Post Modernism - An Overview

Post Modernism - An Overview

This article provides a comprehensive history of postmodernism philosophy. The text offers an overview of the major concepts, thinkers, and movements that have contributed to its emergence as one of the central movements in contemporary thought.

It is a comprehensive history of postmodernism, taking in all the major thinkers and their key works. The article sets out to show how post-structuralist philosophy developed from a critique of structuralism, and how this led to the rise of postmodernism.

This article offers a concise guide to the history and philosophy of postmodernism. It analyzes the key features of this philosophical movement, including its roots in phenomenology, hermeneutics, and deconstructionism. It also considers other important aspects such as gender studies, narrative theory, and post-colonial theory.

This is a comprehensive history of postmodernism, the movement that has most dramatically changed the way we see and understand reality. It chronicles how, after the collapse of communism in 1991, many intellectuals, artists, and writers started turning away from grand narratives towards a more pluralist understanding of their world, which can be expressed in many different ways. Rather than seeing themselves as part of a particular school or philosophical tradition, these writers have become eclectics who draw on ideas from many different sources to challenge traditional beliefs about knowledge and meaning.

Modernism in art refers to the rejection of the traditions of the Victorian era and the exploration of the problems of the industrial age, and real life and combines the rejection of the past with experimentation, sometimes for political purposes. Stretching from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, Modernism reached its peak in the 1960s; Postmodernism describes the period that followed during the 1960s and 1970s. Postmodernism is a rejection of the rigidity of modernism in favor of an "anything goes" approach to the subject matter, processes, and material.

MODERNISM IN ART

The shift to modernism can be attributed in part to the new freedoms artists enjoyed in the late 19th century. Traditionally, a painter was commissioned by a patron to create a specific work. The end of the 19th century saw many artists able to use more time to devote to subjects of their personal interest.

At the same time, the growing field of psychology turned the analysis of human experience inward and promoted a more abstract kind of science that inspired the visual arts to follow.

With shifts in technology creating new materials and techniques in art making, experimentation became more possible and also gave the resulting work a wider reach. Advances in printing in the late 19th century meant that artwork posters expanded public awareness of art and design and brought experimental ideas into popular culture.

Officially debuting in 1874, Impressionism is considered the first modernist art movement. With leaders like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the Impressionists separated short, sharp brushstrokes and the changing effect of light from what had come before. The Impressionists' focus on modern scenes was a direct rejection of classical subject matter.

Subsequent movements such as Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Constructivism, and De Stijl were just a sample of those that followed the experimental path started by Impressionism.

DADA

The Dada movement pushed experimentation further by rejecting traditional skills and launching an all-out artistic rebellion that embraced nonsense and absurdity. Dadaist ideas first appeared in 1915 and the movement became official in 1918 with its Berlin Manifesto.

French artist Marcel Duchamp exemplified the elevated playfulness of the Dadaists. His 1917 work Fountain, a signed porcelain urinal, and his L.H.O.O.Q. from 1919, Leonardo da Vinci's print of the Mona Lisa with a penciled mustache, both turn their backs on the very idea of ​​making art. In doing so, Duchamp predicted postmodernism.

Abstract expressionism

Modernism reached its peak with Abstract Expressionism, which began in the late 1940s in the United States. A departure from ordinary subjects and techniques, Abstract Expressionism was known for oversized canvases and paintings that could appear chaotic and arbitrary.

Each Abstract Expressionist work functioned as both a document of the artist's subconscious and a map of the physical movements required to create the art. Painter Jackson Pollack became famous for the method of dripping paint onto the canvas from above.

NEO DADA AND POP ART

The transitional period between modernism and postmodernism took place during the 1960s. Pop Art served as a bridge between them. Pop Art was obsessed with the fruits of capitalism and popular culture, such as pulp fiction, celebrities, and consumer goods.

The movement, which began in England in the late 1950s but became popular in America, was informed by former Abstract Expressionists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, who metamorphosed into the Neo-Dada movement of the late 1950s.

Rauschenberg’s sculpture of Ballantine Ale cans from 1960 predates pop artist Andy Warhol’s famous Campbell’s Soup cans. Warhol gained further fame for his haunting screen-printed portraits, most famously of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, while Pop Art compatriot Roy Lichtenstein plundered comic book panels for his paintings.

POSTMODERNISM

Postmodernism, as it emerged in the 1970s, is often associated with the philosophical movement Poststructuralism, in which philosophers such as Jacques Derrida proposed that structures within culture were artificial and could be deconstructed in order to be analyzed.

As a result, postmodern art had little in common other than the idea that "anything goes" and a predominance of unusual materials and mechanical methods of expression that seem impersonal, although often using humor.

At the core of postmodernism was conceptual art, which proposed that the meaning or purpose behind the creation of art was more important than the art itself. There was also a belief that anything could be used to make art, that art could take any form, and that there should be no distinction between high art and low art, or between fine art and commercial art.

Postmodern work in the 1970s was sometimes derided as "art for art's sake", but it stimulated the adoption of a number of new approaches. These new forms included Earth art, which creates works on the natural landscape; Performance art; Installation art that considers the whole space rather than just one piece; Process art, which emphasized the creation of the work as more important than the result; and Video art, as well as movements based on feminist and minority art.

The 1980s saw the rise of appropriation as a widely used practice. Painters like Jean-Michael Basquiat and Keith Haring directly imitated graffiti styles, while artists like Sherrie Levine lifted the actual work of other artists to use in their creations. In 1981, Levine photographed Walker Evans' photograph and presented it as a new work challenging the very idea of ​​the original photograph.

Postmodern art has since become less defined by the form the art takes and more determined by the artist creating the work. American artist Jenny Holzer, who rose to prominence in the 1970s with her conceptual art made from language, embodies this model.

Holzer's "truisms" are deceptively simple sentences that communicate complicated, often contradictory ideas, such as "Protect me from what I want." She also produced a series of works on the US government's use of torture during the Iraq War. Holzer's curation of text, rather than any visual motif, is the consistent aspect uniting her work.

Some art historians believe that the postmodern era ended at the beginning of the 21st century and refer to the following period as postmodern.

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