Global contemporary art

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A beginner's guide to contemporary art

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Brought to you by Smarthistory.
Art in the 21st Century
The YBAs, The London-based Young British Artists
Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
Global modernisms: Africa
Global modernisms: Latin America
Global modernisms: Asia
Global modernisms: The Middle East

Identity, the body & the subversion of Modernism

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Brought to you by Smarthistory. Artists deconstruct social identity and examine the body as a cultural subject.
United States
Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East

Conceptual and Performance art

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Brought to you by Smarthistory. Does art need to be a physical thing, an object made of stone or canvas? Could art be an idea enacted, a process, or an environment inhabited and transformed?
Conceptual Art: An Introduction
Unlock Art: Frank Skinner on Performance Art
Performance Art: An Introduction
Joseph Beuys, Feet Washing and Conceptual Performance
Joseph Beuys, Fat Chair
Joseph Beuys, Table with Accumulator
Vito Acconci, Following Piece
The Case for Yoko Ono
John Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
John Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
Jannis Kounellis, "Da inventare sul posto (To invent on the spot)"
Vito Acconci
Juan Downey: Plato Now
Hans Haacke: "A Breed Apart" in South Africa
Hans Haacke, Seurat's 'Les Poseuses' (small version)
Nam June Paik, Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii
Cildo Meireles
An installation by Xu Bing at the British Museum
Xu Bing, Book from the Sky
Xu Bing, Book from the Sky
Alfredo Jaar, A Logo for America
Bill Viola, The Crossing
Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović: What is performance art?
Marina Abramović: The Body as medium

Global modernisms in the 21st century

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Brought to you by Smarthistory. Culture, like capitalism, is increasingly global. Artists work internationally and no single city is now the center of the art world. Istanbul, Beijing, Bogotá, Beirut, Lagos, and São Paulo all support thriving communities of artists.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Earth’s Creation
Mariko Mori, Pure Land
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Bilbao
Shirazeh Houshiary
Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (After Fragonard)
Shonibare, The Swing
William Kentridge, drawing from Tide Table (Soho in Deck Chair)
Mona Hatoum's self-contradictory objects
El Anatsui, Untitled
El Anatsui, Old Man’s Cloth
El Anatsui, Old Man's Cloth
Mehretu, Stadia II
Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth
Doris Salcedo's "Shibboleth"
Zarina Hashmi
Marlene Dumas, Models
Julie Mehretu, Stadia II
Jeff Wall, A View from an Apartment
Traces of illegal migration in Mexico: Mark Ruwedel
Wangechi Mutu, Preying Mantra
Shai Kremer in an Israeli military training stage
Gabriel Orozco
Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth
Zaha Hadid, MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome
Zaha Hadid, MAXII National Museum
East-West Divan at the Venice Biennale
Doug Fishbone: Elmina
Hrair Sarkissian: Syria's "Execution Squares"
The Case for Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei, "Remembering" and the Politics of Dissent
Ai Weiwei, Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds)
Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps
Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds
Isaac Julien, Ten Thousand Waves | MoMA
Nawa, PixCell-Deer#24
Wang Peng: Performance as politics in China and beyond
Michael Rakowitz on Star Wars and Saddam Hussein
Wolfgang Laib, "Pollen from Hazelnut"
Meschac Gaba

Recommended

Art in the 21st Century
The YBAs, The London-based Young British Artists
Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
Global modernisms: Africa
Global modernisms: Latin America

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A beginner's guide to contemporary art
Brought to you by Smarthistory.
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