“Modern” and "Contemporary" are similar in terms of time describing, and they both have the characteristics of the present. This is probably why people tend to confuse modern art with contemporary art. However, they are do not mean the same thing in history and culture. They are different concepts and styles. Modern art is a reflection on traditional arts, as well as exploration and experiments of artistic boundaries and media. Based on these experiments, contemporary art further challenges various established concepts, involving a wider range of subjects and media, and uses arts as a language to present the inner world of artists or the world in which they live.

Modern art used to be "contemporary", it was the trend of arts that occurred at the time, but as time passed, "modern" became history, and people turned to use “Contemporary Art” as a term for artistic creation that is happening and ongoing in the present era. During the transition from modern art to contemporary art, there was an art form called “Post-modern Art”, which was popular in the 1960s. Since it occurred in modern times, some people would regard its main genres, such as Pop Art, as one of the contemporary art genres.

The period of contemporary art can be considered starting from the 1980s and onwards. For nearly 40 years, the artists and artworks coexist with us. Unlike arts of other periods and trends in the past, we can still communicate with contemporary artists. The trends and styles of contemporary art are difficult to define, because the subject matter crosses boundaries, sometimes critical and sometimes eclectic. Contemporary art is unrestricted, and artists have great degree of freedom. Since it is a contemporary creation, contemporary art often responds to current social events and cultural trends, and draws attention to different issues through arts. It is also affected by globalization that artworks often present a variety of cultural fusions, and the boundaries between East and West become increasingly blurred.

With the evolution of technology, artists also explore the relationship between humans and technology. A wide range of media that can be used, such as computers, Internet, photography and video.Virtual reality technology emerged in recent years, which further enhances the possibilities of arts. In terms of form and style, contemporary art can be very abstract, and artists can freely sway, completely deviate from traditional painting techniques, and even no longer focus on the medium of painting, such as the use of ready-made objects and installation art. Focusing on the possibility of medium more than the subject to be expressed in artworks, or pay more attention to the interpretation and imagination of artworks by viewers. For performance art and public art, which have a predetermined performance time or place, they focus more on interaction and communication with viewers, and no longer only revolves around the artist's own creation.

References

BISHOP, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. Verso, 2012.
BISHOP, Claire. Installation Art: A Critical History. Tate, 2011.
SALLE, David. How to See: Looking, talking, and thinking about art. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.
WILLIAMS, Gilda. How to Write About Contemporary Art. Thames and Hudson Limited, 2014.
暮澤剛巳著，《當代藝術關鍵詞100》，2011
楊識宏，《淺談當代藝術》，2014