postmodern art
It is believed that in the XNUMXth century the so-called “death of the super fundamentals” took place: God, man and author. In other words, the religious base was shaken, a crisis of humanistic ideas arose, and the creators went from creating a new one to rethinking the old one.
Postmodernism in art is part of a global trend that has been embraced by world culture and philosophy. Postmodernism is not a single style, but a complex of directions, united by a common ideological basis. Many of them even fight each other.
Postmodernism is a term derived from the French language (postmodernisme). This name reflects the meaning of the direction that replaced the art of the era of modernism (not to be confused with modernism). In the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries, modernist (or avant-garde) movements dealt a heavy blow to classical art. But gradually the creators ceased to be satisfied with modernist approaches.
Parallel to a multitude of new technological developments, postmodernism has led to artistic experiments with new media and new art forms for nearly five decades, including conceptual art, various types of performance and art installations, and computer currents such as deconstructivism and technology. of projection.
Characteristics of postmodernism
Jean-François Lyotard and other theorists describe the spiritual foundations of modernity as an unshakable belief in a steady progression of ever more detailed compressibility of the world and gradual approach towards perfect knowledge. The totalitarian systems of the XNUMXth century permanently discredited the absolute character of such models.
Here are the reasons for the need to define postmodernism as a conscious break with modernity. Postmodernism rejects not only the modern belief in progress, but also the existence of an understandable objective reality. Postmodern theory and aesthetics assume that all knowledge, all perception, and every area of consciousness and existence are subject to relativity. A key concept of postmodernism is plurality.
Modernity's desire to constantly create something new, and the artistic means used to achieve it, are seen as automated, established, and obsolete in postmodernism. The principle that nothing new can be created makes the use of quotations an essential stylistic feature of postmodern art.
The demand for openness in the concept of art and the individual artwork opens up almost limitless possibilities on the one hand: postmodernism opens up a variety of new forms of expression by crossing the boundaries of genres.
A frequently used technique of the postmodern era is collage. This term, coined in the early XNUMXth century for Dada stickers, is much broader in the postmodern era. It includes, for example, large-scale installations, film techniques or musical composition processes.
Authors like Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose), architects like Friedensreich Hundertwasser (Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna) and artists like Keith Haring try to bridge the gap between elitist understanding of art and mass culture; this, too, is an essential aspect of postmodern aesthetics.
Many postmodern works, especially in the performing arts, are not meant to be understood as a perfect result, but rather as an experimental arrangement. The presentation will be fragmentary (literature: Roland Barthes, Fragments of a Love Language) or a work in progress (dance theater: William Forsythe, Scott's Work) at various stages of development.
Art critics give different answers to the question of what is postmodernism in painting, since postmodern culture is a multifaceted phenomenon and does not have a clear ideological platform. Postmodernists did not create a universal canon, moreover, they refused to create one in principle. Perhaps the only basic value declared by supporters of this trend is endless freedom of expression.
Postmodernism is not a movement, but a general way of thinking. Therefore, there is no single list of characteristics that define "postmodern art." However, there are a number of characteristics that are characteristic of postmodern art:
- Unlimited and absolute freedom of the artist in the choice of methods of self-expression.
- Rethink traditional images, including them in a new context (hence the wide distribution of remakes, interpretations, artistic quotes, loans, allusions).
- Syncretism, that is, the fusion of heterogeneous elements into a single whole, which sometimes even contradict each other (for example, the use of different styles by the artist in a painting, or even a combination of painting with other types of art).
- Dialogue, that is, a look at the subject from different angles, from the position of different «voices», which finally create a polyphonic «symphony».
- Form of presentation of the work, invitation of the viewer to join the work with meanings.
- Shocking nature of creativity.
- Irony and self-irony of the author. Artists are now much more skeptical of "big ideas" (eg that all progress is good).
- Postmodernism is an expression of a widespread disenchantment with life and the power of existing value systems and/or technologies to bring about positive change. As a result, authority, experience, knowledge, and motivation have fallen into disrepute.
- Modern art was seen not only as elitist, but also as white (in the sense of skin color), male-dominated, and disinterested in minorities. This is why postmodern art advocates art by third world artists, feminists, and minorities.
Postmodern, contemporary and late modern art
As a general rule, postmodern art and contemporary art are used more or less synonymously. However, from a technical point of view, postmodern art means "after modernity" and refers to a fixed period beginning around 1970, while contemporary art primarily refers to the changing period of approximately fifty years immediately preceding the present.
Currently these two periods coincide. But in the year 2050 postmodern art (eg from 1970-2020) may have been superseded by another era, however contemporary art then covers the period up to that year.
In the visual arts, the term late modern refers to movements or tendencies that reject an aspect of modern art but otherwise remain within the tradition of modernism. Styles such as Abstract Expressionism (1948–65) were practiced by several radical modern artists, including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, who opposed many of the formal conventions of oil painting.
