Contemporary art

“Contemporary art” is a loose label for art of the present and the recent past, often with an innovative or avant-garde character. There is no single answer to where the “recent past” starts. London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, founded in 1947, backs art from that year onwards, whereas the New Museum in New York picks a later starting point, 1977. Tate's glossary uses “modern art” for the run of movements from Gustave Courbet's realism up to abstract art and its developments in the 1960s. The names of the museums differ from place to place as well: Tokyo's 東京都現代美術館 calls itself the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Taipei has the 台北當代藝術館 (MOCA Taipei), and Korea's 국립현대미술관 carries both “Modern” and “Contemporary” in its English name. In its notes on the permanent exhibition at the Seoul building, that museum gathers work from the 1960s to the 2010s as Korean 현대미술, and calls the part from the 1990s to the 2010s 동시대미술.

Check whether the museum's name and the wall texts say “modern” or “contemporary”, then read the dates on the labels: where does this place draw the line?

• Modernism 現代主義→In Tate's glossary, modernism and modern art cover the movements running from Courbet's realism to the 1960s.
• Avant-garde 아방가르드→Tate's definition of contemporary art mentions an innovatory or avant-garde character.