Contemporary art

Art left the canvas behind: ideas, bodies, landscapes, video and entire rooms.

From the 1960s and 70s on, the idea often mattered more than the object. Conceptual art, performance, land art and installation took art out of the frame – Abramović used her body, Smithson the landscape, and Christo wrapped buildings.

In the 1980s painting returned with Neo-Expressionists such as Kiefer and Basquiat. Postmodernism borrowed, quoted and questioned, and photographers such as Cindy Sherman explored identity and roles.

Today the art world is global, and artists work with everything from video and light to craft and digital works. Questions of climate, identity, power and history are central. At the same time, women and previously overlooked artists, such as Hilma af Klint, have been written into history.