Art Essay - Contemporary Art Object. 22.5/25

1066 Words5 Pages
Stimulus Quote: “With contemporary art the art object is no longer always a precious, enduring, beautiful, original object displayed in an art gallery”

Traditionally artworks that have been established/ valued around conventions of precious, enduring, beautiful, original objects have shown in an art gallery. In a contemporary context, artists often challenge and play these themes in their art making. Artists such as Ai Wei Wei, Tim Silver and Banksy challenge these traditional values. Wei Wei, Banksy and Silver all play with the notion of impermanence and destruction. They all have different relationships with galleries; Banksy doesn’t require a gallery at all. For Ai Wei Wei to have his works seen they do not have to be in a gallery as some are performance and Tim Silver uses a gallery for his works as people and interfere and move throughout them.

Ai Wei Wei is a Chinese artist who spent 12 years in New York. The early 1990’s had a huge influence on his art making. In New York he was exposed to a whole new world of artists and ideas. He was highly inspired by works of artists such as Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and Marcel Dechump. He was captivated by these artists because their artworks developed from concepts and ideas and lacked any overt expression of emotion. “This led me to appreciate art that had a certain emotional detachment or indifference because I myself had so much emotion” – breaking away from conventions such as value and originality.

Ai Wei Wei’s exposure to these artists led to the development of his first major body of work. Using everyday familiar objects questioned the authenticity of the art. Ai Wei Wei produced a series of ready mades each challenging the original functions of the objects forcing them to be seen in new ways. As a result of this Ai Wei Wei moved away from traditional ways of displaying art and playing with the
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