckingham Street, Dublin.
Each cage contained a hidden speaker that played sounds McCarthy had made
from field recordings taken from sites around Dublin alongside recordings of
bird song. Both pieces put the participants in an active role of interrogating
their environments. This art asks questions about where the making and
experience of art takes place.

Image: Douglas Gordon,

Above all Else, Guggenheim, New york, 2009.

c) Cinematic
Many contemporary artists are interested in the moving image. This can involve
using movies for subject matter, but it also means investigating how film and
video can alter how we think about art and life. Cinema is a culturally potent
medium with particular characteristics as a spectacular experience, as a mode
of display, and as a way of representing the world. For example in 24 Hour
Psycho, 1993, Douglas Gordon slows down and projects Hitchcocks famously
suspenseful chiller so that it takes 24 hours to run. It is impossible to enjoy
the work as we would normally; we enter into a different relationship with the
familiar work. Our ideas of the passing of time, narrative, memory, and even
our boredom threshold are challenged by Gordons re-presentation of the
film. Comparatively, a work such as Twelve Angry Films by Jesse Jones, 2006,
brings out an aspect of participation in film culture, but through a process of
collaborative production (working with community groups) and by creating a
dedicated public space for screenings in the form of a drive-in cinema. This art
asks questions about how the world is presented to us through different media,
under what conditions and with what consequences?

16

d) Medium
Artists today continue to question what they are making art from and come
back to querying what arts forms mean. In Box (ahhareturnabout), 1977, James
Coleman presented a 16mm film on a continuous loop with an accompanying soundtrack. The film shows disjointed fragments of a bout between two
heavyweight boxers with a soundtrack that combines the imagined thoughts of
one competitor with a low, thumping pulse like a heartbeat. It is a disorientating, profoundly physical experience. The grainy and obscure flicker of the film,
when coupled with the jarring jump cuts, becomes part of the meaning of the
work. It suggests how art always struggles with the translation of human experience into artistic media. Whilst Coleman addresses media that are becoming
obsolete in todays increasingly digital world (film reels, slide projectors), many
artists have also returned to one of the oldest artistic mediums painting to
continue to ask questions about it. Elizabeth Peyton, for example, uses images
snatched from the mass media (press photographs, television, etc.). The images
are used in such a way that you would never mistake the pictures for photographs; instead they encourage you to think about what it means to put wet
paint on a surface and move it around. This art asks questions about what is
employed in the making and experience of art.

Image: Dorothy Cross,

Parachute, Frith Street Gallery, London, 2005.

Conclusion

The above examples offer just a glimpse of the rich variety of art being made

Francis Halsall

today. It can take many forms, address many audiences and raise many questions. It can often be baffling, infuriating and inscrutable. There is more art
now than there has ever been, and in a greater variety. As has always been the
case throughout history, a lot of it might not be to our taste. But the best art,
be it from the distant past, the modern age or our contemporary times, opens
up new worlds for us; new worlds of thought, of expression and feeling, new
worlds of poetic and political possibility. Art in the contemporary world is art
of this world: it can be by turns richly distracting and frustrating, thrilling and
testing; it is full of communicative difficulties and new possibilities; it brings the
challenging effects of todays reality home to us in all their vivid strangeness. It
tells us how soon now really is.

18

Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, Dijon: Les Presses du Rel, p. 25.

Charles Harrison, Introduction: Modernism, Problems and Methods,

The Open University Press, 1983, p. 15.

Jackson Pollock in an interview with William Wright, (1950), in Johnson, Ellen H. (ed.),
American Artists on Art from 1940 to 1980, Harper & Row, 1982.

4.

See Tate Glossary, www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary.

5. Linda Weintraub, Making Contemporary Art: How Todays Artists Think and Work,

Thames & Hudson, 2003, p. 8.
6.

Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998, p. 47.

7.

Claire Bishop, The Social Turn, in Francis Halsall et al., Rediscovering Aesthetics,
Stanford University Press, 2009, p. 239.

