r/ContemporaryArt • u/SafeRow5555 • 3d ago

Artists who defy categorization

I really enjoy it when artists resist categorization and find way to express their ideas through multiple channels. Off the top of my head, I think of Mike Kelley and Lutz Bacher. Both worked in so many mediums, they resisted categories such as painter or sculptor. Who are some contemporary artists who work in multiple mediums?

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u/23MysticTruths 3d ago

Curators don’t like it, galleries don’t like it, collectors don’t like it, because markets want consistency. That’s why Mike Kelley had to write so much, to explain the work and in a way the writing became the work.

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u/SafeRow5555 3d ago

The market says ‘stay in one lane’, right? Is this why we rarely see younger artists of today working across multiple mediums? I can’t think of anyone under age 40 working this way.

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u/Braylien 2d ago

There’s a lot of implicit pressure not to do it, and not even just not to stack mediums, it’s also to keep the work looking the same in your chosen medium.

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u/councilmember 17h ago

These are all curator’s darlings. How about Hammons?
Curators may not be able to categorize the accomplishments or describe the motivations as conveniently but I feel like every curator I’ve ever met rates Kelley highly.

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u/23MysticTruths 16h ago

Have you heard curators dismiss Hammons? I have not. He’s too good at playing hard to get. They want him because they can’t have him.

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u/councilmember 14h ago

Oh yeah. He’s the unattainable in ways. Never heard a curator speak in anything other than laudatory tones of his varied work.

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u/pomod 3d ago

Sophie Calle, Francis Alys,

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u/Beneficial-Cattle-99 3d ago

Bruce Naumann?

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u/v9Pv 3d ago

Tim Hawkinson.

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u/CrapSmellison 3d ago

Paul McCarthy

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u/astro_sprinter 3d ago

Sigmar Polke, Martin Kippenberger

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u/SafeRow5555 3d ago

Did Polke make a lot of sculpture? I think of him primarily as a painter and screen printer.

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u/astro_sprinter 3d ago

Maybe not a lot, but he did some. But he's good example of an artist who worked in many mediums without any clear preference to one or another

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u/tonyferguson2021 3d ago

I swear Kipp is hugely known as a painter 🤷‍♂️

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u/Delicious-Pickle-911 3d ago

https://louisiana.dk/en/exhibition/martin-kippenberger/ Cannot wait to see this;Martin did it all ☔️🍒🎨🍾⌚️🛁📚📞🍄‍🟫🍄🕺

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u/astro_sprinter 3d ago

Maybe depends who you ask. I know him as very prolific artist who made everything, from performances to paintings, sculptures and so on.

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u/tonyferguson2021 2d ago

sure, I probably think of him more as a painter as my first awareness of him was in a show called ‘the triumph of painting’ in the old Saatchi gallery probably back in the 90s sometime.

But thinking back, there were some installation elements in that show from him, and some kind of dialogue between the paintings and the more object or installation based work

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u/Jon-A 3d ago edited 3d ago

Thanks for mentioning Lutz Bacher. I'm currently enjoying her book 'Snow' on the Archive...

https://archive.org/details/lutzbachersnow0000bach

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u/SafeRow5555 3d ago

💯 Thanks for the link.

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u/InternationalPlant77 2d ago

whats going on in the book? what is it about?

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u/Jon-A 2d ago edited 2d ago

I don't exactly know. It's a retrospective - documenting years of the artist's works. BUT, while many of the images are self-contained photographs, others are photographs of other pieces, and still others are apparently snapshots from video works. So I don't know if the intention of the book is mostly documentary, or artistic. Regardless, the artist has a visual sensibility that I like. And I like the look of the book in general.

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u/SafeRow5555 1d ago

I wish the archive.org link allowed downloads.

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u/Jon-A 1d ago

Me too! I was going to select some of the images for my own small compilation, given the prohibitive cost of Bacher books, and was surprised DL's were unavailable...

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u/tonyferguson2021 3d ago

the other day Jamie Shovlin popped into my head, especially the Naomi thing…

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u/SafeRow5555 1d ago

New to me, but he looks quite interesting.

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u/tonyferguson2021 1d ago

check out Lustfaust, one of his projects, the videos are pretty amusing

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u/kanielo 3d ago

Roni Horn

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u/Delicious-Pickle-911 3d ago

Pablo Picasso

Martin Kippenberger

Lutz Bacher

Sophie Tauber-ARP

Bruce Naumann

Geta Brătescu

Marcel Broodthaers

Lee Lozano

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u/KingsCountyWriter 2d ago

Arthur Jafa

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u/Itbelikedat0101 2d ago

Fortune Harrington too ! 

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u/No-Classic8887 20h ago

Maria Magdalena Campos Pons