Summary Of Terry Smith's Essay Worlds Pictured In Contemporary Art

In the essay, Worlds Pictured in Contemporary Art: Planes and Connectivities, author Terry Smith describes what makes contemporary art unique. According to Smith, “placemaking, world picturing and connectivity are the most common concerns of artists these days because they are the substance of contemporary being”. He argues that today’s society is more connected than ever before, and asserts that contemporary art is “ art for the world––for the world as it is now, and as it might be”, unlike any art in past generations. Smith also notes the existence of “worlds within the world”, suggesting that the whole, contemporary world, consists of layers, or different kinds of worlds, some being more intimate, while others more distant. He claims that these worlds are “linked by a mix of direct …show more content…
Another key term in Smith’s essay is contemporary art. Aside from being defined as merely the art produced by artists who are living in the twenty-first century, he highlights the makeup of all contemporary art, specifically noting that placemaking, world picturing and connectivity “are present in all art that is truly contemporary” and that contemporary art follows three main trends; The first is continuing with the historical trends, the second originated from former colonies thus presenting a kind of resistance spirit and clash between ideas and lastly “the viral spread of small-scale, interactive, d-i-y art”. A third key term Smith gives a unique interpretation to is connectivity. Rather than viewing that word as a static state of being connected, Smith considers it to be “... more as an ongoing process of seeking out the lineaments of connection, catching glimpses of them, allowing them to resonate, change, and inevitably loosen, only to seek them