19

Declan Long

Francis Halsall is a lecturer at the National College of Art and Design,

Dublin, where he is coordinator (with Declan Long) of the MA Art in the
Contemporary World. He has an MA and PhD in Art History from Glasgow
University. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Visual
Art Practice and the inaugural committee for the gallery at NCAD. His
recent publications include the books, Systems of Art, (Peter Lang, 2008,
with a foreword by Prof. Kitty Zijlmans), and the edited collection Redis-
covering Aesthetics, (with Julia Jansen & Tony OConnor, (Stanford Univer-
sity Press, 2009)) and the articles: Chaos, Fractals and the Pedagogical
Challenge of Jackson Pollocks All-Over Paintings, The Journal of Aes-
thetic Education (2009); Strategic Amnesia (on art history in Ireland in
the 21st century), The Irish Review, (Winter, 2008); Niklas Luhmann,
in Costello & Vickery, (eds.), Art: Key Contemporary Thinkers, (Berg Pub-
lishing, Jan. 2007).

Declan Long is a lecturer at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin,
where he is coordinator (with Francis Halsall) of the MA Art in the Contemporary World. He is a board member of the Douglas Hyde Gallery and he
writes regularly on Contemporary Art for a range of Irish and international
publications. Recently published writings include essays on Mamma Andersson, Ulla von Brandenburg and Willie Doherty.

Modern &
Contemporary Art:
bibliography and
Further Reading

Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, London: Verso, 1998.

Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, Dijon: Les Presses Du Rel, 1998.
Martha Buskirk, The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art, Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, 2003.

Modern &
Contemporary Art:
Glossary

Frances Colpitt (ed.), Abstract Art in the Late Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Claire Doherty, Contemporary Art: From Studio to Situation, London: Black Dog Publishing, 2004.
Steve Edwards & Paul Wood (eds.), Art of the Avant-Gardes (Art of the Twentieth Century), New Haven and
London: Yale University Press in association with the Open University, 2004.

Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois & Benjamin Buchloh (eds.), Art Since 1900: Modernism,
Antimodernism, Postmodernism, New York: Thames and Hudson, 2004.

Hal Foster, The Return of the Real: The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century, Cambridge, MA:
The MIT Press, 1996.

Francis Frascina and Jonathan Harris, Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts, New York: Icon
Editions, Harper Collins, 1992.

Abstract Art
Artwork that is non-figurative, non-representational
and which is concerned
with the formal elements
of the artwork rather than
the representation
of subject matter.

Francis Frascina and Charles Harrison (eds.), Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology, New York:
Harper & Row, 1982.

20

Jason Gaiger (ed.), Frameworks for Modern Art (Art of the Twentieth Century), New Haven and London:
Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 2003.

Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (eds.), Art in Theory 1900 - 1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Cambridge,
MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
Charles Harrison, Paul Wood & Jason Giager (eds.), Art in Theory 1815-1900: An Anthology of Changing Ideas,
Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
David Hopkins, After Modern Art 1945 2000, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism in Consumer Society, in Hal Foster (ed.), The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on
Postmodern Culture, NY: The New Press, 2002.
Rosalind Krauss, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, Cambridge, MA:
The MIT Press, 1985.
Lucy Lippard, Six Years: The Dematerialisation of the Art Object from 1966 1972, Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1997.

Jean Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1984.

Pam Meecham & Julie Sheldon, Modern Art: A Critical Introduction, New York and London: Routledge, 2000.

Gill Perry and Paul Wood (eds.), Themes in Contemporary Art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press in
association with the Open University, 2004.
Jean Robertson & Craig McDaniel, Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art After 1980, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Brandon Taylor, Contemporary Art: Art Since 1970, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.

Dorothy Walker, Modern Art in Ireland, Dublin: Lilliput, 1997.

Linda Weintraub, Making Contemporary Art: How Todays Artists Think and Work, London: Thames & Hudson, 2003.

Paul Wood, Francis Frascina, Jonathan Harris & Charles Harrison (eds.), Modernism in Dispute: Art since the
Forties, New Haven: Yale University Press in Association with the Open University, 1993.

Paul Wood (ed.), Varieties of Modernism, New Haven: Yale University Press in association with
the Open University, 2004.

Abstract
Expressionism
American abstract art
movement in the 1940s
and 1950s which emphasised a non-figurative, emotionally engaged approach.
Predominantly New Yorkbased, it included artists
such as Jackson Pollock
and Willem de Kooning.

