What is Postmodern Art

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Postmodern Art is best understood by defining the avant-garde philosophy that existed. From the 1860s to the 1850s as the modernist ethos it replaced. A radical and progressive attitude, technological optimism and grand narratives of Western dominance and progress fueled various artists of the modern era. In the United States after World War II, neo-Dada and Pop Art marked the beginning of a movement known as postmodernism that opposed this way of thinking.

Over the next four decades, the reaction manifested itself in a variety of artistic styles, including identity art, minimalism, video art, performance art, institutional criticism, and conceptual art. Despite their disparate nature, these movements share certain characteristics: a satirical and ironic treatment of disparate subject matter, a destabilization of the concepts of authenticity and originality, and an emphasis on image and spectacle. Many artists and lesser-known trends continue in the postmodern vein despite these larger movements.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments:

 

  • Postmodernism excels in challenging the dominant narratives of the modern age, most prominently the idea that all progress, especially technological progress, is positive. Postmodernists reject the idea that totalizing theories can involve knowledge or history by rejecting such narratives. Instead, they hire local, contingent and temporary. The idea that artistic development is targeted. That only men are artistic geniuses, and the colonialist assumption. That non-white races are inferior are other narratives that postmodernists reject. As a result, feminist art and minority art that challenges conventional ways of thinking. Are often seen as representations of postmodernism or subsumed under its umbrella.
  • The idea that a work of art has a single inherent meaning, or. That the artist chose that meaning at the time of creation, was rejected by postmodernists. Instead, the viewer became a large part of what the work meant. And some artists even let people participate in the work, as in some performances. Other artists went a step further by creating works that required the viewer’s help to create or complete.
  • Postmodernism was significantly influenced by the questioning of the originality. And authenticity of the Dada readymade. Post modern art, along with the idea of ​​appropriation, has often raised the issue of originality to the level of copyright infringement. Even if it involved the use of photographs that had not been altered in any way.
  • Postmodernism was also influenced by the work of Edgar Degas. Who painted on fans, and later by Cubism, when Pablo Picasso often incorporated the lyrics of popular songs into his canvases. The idea of ​​breaking down the distinctions between high and low art. Especially by incorporating elements of popular culture, was also a key component of postmodernism. Its roots can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like the use of readymades, the notion that all visual culture is equally valid. And can be appreciated and enjoyed without any aesthetic training undermines notions of value and artistic worth.

Overview of Postmodern Art:

After the horrors of World War II, the world became more interconnected and technology continued to grow and dominate. Theorists and artists drew a line in the sand, made adjustments, and ushered in a new creative period known as “post-ISM”. “Postmodernism is modernism minus the optimism,” said art historian Robert Hewison.

In the early 20th century, the first signs of postmodernism appeared in the Dadaists, who mocked the art establishment with their anarchic actions and irreverent demeanor. However, the term was used in its current meaning only in 1979 in the book The Post modern art, Condition by the philosopher J.F. Lyotard. The term is usually used in art to refer to a movement. That began in the late 1950s. As a response to the perceived failures and/or excesses of the modernist era.

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