Art in all its forms has always undergone evolutionary changes by opening to new ways and untrodden paths. In fact, the changes are so numerous that almost every artist may be said to have contributed towards bringing one or the other change. Contemporary painting trends in the early 21st century have evolved from the global changes in environment, political situations, and the surge of wars and terrorism. A lot of orange and black colors depicting flames and smoke predominate paintings of the 21st century. History repeats itself, and it is particularly manifest in paintings. There used to be flat, miniature paintings by old masters like Chughtai. Handwritten manuscripts had always one-dimensional paintings which gradually developed into two-dimensional, and over a period of time into three-dimensional paintings. A contemporary painting trend known as ‘SoFlo Superflat’ seems to be a reversion to a single dimension like the Mughal miniatures. The availability of new media, environment, and techniques have also influenced the contemporary paintings. To emphasize the need for reuse of the non-renewable fossil fuel products, painters like David Macaluso have created excellent paintings like the portrait of President Obama using used motor oil.

1. Rackstraw Downes

Rodney Harry Rackstraw Downes, better known as Rackstraw Downes, was born in 1939 in Pembury, Kent, England. He studied at Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut, and graduated with a B.A. in English Literature from Cambridge University and received his M.F.A. from Yale School of Art. He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Parsons School of Design, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He started with abstract art but changed to landscape and cityscape painting. Downes’ paintings are characterized by their broad scope and in-depth details. Downes received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1998 and was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship ‘genius award’ in 2009. Ken Johnson, New York Times critic commented that Downes ‘paints beautiful pictures of ugly places.’

2. Chen Yifei

Chen Yifei was born on April 12, 1946 and died on April 10, 2005. He was the first student from the Republic of China to study in the U.S. in 1980. He received his Master’s degree from Hunter College, and his work displayed there was a great success. He is one of the most famous Chinese painters. He is best known for his portraits of Mao and oil paintings of the Cultural Revolution and Tibet along with his impressionistic paintings of the Zhejiang Province. In spite of his capitalist thoughts, he was acknowledged by authorities purely on a meritorious basis especially by virtue of his excellent oil paintings.

3. Andre Durand

Andre Durand was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1947. He became internationally famous after creating his official portraits of Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama. His most appreciated works include allegorical portraits like Lady Diana’s ‘Fortuna.’ His most famous portraits include the portrait of Irish Novelist Elizabeth Bowen displayed in London’s National Portrait Gallery. Durand was inspired by Michelangelo, Titian, and Rubens. From 2000 to 2006 he painted a Christian narrative in the background of the Sussex countryside, and his work was displayed in the churches of Sussex in 2006.

 4. David Maculso

David Maculso was raised in Long Island, New York and lived later on in Brooklyn. He is best known for his oil paintings like the portrait of President Obama. He reused the used motor oil to create some of his most famous paintings. The idea behind it was to reuse the non-renewable fossil fuel products. In consideration of the unique reuse of the used motor oil for the purpose of creating his oil paintings, he can be rightly considered an environmentalist painter. Macaluso collects the motor oil for his paintings from a local mechanic.

5. Federico Aguilar Alcuaz

Federico Aguilar Alcuaz was born in 1932 in Manila. He studied fine arts at the University of Philippines. He attended Real Academia de Bellas de San Fernando in Madrid but did not stay for more than two weeks for the intended one-year study because the teachers opined that he was too far ahead of his classmates. He finished a portrait or a landscape in a record seven minutes, and the writer Anthony John R. Balisi commented that it ‘Means seven minutes and a lifetime of practice.’ Foreign culture is reflected in his paintings.

6.  Ang Kiukok

Ang Kiukok was born in 1931 and studied at the University of Santo Tomas. He started painting still life and goldfish and gradually changed to painting the objects in pain. He seems to have some empathy for tortured mankind and animals. He is best known for his expressionist paintings of the crucified Christ. He polished his skills under the guidance of masters like Victorio Edades, Diosdado Lorenzo, and Vicente Manasala. He assisted Manasala in doing a mural of the cross for the Church of the Holy sacrifice.

7. Takashi Murakmi

Takashi Murakmi was born on February 1, 1962 in Tokyo, Japan. Since his early days he was attracted towards animation of ‘Manga’ and aspired to be an animator. He attended Tokyo University of Art to improve his drafting skills aiming at becoming an animator. Later on he focussed on Nihonga, the traditional Japanese style of painting involving Japanese conventions, objects, and media. He received his Ph.D. in Nihonga, but he soon rejected it on account of political thoughts and started seeking information about contemporary art. Takashi Murakami founded the Superflat Movement which emphasizes outlines and flat colors which is not a three-dimensional painting. Britto, Ceron and Caron are a few of the artists belonging to the SoFlo Superflat Movement.

8. Benedicto Cabrera ‘Bencab’

Benedicto Reyes, better known as Benedicto Cabera, nicknamed as ‘Bencab,’ was born to Democrito Cabrera and Isabel Reye in Malabon, Rizal, Philippines on August 27, 1942. He received his degree in Fine Arts from the University of Philippines in 1963. He is considered the best-selling painter of his time. The government of the Philippines awarded him the Order of National Artist for Visual Arts in 2006. In 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Philippines.

9. Antonio Austria

Antonio Gilbuena Austria, commonly known as Antonio Austria, was born to Pedro Austria and Lucila Gilbuena in Shanghai on May 5, 1936. University of Santo Thomas (UST) was his alma mater, and he taught there for 27 years. His subjects are wide-ranging from commoners to the elite and from beautiful to weird objects.  He is best known for his compositions. He is a truly Philippine artist and desired to be seen through his Philippine themes in his paintings.

10. Michiel Conrad Botha

Michiel Conrad Botha was born in Pretoria, South Africa on August 9, 1972, but he was raised in a distant locality, Witbank, where he received his early education. He graduated from the University of Johannesburg. He is the founding member of the Superstroke Movement. The movement manifesto requires prominently expressive brush strokes, texture, and pencil strokes. The movement is not in favor of the ‘Art for the Sake of Art’ philosophy. The Superstroke Movement emerged as a reaction to the Superflat Movement.

Conclusion:

Many new movements have influenced the trends in painting like algorithmic art which is a computer-generated art. Graffiti is sort of an illegal wall chalking in public places, and ‘hyperrealism’ is like developing a high-resolution picture. Anti-ruling party feelings have been expressed in his work just like they have been in some musical genres. Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist of international fame, was imprisoned in 2011 on the charge of spreading pornography. Global art fairs have also impacted the painting trends in the first decade of the 21st century. Some of the fairs started in this century include: Athens Biennial, Beijing International Art, Biennial Art Dubai, Art Abu Dhabi, and Berlin Biennial. Other than Soflo, Superflat, and Hyperrealism already mentioned, there are some other genres; Metamodernism, Neo-minimalism, Relationship Art and Super Stroke. The few listed genres, however, do not rule out the existence of many others.