21

Altermodern
A term coined by French
curator Nicolas Bourriaud
to describe arts practice
in the twenty-first century
which is concerned with
globalised culture and communication and which is
realised through social and
technological networks.
Art Fair
An event, usually held annually, to network, showcase,
market and sell art. Art
Fairs have become an
important mechanism in
the art market for Modern
and Contemporary Art.
Notable examples include
Frieze, ARCO and ArtBasel.
ART Museum
A venue for the collection,
preservation, study, interpretation and display of
significant cultural objects
and artworks.
Artist-led Initatives
Projects or organisations,
such as studios or galleries,
set up and run by artists,
often on a collective or
cooperative basis.

Avant-garde
French for advance
guard or vanguard, a
military term to describe an
advance army group. The
term is used to describe
innovative, experimental
or cutting edge artists
and practitioners.
Bauhaus
An influential school of art,
architecture and design
founded by Walter Gropius
in Weimar Germany in 1919.
Influenced by Constructivism and De Stijl, the
Bauhaus style, associated
with the International Style,
emphasised practicality,
harmony between function
and design and lack of
ornamentation.
Biennial
A large-scale exhibition of
international Contemporary
Art hosted by many cities
every two years. The Venice
Biennale was the forerunner
of what is now a dominant
trend in exhibiting Contemporary Art.
Cinematography
The technical term for
motion picture photography, which involves the
manipulation of the film in
the camera, the arrangement of lighting and the
printing of the film.
Collector
Someone who acquires
artworks based on personal
taste or for investment
purposes. Many collectors
donate or loan their collections to museums and
galleries.

Conceptual Art
Originating in the 1960s,
Conceptual Art emphasises
the idea or concept rather
than the production of a
tangible art object. The
ideas and methodologies of
Conceptual Art continue to
inform Contemporary Art
practice.

Constructivism
An abstract art movement
founded by Vladimir Tatlin
and Alexander Rodchenko
in Russia around 1915, which
embraced developments
in modern technology and
industrialisation.
Contemporary
Refers to the present
or recent past.
Contemporary Art
Refers to current and very
recent art practice. Attributed to the period from
the 1970s to the present,
it also refers to works of
art made by living artists.
Contemporary Art can be
driven by both theory and
ideas, and is also characterised by a blurring of the
distinction between art and
other categories of cultural
experience, such as television, cinema, mass media,
entertainment and digital
technology.
Critical Theory
A range of theories, drawn
mainly from the social
sciences and humanities,
and associated with the
Frankfurt School, which
adopt a critical approach
to understanding society
and culture.

Cubism
An early twentieth century
movement led by Pablo
Picasso and Georges
Braque which focused on
the physical qualities of
painting rather than the
subject matter. It is characterised by the breaking up
of the picture plane, merging of figure and ground,
the adoption of multiple
viewpoints, and simplification of form into geometric
shapes. It is considered
to be the forerunner of
Abstract Art.

22

Curator
A person who makes decisions with regard to
the selection, acquisition,
display and storage of artworks. A curator may
be independent or freelance, or may be affiliated
to a museum or gallery.
A curator of Contemporary Art is concerned
with display, research and
preservation, but is also
involved in experimentation
and innovation.
Dada
An anti-establishment and
anti-war art movement
founded in 1916 which used
abstraction, nonsense texts
and absurd performances
to protest against the social
and political conditions
prevailing in Europe during
World War I. Associated
with the work of Tristan
Tzara, Hans Arp and Marcel
Duchamp.
De Stijl
Meaning style in Dutch,
an art movement founded
in 1917 by Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian
which emphasised abstraction and purity of form

and design. Also known as

neoplasticism, De Stijl influenced subsequent developments in art, architecture
and design.
Dealer
An art dealer represents
an artist, promoting the
artists work and negotiating opportunities for the
exhibition and/or sale of the
artists work.
DER BLAUE REITER
A German expressionist art
movement from 1911-1914
which involved Wassily
Kandinsky and Franz Marc.
Didactic
To adopt an approach
which conveys a message,
knowledge or information.
Die Brcke
A movement of avantgarde German Expressionist artists formed in 1905,
including Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner and Emil Nolde,
who rejected the constraints
of the prevalent academic
style in favour of a more
expressive approach to
painting.
Digital Technology
Electronic data storage and
transmission technology
that enables immense
amounts of information
to be compressed on
small storage devices,
such as computers and telephones, that can easily be
preserved, retrieved
and transported.
Environmental Art
A form of art practice which
emerged in the 1960s in
response to growing concerns about environmental
and ecological issues. Tra-

