Postmodern art: Difference between revisions

Postmodern art (sometimes called po-mo) is a term used to describe art which is thought to be after or in contradiction to some aspect of modernism. As with all divisions the lumpers and splitters problem applies; there are those who argue against a division into modern and postmodern periods.

Thus it has been used to denote what may be considered as the ultimate phase of modern art, as art after modernism or as certain tendencies of contemporary art. Postmodern art uses a vocabulary of media, genres or styles as parts of an extended visual language that goes beyond the boundaries of the modernist vocabulary. Postmodernism is, by its very nature, impossible to define clearly. Some of the best expositions appear in the theoretical writings of Jean Baudrillard, who concludes that what motivates art historical change is not any 'authentic' or 'original' impulse, but simply fashion, pivoting on the desire for novelty, which he sees as an organic and integrated processes.

As with all uses of the term post-modern there are vociferous critics of its application, however, at this point, these critics are in the minority. This is not to say that the phase of art denoted by post-modernism is accepted, merely that the need for a term to describe movements in art after the peak of Abstract Expressionism is well established. Not all art labelled as contemporary art is post-modern, and the broader term encompasses both artists who continue to work in modern traditions, as well as artists who reject post-modernism for other reasons.

In general Pop Art and Minimalism are labelled as the first post-modern movements, even though movements felt to be precursors or influential on post-modern art existed through out the modern period, including Conceptual art, Dada, Surrealism and the use of techniques such as collage, bricolage and art forms which used recording or reproduction as the basis for artworks.

Post-modernism describes movements which both arise from, and react against, trends in modernism and reject some aspect of the modern program. In some descriptions post-modernism as a period in art is completed, where as in others it is a continuing movement in Contemporary art.

One compact definition is offered is that post-modernism acts in rejection of modernism's grand narratives of artistic directin, and to eradicate the boundaries between high and low forms of art, to disrupt genre and its conventions with collision, collage and fragmentation. Post-modern art is seen as believing that all stances are unstable and insincere, and therefore irony, parody and humor are the only positions which cannot be overturned by critique or later events.

Many of these traits are present in modern movements in art, particularly the rejection of the separation between high and low forms of art. However, these traits are considered fundamental to post-modern art, as opposed to merely present in one degree or another. One of the most important points of difference, however, between post-modernism, and modernism, as movements in art, is modernism's ultimately progressive stance that new works be more "forward looking" and advanced, where as post-modern movements generally reject the notion that there can be advancement or progress in art per se, and thus one of the projects of art must be the overturning of the "myth of the avant-garde". This relates to the negation of what post-structuralist philosopher's call "metanarratives".

Movements and trends regarded as influential in post-modernism emerged around World War I and particularly in its aftermath, particularly the introduction of teh use of industrial artifacts in art, movements such as Dada and Surrealism as well as techniques such as collage and artforms such as cinema and the rise of reproduction as a means of creating artworks.

The ignition point for post-modern movements was the austere rejection of popular culture as kitsch by important post-war artists and taste-makers.

In 1958 the term "Pop Art" was used by Lawrence Alloway to describe paintings that celebrated consumerism of the post World War II era. This movement rejected Abstract expressionism and its focus on the hermneutic and psychological interior, in favor of art which depicted, and often celebrated material consumer culture, advertising, and iconography of the mass production age. The early works of David Hockney and the works of [[Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi were considered seminal examples in the movement. While later American examples include the bulk of the career of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstien and his use of techniques from newspaper reproduction.

Minimalism was an abstract movement in art which rejected the complexity of abstract expressionist surface, and argued that extreme simplicity could capture all of the sublime representation in art. Associated with painters such as Rothko, minimalism in painting, as opposed to other areas, is seen both as a modern and post-modern movement depending on the context. Seen from the perspective of writers who classify it as a post-modern movement, early minimalism began as modern movement to yield "advanced" works, but which ultimately abandoned this project in favor of anti-form. In the early 1970's the term Post-minimalism was coined by Robert Pincus-Witten to describe minimalist art which had content and contextual overtones which minimalism rejected, and was applied to the work of Eva Hesse and Richard Serra. Since this time, large numbers of painters have embraced minimal or post-minimal styles and the label "post-modern", particularly as a waay of denoting a greater desire to make art which is appealling to general audiences.

Related to Pop Art was the emergence of combining manufactured items, transitioning away from the shaping of metal sculpture in a modern mode. This trend in art is exemplified by the work of Robert Rauschenberg, whose "combines" in the 1950's were forerunners of installation art, and made collage of physical objects acceptable in contemporary art circles. An important series of movements in art which have consistently been described as post-modern involved installation art and creation of artifacts that are conceptual in nature. One example being the signs of Jenny Holtzer which use the devices of art to convey specific messages, such as "Protect Me From What I Want". Installation Art has been important in determining the spaces selected for musuems of contemporary art in order to be able to hold the large works which are composed of vast collages of manufactured and found objects.

Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s, Irving Sandler

• Postmodernism
• Contemporary art
• Postmodern music
• Remodernism
• Post-autonomous art
• Classificatory disputes about art
• Trauma and the Arts