How To Look At Contemporary Art

Open your mind to the wonderful world of 21st century art

Photo by Paul Bence on Unsplash

I’ve been looking at contemporary art for more than twenty years now. My excitement, and occasional bewilderment, at the things that go on inside contemporary art galleries continue to be exercised.

I also know that, for a lot of people, contemporary art can be difficult to understand or to even take seriously.

This is where I want to help.

At first, it may seem impertinent to suggest a series of methods for looking at contemporary art. Anyone who has stepped inside a modern gallery in the last few decades will know how diverse the arena has become. If contemporary art is anything, then it seems to be a place where rules are perpetually broken.

So can a pithy list of ‘techniques’ begin to cover it?

Over the years, I’ve seen all sorts of things presented as art: a glass case with a cow inside it, a giant fibreglass mushroom, a wall-mounted neon sign saying “I WOKE UP WANTING TO KISS YOU”, televisions on plinths showing pop videos from the 1980s, a collection of several hundred pots and pans hanging by a wire from the gallery ceiling, a cast of the artist’s head made from his own frozen blood, a room with a light switching on and off, a sculpture with the appearance of a…