Fluxus
An international, avantgarde, art movement in
the 1960s which included
artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians creating
experimental, multi-media
work in film, video and
performance informed
by social and political
activism.

ditionally associated with

site-specific and installation
practice, contemporary
Environmental Art encompasses a broad range of
media and methodologies.
Expressionism
A form of artistic practice
which emphasises the
expression of feelings
rather than the depiction
of reality. Colour, form and
the application of paint
are employed to convey
the artists feelings. Most
notably associated with
a number of avant-garde
German artists involved in
Die Brcke and Der Blaue
Reiter in the early twentieth
century.
Fauvism
From the French Fauve
meaning wild beast, a postimpressionist movement in
the early twentieth century
which placed an emphasis
on colour and brushwork
rather than pictorial representation. Considered a
precursor of abstraction.
Feminism
A social, political, intellectual and philosophical
movement advocating
equal rights and representation for women in all
aspects of society.
Film
The medium used for the
creation of still or moving
images. The term is also
used to describe a motion
picture which is a sequence
of images projected onto a
screen, collectively referred
to as cinema. In Contemporary Art, film is referred to
as an art form.

Formalism
Emphasises the formal
elements of an artwork
such as the materials and
qualities of the work, colour,
line, form, etc. External,
contextual elements are
not considered relevant.

23

Futurism
Early twentieth century
movement which originated
in Italy and embraced all
things modern, including
technology, speed, industrialisation and mechanisation.
It also embraced violence
and nationalism and was
associated with Italian
Fascism.

Gallery
An internal space or series
of spaces dedicated to the
exhibition of artworks.
Hybrid
Something of mixed origin
or composition.
Impressionism
An art movement originating in France in the 1860s
which experimented with
colour and painting outdoors in the depiction of
landscape and everyday life.
Installation
A broad term applied to a
range of arts practice which
involves the installation or
configuration of objects in a

space, where the totality of

the objects and the space
comprise the artwork.
International Style
A style of architectural
design, named after an
exhibition in the Museum
of Modern Art in New York
in 1932 featuring the work
of architects associated
with the Modern Movement.
The International Style was
characterised by simplicity
of form, lack of ornamentation and use of industrial
materials, and is also associated with the Bauhaus.
Land Art
A US art movement from
the 1960s which emerged
out of environmental and
ecological concerns and
the perceived limitations of
the conventional art object
or sculpture to respond to
these concerns. Artworks
were created within the
landscape, often using the
materials of the landscape.
Minimalism
An abstract art movement
developed in the US in the
1960s which emphasised
the use of simple, geometric forms and modern
materials drawn from industry. It was an extension of
abstraction focusing on the
properties of the materials
used but also a rejection of
the ideology and discourse
of Abstract Expressionism.
Modern
Generally refers to the present or the contemporary,
it is associated with the
period of Modernism from
the late nineteenth century
to the mid-twentieth
century. Modern can also be

used to describe the period

since the Enlightment in the
seventeenth century or the
Renaissance in the fifteenth
century.
Modern Art
Refers to art theory and
practice from the 1860s
to the late 1960s and is
defined in terms of a linear
progression of styles, periods and schools, such as
Impressionism, Cubism and
Abstract Expressionism.
New Media
A range of materials and
technologies developed relatively recently and utilised
in the creation, presentation
and dissemination of New
Media Art.
New Media Art
Artwork created using new
media, such as film, video,
lens-based media, digital
technology, hypertext,
cyberspace, audio technology, CD-ROMs, webcams,
surveillance technology,
wireless telephones,
GPS systems, computer
and video games and
biotechnology.
Participatory Art
Places the emphasis on
the input and active reception of the audience for
the physical or conceptual
realisation of the work.
Performance Art
Involves an artist undertaking an action or actions
where the artists body is
the medium. Performance
art evolved in the late 1950s
and is closely associated
with Video Art as this
was the primary means of
recording this ephemeral
art form.

Photography
The process of recording an
image a photograph, on
light-sensitive film or, in the
case of digital photography,
via a digital electronic or
magnetic memory.
Pop Art
An art movement which
developed in the UK and
US in the 1950s drawing on
aspects of popular culture
and entertainment as subject matter.

