The 1970s and Installation Art

As I have chosen to use installation for the basis of my project, and I am looking into a period of the movements history. I chose the 1970's as this is the time period that is regarded that installation art started and became widely popular even thought it has roots in the 1960's and even as far back as Marcel Duchamp.

1970s

Now in the 21st century many historians consider this time period to be one that is of major change as the period if of political and economic change. There was a more active role the public was tacking in politics with protests of anti-war, civil rights and environmental issues. The US government even pull out of the Vietnam war due to its unpopularity. There was also increasing unsettle in the middle east.

Installation art in the 1970's

Installation art is a relatively new approach in contemporary dating back to the 1960s and 70s emerging from the discipline-blurring, irreverent artistic experimentation of the time. Rather than being a distinct art object, like a painting or a sculpture, installation typically fills an entire room or space and is often, but not always, situated in a gallery or museum setting. The materials used vary along with the artists intentions making installation art have a wide variety of possibility's, installation art can be understood as a whole bodily experience, something you walk into and inhabit. It takes into account not just art objects, but the venue itself, and the spaces in between things. Although installation art look as if it is very different and distinct from traditional art is actually has its roots back with avant-garde art of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, though, something distinctly new begins to occur in visual art. Some artists start to question the Renaissance traditions. They are no longer convinced that the best art is necessarily the most realistic. These avant-garde artists look for new approaches and new potentials. They feel that the realism of the Renaissance tradition has grown stale and overly academic. It has lost its power to inspire, awe, or surprise. The avant-garde artists hope to reclaim this power by exploring states of mind, emotions, psychological or spiritual experience, political aspirations, and philosophical insights in their art. Today's installation art should really be understood within this same art historical narrative. By the time artists start to venture into installation in the mid-twentieth century, there is a growing sense that all traditional art forms, including those from the avant-garde period, have been played out. Many artists who work with installations talk about wanting to make something unfamiliar, unsettling, and surprising. They also hope to confound and blur distinctions between art and life. Installation approaches allow artists to reckon with all the same aesthetic and philosophical concerns that art has always engaged with, but to do so in new ways, ways that free artists up from routine expectations. Installation also releases artists from the typical constraints of the art market because most installation art is difficult to sell or collect