What is it?

It’s a frequent question. Contemporary art isn’t one particular way of making art. It can be painting, sculpture, photography, textiles, film, sound, installation, performance, or almost anything else. Every generation has had contemporary artists. Leonardo da Vinci was a contemporary artist. So were Monet and Van Gogh. They were making art in the world and era they lived in, exploring new ideas and new ways of looking at things. We simply came to regard their work as part of history later.

Today’s artists are doing much the same thing: making work in their own time, responding to the world around them and exploring whatever interests, concerns or questions they choose. There’s no great mystery to it.

Perhaps a simple way to think about it

Imagine an onion. An artist might simply paint the onion. Another might ask you to look at its layers, its heart, the leaves above the ground, the roots beneath it, the soil in which it grew, the people who planted it, where it came from, or what it might represent. But it’s still an onion. The only thing that has really changed is how you are thinking about it.

Contemporary art often does something similar. It can take something familiar and invite us to look again — to notice something we might otherwise overlook, or to think about something in a different way. Sometimes the subject is unfamiliar. Sometimes it’s completely ordinary. The interesting part may be what happens when we stop simply looking at something and start wondering about it.

You don’t have to understand it

You don’t have to understand an artwork before you can enjoy it. You don’t need to know what the artist intended, although it can be interesting to imagine. You don’t need to know its history, and there isn’t always a single correct interpretation. You might admire the craftsmanship, or enjoy the materials an artist has chosen. You might like the colour, the scale or the way something has been made. Perhaps a work makes you smile, unsettles you, reminds you of something, or makes you stop and wonder for a moment. Or perhaps you simply like it because you like it. All of those are perfectly good reasons to spend time looking at artworks. And sometimes you won’t like a work at all, and that’s fine too.

Think about streaming apps. You don’t expect to enjoy everything you find there. You browse, something catches your attention, you have a look, and you decide whether it’s for you. Art can be approached in much the same way. You may find some artists interesting and others less so. You may love one work and feel nothing about another. You may even change your mind when you see something again. There’s no test to pass, and no requirement to like everything.

So what is it?

The answer is largely up to you. Look. Notice what catches your attention. Be curious. Ask yourself what you see, what you feel, or what something makes you think about. And if the answer is simply “I don’t know”, that’s perfectly okay. You can keep looking. Because sometimes the most interesting thing about a work isn’t finding the answer to “What is it?” It’s discovering what it makes you wonder about. And perhaps you will find something surprising. Something strange. Something beautiful. An experience that stays with you.

If you find even one new thing that you enjoy, you’ve added beauty to your world.