24

Postcolonialism
An intellectual discourse of
the late twentieth century
drawing on theories from
literature, film, philosophy
and social and political
science, concerned with the
cultural legacy of colonialism in terms of national and
cultural identity, race and
ethnicity.
Postmodernism
A social, cultural and
intellectual movement
characterised by a rejection
of notions of linear progression, grand totalising narratives and critical consensus
associated with Modernism.
Characterised by an interdisciplinary approach, multiple narratives, fragmentation, relativity, contingency
and irony.
Psychoanalysis
A theoretical paradigm
for understanding human
behaviour, and a form of
intensive psychotherapeutic
treatment in which free
association, dream interpretation and consideration of
resistance and transference are used to resolve
psychological problems.
Developed by Sigmund
Freud in the late nineteenth

century, there are many

strands of psychoanalytic
theory, including Object
Relations Theory and
Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Public Art
Artwork located outside
the museum or gallery, usually sited in a public space
and supported by public
funding.
Renaissance
A French word for rebirth,
the Renaissance was a
cultural movement originating in Italy in the late fourteenth century, prompted
by the revival of ancient
classical sources. Extending until the sixteenth
century the movement
spread throughout Italy and
Europe affecting all aspects
of social, political and cultural life. Characterised by
the adoption of a humanist
approach, Renaissance artists placed an emphasis on
naturalism and the use of
linear perspective.
Relational Aesthetics
Term coined by the French
curator Nicolas Bourriaud describes a set of art
practices which place an
emphasis on the social
context in which the
artwork is created and/or
presented, and on the role
of the artist as facilitator,
where art is information
exchanged between the
artist and viewer. He calls
examplesof this practice
Relational Art.


Site Specific
Artwork that is created
with the intention of being
located in a specific site or
context, wherein removal
from that site or context

would change the meaning

of the artwork. Often associated with Installation Art,
Land Art and Public Art.

Modern &
Contemporary Art:
General Resources

Socially Engaged
Art practice which is
informed by a social agenda
and created and realised
through engagement, collaboration and/or participation between an artist or
artists and a specific social
constituency, such as a
youth group.

Surrealism
An anti-establishment,
literary and visual art
movement founded in 1924
by Andr Breton and influenced by Dada, psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freuds
theories of the unconscious.

The following is a select

list of resources. A more
detailed list can be found
on IMMAs website
www.imma.ie

Video Art
Artwork created using a
video recording device.
Video Art emerged as an
art form in the 1960s and
1970s due to the development of new technology, and it is a prevalent
medium in Contemporary
Art practice.

Information Websites
Intute
Online service providing
information about web
resources for education
and research.
www.intute.ac.uk

25

STOT
Platform providing online
links relating to Contemporary Art.
www.stot.org
Artcyclopedia
Internet encyclopedia on
art and artists.
www.artcyclopedia.com
The Artists
Database of modern
and contemporary artists.
www.the-artists.org
Museums and Galleries
International Museums
and Galleries
Art Institute of Chicago
www.artic.edu
Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art, Victoria
www.accaonline.org.au
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
www.balticmill.com
Centres Georges
Pompidou, Paris
www.cnac-gp.fr

Dia Art Foundation,

New York
www.diacentre.org

New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York

www.newmuseum.org

Guggenheim Museum,
Bilbao
www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

Reina Sofia, Madrid

www.museoreinasofia.es

ICA
Institute of Contemporary
Arts, London
www.ica.org.uk

San Francisco Museum of

Modern Art
www.sfmoma.org
Saatchi Gallery, London
www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

Kunst-Werke Institute for

Contemporary Art, Berlin
www.kw-berlin.de

Serpentine Gallery, London

www.serpentinegallery.org

Maxxi, Rome
www.maxxi.parc.beniculturali.it/english/museo.htm

Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York
www.guggenheim.org

Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York
www.metmuseum.org

Stedelijk Museum,
Amsterdam
www.stedelijk.nl

Moderna Museet,
Stockholm
www.modernamuseet.se

Tate Modern, London

www.tate.org.uk

MOMA
Museum of Modern Art,
New York
www.moma.org
Mori Art Museum, Japan
www.mori.art.museum/eng
Museum of Contemporary
Art, Chicago
www.mcachicago.org
Museum of Contemporary
Art Kiasma, Finland
www.kiasma.fi
Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles
www.moca.org
Musee dOrsay, Paris
www.musee-orsay.fr
Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney
www.mca.com.au

