Pedro Nunes

Andrade Nunes is an investor in a number of companies. He has an MSc in management from the London School of Economics and is a corporate lawyer by trade. However, he is not your typical legal eagle. Nunes entire life has been a transgression between two very different realities, each evolving deeply around his art. His style of painting doesn’t start with an idea or a concept, he simply paints straight onto the canvas. He is usually in a semi-conscious state; he does not do any drafts and does not work around a subject. Nunes’s instincts take control in such a way that he is no longer the master of the brush. Born in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, his early childhood years were spent in Africa. It was there that his love of travel was formed. He has painted from an instinct, nothing specifically defined, an urge, an impulse, something irrational for sure. His works are world-renowned and will be seen in Christie’s in January 2020 and the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2020.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.