Postmodernism: A broad term encompassing literature, theater, film, art, philosophy, architecture, fiction, and criticism, among others. Where Modernism built on the foundational principle that scientific, emotional, and other Truths might help explain lived experience, Postmodernism refused any overarching narrative... my truth is my truth, and yours is yours. Skepticism, irony, and doubt dominate Postmodern thinking, and any claim that suggests it might govern all cultures, faiths, traditions might well receive mockery. By this time, the "Death of the Author," has occurred, and authority rests with interpretation (reading) as much as with authorship.
Postmodernism doesn't come at the end of Modernism (because many artists continue to work in a modernist mode), but it denies its validity. The idea that there could be any original, much less that it would express a truth, broadly speaking, seems ridiculous to postmodernists.
By its very nature, postmodern art looks very different in the hands of different artists. Artists work with a wide range of materials, in some cases without any materials other than their bodies or minds.
Terms associated with postmodernism:
Pastiche, assemblage, collage, montage, commodity
appropriation, repetition, reproduction, re-presentation, simulation
irony, humor, cynicism, ridicule
multiculturalism, multiplicity, fragmentation
a-historicity
all mark postmodernism.
high and low culture merge
Not all artists working during the postmodern period were postmodern.
Folk Art
Henry Darger. I recommend that you view Jessica Yu's remarkable documentary In the Realms of the Unreal, 2004
James Hampton, Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly, found materials, 1950-1964, now in the smithsonian
And some artists remain very much inside a postmodern style today.... meaning?
Patricia Piccinini, starting point, including her 'altered vespa sculptures' (my term) here.
Ron Mueck, photo credit here, start with Mueck here.
Some say we are now in the period of Post-Medium Condition
Cai Guo-Qiang, Drawing for Transient RainbowAugust 2003 (fireworks, gunpowder drawings, and taxidermy installations), photo credit here, start with Art 21 Episode about Cai Guo-Qiang .
Postmodernism doesn't come at the end of Modernism (because many artists continue to work in a modernist mode), but it denies its validity. The idea that there could be any original, much less that it would express a truth, broadly speaking, seems ridiculous to postmodernists.
By its very nature, postmodern art looks very different in the hands of different artists. Artists work with a wide range of materials, in some cases without any materials other than their bodies or minds.
Terms associated with postmodernism:
Pastiche, assemblage, collage, montage, commodity
appropriation, repetition, reproduction, re-presentation, simulation
irony, humor, cynicism, ridicule
multiculturalism, multiplicity, fragmentation
a-historicity
all mark postmodernism.
high and low culture merge
depthlessness-- beyond flatness
technology
against Meta-Narrative
Choose three artists to read about; consider what qualities of their work seem modern, what postmodern. What sets the artist apart?
Not all artists working during the postmodern period were postmodern.
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| Gerhard Richter, Elizabeth 1, 1966, litho |
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| Gerhard Richter, Betty, |
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| Keith Haring Ignorance = Fear 1989. © Keith Haring Foundation/ Collection Noirmontartproduction, Paris |
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| Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz |
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| Warhol, Self Portrait , 1986 |
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| Vincent Van Gogh, Peasant Shoes, 1888 |
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| Andy Warhol, Diamond Dust Shoes, 1980 |
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| Vija Celmins, To Fix the Memory in my Mind, 1980 |
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| Vija Celmins, untitled Ocean, |
Folk Art
Henry Darger. I recommend that you view Jessica Yu's remarkable documentary In the Realms of the Unreal, 2004
James Hampton, Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly, found materials, 1950-1964, now in the smithsonian
And some artists remain very much inside a postmodern style today.... meaning?
 |
| Patricia Piccinini, The Stags, 2008; Fiberglass, automotive paint, leather, steel, plastic, and rubber, 69 3/4 x 72 x 40 1/4 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, |
Patricia Piccinini, starting point, including her 'altered vespa sculptures' (my term) here.
Ron Mueck, photo credit here, start with Mueck here.
Some say we are now in the period of Post-Medium Condition
Cai Guo-Qiang, Drawing for Transient RainbowAugust 2003 (fireworks, gunpowder drawings, and taxidermy installations), photo credit here, start with Art 21 Episode about Cai Guo-Qiang .
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