Whitechapel Gallery,
London
www.whitechapel.org
White Cube, London
www.whitecube.com
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
www.whitney.org
Witte de With, Rotterdam
www.wdw.nl
Irish Museums and
Galleries
Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
www.butlergallery.com
Catalyst Arts Gallery,
Belfast
www.catalystarts.org.uk
Context Gallery, Derry
www.contextgallery.co.uk

Crawford Municipal Art

Gallery, Cork
www.crawfordartgallery.
com
Cross Gallery, Dublin
www.crossgallery.ie
Dock Arts Centre,
Carrick on Shannon
www.thedock.ie
Douglas Hyde Gallery,
Dublin
www.douglashydegallery.
com
Draiocht, Dublin
www.draiocht.ie
Dublin City Gallery,
The Hugh Lane
www.hughlane.ie
Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin
www.farmleighgallery.ie
Fenton Gallery, Cork
www.artireland.net/systmpl/
Gallery of Photography,
Dublin
www.galleryofphotography.ie
Galway Arts Centre
www.galwayartscentre.ie
Green On Red Gallery,
Dublin
www.greenonredgallery.
com
Hallward Gallery, Dublin
www.hallwardgallery.com
Highlanes Gallery,
Drogheda
www.highlanes.ie

Irish Museums Association

www.irishmuseums.org
IMMA
Irish Museum of Modern Art
www.imma.ie
Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
www.kerlin.ie
Kevin Kavanagh Gallery,
Dublin
www.kevinkavanaghgallery.ie
Lewis Glucksman Gallery,
Cork
www.glucksman.org
Limerick City Gallery of Art
www.limerickcitygallery.ie
Model Arts and Niland
Gallery, Sligo
www.modelart.ie
Mothers Tankstation,
Dublin
www.motherstankstation.
com
Pallas Contemporary
Projects, Dublin
www.pallasprojects.org

Biennials and Art Fairs

Documenta, Kassel
www.documenta.da
ev+a, Limerick
www.eva.ie

Critical Inquiry
www.criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu

Frieze Art Fair, London

www.friezeartfair.com

E-flux
www.e-flux.com/journal

Istanbul Biennial
www.iksv.org/bienal11

Flash Art
www.flashartonline.com

Liverpool Biennial
www.biennial.com

Frieze Art Journal

www.frieze.com

Manifesta, European Biennale of Contemporary Art

www.manifesta.org

The International Journal

of Cultural Policy
www.tandf.co.uk/journals/
titles/10286632.asp

Moscow Biennale
www.2nd.moscowbiennale.ru
Bienal de So Paulo
www.bienalsaopaulo.globo.
com
Shanghai Biennale
www.shanghaibiennale.com
Skulptur Projekte Mnster
www.skulptur-projekte.de

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

www.projectartscentre.ie

Venice Biennale
www.labiennale.org

RHA
The Royal Hibernian
Academy, Dublin
www.royalhibernianacademy.com

Journals and Magazines

Rubicon Gallery, Dublin

www.rubicongallery.ie
Temple Bar Gallery &
Studios, Dublin
www.templebargallery.com
Taylor Galleries, Dublin
www.taylorgalleries.ie

Contemporary
www.contemporary-magazines.com

Art Forum Magazine

www.artforum.com
Art Monthly
www.artmonthly.co.uk
Art Newspaper
www.theartnewspaper.com
Art Review
www.artreview.com
Circa Art Magazine
www.recirca.com

Irish Arts Review

www.irishartsreview.com
Journal of Visual Culture
www.sagepub.com/journals
Modern Painters
www.modernpainters.co.uk
Printed Project
www.visualartists.ie
Third Text
www.tandf.co.uk/journals/
titles/09528822.asp
The Visual Artists
News Sheet
www.visualartists.ie
The Vacuum
www.thevacuum.org.uk
Variant
www.variant.randomstate.
org

Acknowledgements
Published by the Irish
Museum of Modern Art,
Royal Hospital, Kilmainham,
Dublin 8, 2009.
Second edition.
Tel: + 353 1 612 9900
Fax: + 353 1 612 9999
Email: [email protected]
ISBN Number
ISBN: 978-1-907020-22-3
Text:
How soon was now? What
is Modern and Contemporary Art? Francis Halsall and
Declan Long
All other texts written and
edited by Lisa Moran and
Sophie Byrne
Editors:
Lisa Moran, Curator:
Education and Community
Programmes and Sophie
Byrne, Assistant Curator:
Talks & Lectures
Copy editor:
Sophie Nellis
What Is __? Team:
Lisa Moran,
Curator: Education
and Community
Programmes

