Today’s European artists draw on the rich legacy of creativity that filled their continent for centuries, but also reckon with the dark periods of violence and war of the first half of the twentieth century. Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter are two high profile German artists who have publicly grappled with the legacy of World War II and the Holocaust, with markedly different outcomes. Kiefer’s abstracted work—often incorporating materials like lead, dried flowers, and broken glass—explicitly references the atrocities committed by Germany while also alluding to ancient German mythology. Although much of Richter’s work is concerned with the formal debate of abstraction versus figuration, he, too, publicly dealt with WWII. Contemporary European artists also use visual media to confront more recent events and political turmoil. Through a combination of paintings and sculptural objects, Georgian born artist Levan Mindiashvili questions the institutional version of history, and references the instability caused by war and political conflict. Like Kiefer, Mindiashvili uses unconventional materials to evoke specific referents. In some sculptures, he uses steel and painted plaster so they mimic the permanence of a housing block.

In the United Kingdom, work by the so-called Young British Artists has dominated the conversation since the 1980s. Artists including Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tacita Dean, and Sarah Lucas have wrestled with identity, sexuality, and mortality in their provocative and at times absurdist work. Other contemporary European artists consider language, formal definitions of media, art processes, and other debates that have spurred innovation since the beginning of the twentieth century. Swedish-born artist Sigrid Sandström draws inspiration from the landscape of her native country to create abstract, geometric prints with a timeless quality. Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson combines music, repetition, and a sense of geographic place in joyful and ephemeral performances.