When Modern Became Contemporary Art

This book is a portrait of the period when modern art became contemporary art. It explores how and why writers and artists in Australia argued over the idea of a distinctively Australian modern and then postmodern art between 1962.

Charles Green is Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Melbourne, author of Peripheral Vision: Contemporary Australian Art (1995), The Third Hand: Artist Collaborations from Conceptualism to Postmodernism (2001) and (with Anthony Gardner) Biennials, Triennials, and documenta (2016). He is also an artist, working in collaboration with Lyndell Brown. Heather Barker is an independent scholar and artist.

Introduction. Part 1 1. 1962. Australian Painting: Reinventing National Art 2. 1967. Notes to a Metropolitan Centre: Professionalising the Australian Art World Part 2 3. 1970. Other Voices: The Failure of Style 4. 1973. Post-Object Art: Modern Becomes Contemporary 5. 1974. The Provincialism Problem: Notes from a Metropolitan Centre Part 3 6. 1976. Lip: Is a Social Art Practice Sustainable 7. 1979. Art Network: Inclusiveness Versus Import Rhetoric 8. 1981. Art & Text: Reading the Room 9. 1988. Conclusion. The Necessity of Australian Art: Pinpointing a New Idea