Image sourcing:
Marguerite OMolloy,
Assistant Curator:
Collections.
Copyright Clearance:
Joanne Kiely,
Administration
Assistant: Education
and Community
Programmes.
Design:
Red and Grey Design
www.redandgreydesign.ie
Print:
Print Library
www.print-library.com
With thanks to: Marguerite
OMolloy, Assistant Curator:
Collections; Seamus McCormack, Assistant Curator:
Collections; Joanne Kiely,
Administration Assistant:
Education and Community
Programmes; Monica Cullinane, Senior Executive:
Public Affairs; Christina
Kennedy, Head of Collections; Rachael Thomas,
Head of Exhibitions;
Helen ODonoghue, Head of
Education and Community
Programmes and Enrique
Juncosa, Director, IMMA.
Texts Irish Museum
of Modern Art and
Authors 2009

Sophie Byrne,
Assistant Curator:
Talks & Lectures

Images Irish Museum

of Modern Art and
Artists 2009

Mark Maguire,
Assistant Curator:
Education and
Community
Programmes

All rights reserved. No part

of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the written permission of
the Publishers.

Research:
Marianna Sabena
Rebecca Devaney

Images:
Every effort has been made
to acknowledge correct
copyright of images where
applicable. Any errors or
omissions are unintentional
and should be notified to
the Irish Museum of Modern
Art What Is __? series.
List of illustrations:
Page 2
Hughie ODonoghue,
Crossing the Rapido VI:
Painting Caserta Red, Artist
Studio, Ireland, 2003.
Page 7
Vong Phaophanit, Line
Writing, 1994, 6 rows of Red
neon with Laotian Script,
700 x 150 cm, Dimensions
variable, Collection Irish
Museum of Modern Art,
Purchase, 1995.
Page 10
Julian Opie, Escaped
Animals, 2002, Vinyl, aluminium and steel, Outdoor
work, Dimensions variable,
Collection Irish Museum of
Modern Art, Commissioned
by BALTIC, Gateshead and
presented by BALTIC, and
the artist, 2002.
Page 13
Pierre Huyghe, Block Party,
2002 - 2004, Super 16mm
film transferred to DVD, Ed
1/6, 5min 45sec, Collection
Irish Museum of Modern
Art, Purchase, 2005.
Page 14
Douglas Gordon, Above All
Else, 1991, Matte emulsion,
Dimensions variable. Exhibition, Theanyspacewhatever,
Guggenheim, New York,
October 24, 2008 - January
7, 2009, Collection Irish
Museum of Modern Art
Loan, Weltkunst Foundation, 1994.

Page 17
Dorothy Cross, Parachute,
2005, Parachute and gannet, Dimensions variable.
Exhibition, LAir, Frith Street
Gallery, London, 21 April
May 2005, Collection Irish
Museum of Modern Art,
Purchase, 2000.

Royal Hospital, Military Rd,

Kilmainham, Dublin 8
Ireland

T. 00 353 1 612 9900

F. 00 353 1 612 9999
E. [email protected]

www.imma.ie

What is Series 1 ?

Royal Hospital,
Military Road, Kilmainham,
Dublin 8, Ireland

The tricky task of identifying a working definition of modern is accompanied by

T. 00 353 1 612 9900

F. 00 353 1 612 9999
E. [email protected]

What is Modern and Contemporary Art? is the first in a series of talks

the equally testing challenge of defining the word contemporary As such, to

be contemporary is to be alert to the conditions of a particular moment in time,
to be moving with the tides of living history.

Francis Halsall and Declan Long

and booklets which aim to provide a general introduction to key concepts

and themes in Contemporary Art. What is Modern Art and Contemporary Art?
provides a brief overview of Modern and Contemporary Art, identifying some
of the challenges that arise when attempting to define this complex and
contested sphere of theory and practice. This is accompanied by an essay by
Francis Halsall and Declan Long, titled How soon was now? What is Modern
and Contemporary Art?

www.imma.ie

Royal Hospital, Milita

Kilmainham, Dublin 8
Ireland

Irish Museum o