And yet, neither Pollock nor de Kooning could have produced anything like Rauschenberg's Erased De Kooning Drawing, as they were both strong believers in the concepts of authenticity and meaning.
The history of postmodern art
The first significant art style after the Renaissance was academic art, taught by professors in the academies. In academic art, many styles and currents converge, such as classicism and romanticism. From 1870, with the arrival of impressionism, modern art emerged. The first traits emerged around 1970, which is now summarized as postmodern art.
Modern art is mostly associated with the 1870-1970 century, from Impressionism to Pop Art, for example. Despite various global disasters (World War I, the flu, the Wall Street Crash, and the Great Depression) that undermined many of the moral certainties of the day, modern artists generally maintained a belief in the basic scientific laws of nature. reason and rational thought.
In general, like most Westerners of the time, they believed that life had meaning. That scientific progress was automatically positive, that the Christian West was superior to the rest of the world, that men were superior to women. Modernism also believed in the meaning, relevance, and progress of art, especially fine art and architecture.
Following in the footsteps of Leonardo and Michelangelo, they believed in high art, art that uplifts and inspires the educated viewer, and not "low art" that only entertains the masses. They took a progressive approach and saw art as something that should be constantly evolving, guided by a leading group of avant-garde artists.
World War II and the Holocaust turned everything upside down. Paris was suddenly replaced by New York as the capital of the art world. In the aftermath of the war's atrocities, all figurative art suddenly seemed irrelevant, so modern painters turned to abstract art to express themselves.
Surprisingly, the New York School, with the paintings of Jackson Pollock and the calmer color field painting of Mark Rothko, promoted a temporary revival in art on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1950s. Avant-garde painters succeeded in redefine the limits of abstract painting, but remained within the limits of modernity. They believed in creating authentic, finished works of art with significant content.
But modernity was inevitably coming to an end. The mounting revelations of the Shoah, the atomic bomb tests, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War left people increasingly disillusioned with life and art.
Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg had already produced the first postmodern works of Neo-Dada and Pop Art in the mid-1950s. Soon mainstream Pop Art would usher in postmodern art itself, as American television networks focused in the Tet Offensive of 1968 and the chaotic Democratic National Convention of 1968.
From this passage of time in the history of art, the attitude towards art on the part of the artist and the public can also be established. The artists and viewers of the present are not determined by the old ideas of teaching and donor institutions regarding what art is and what art can be. The possibilities and applications of art have become more diverse without having to force yourself into a certain corset.
Modern architecture was influenced by the desire to create a completely new style for modern man. The architects wanted to remove all historical references and create something completely new. This led to the International Style (circa 1920-1970), a minimalist design of regularity.
Fortunately, around 1970, postmodern architects began to revitalize XNUMXth-century architecture by designing structures with interesting features drawn from popular culture and more traditional architectural styles. Structures that appear to evade gravity have also been made possible by new computer-controlled possibilities within the framework of deconstructivism.
The postmodernist movement took shape in the 1960s and 1970s, but the preconditions for its emergence are associated with a worldview crisis that arose long before. Among them: Spengler's thesis on the decline of Europe; collapse of public consciousness due to World War I; the appearance in science of ideas about the inconsistency and ambiguity of the world order (from non-Euclidean geometry to quantum physics).
The term postmodern was already in use in the late 1950th century and then increasingly in the early 1970th century, but only in the 1979s in the sense of its current meaning. In the late XNUMXs, two authors mainly contributed to establishing the term as a permanent fixture: Jean-François Lyotard with his work La Condition postmoderne (Postmodern Knowledge, XNUMX) and Charles Jencks with the essay The Rise of Postmodern Architecture. .
With the introduction of the term postmodern, modernism is defined for the first time as a closed historical epoch (like antiquity or the Middle Ages before it). Postmodern has become established as a stylistic term, especially in architecture.
Postmodernists concluded that the modern world cannot be described within the framework of classical approaches to philosophy, science, and culture. Consequently, the classical methods of art are not adequate to describe it.
Use of technology
The era of postmodern art coincided with the introduction of several new visual technologies (such as television, videos, the Internet, among others) and greatly benefiting from them. The new range of video and photography formats has reduced the importance of the art of drawing, and the manipulation of new technologies has allowed artists to shorten the traditional processes of creating art, but still create something new.
Postmodern art movements and styles
So far there have been no major international art movements in postmodern art. Instead, the era saw the rise of a number of narrow, localized streams, as well as several entirely new art forms, such as video and word painting.
Additionally, there have been dozens of art factions, as well as an anti-postmodern center or two whose members have endeavored to produce the kind of art that Michelangelo or Picasso would have been proud of.
Since neo-dadaism, postmodernists have liked to mix things up, or bring new elements to traditional forms, to create new combinations. Fernando Botero paints primitive pictures of obese figures, Georg Baselitz paints figures upside down.
Gerhard Richter combined camera art and painting in his 1970s photographic paintings, while Jeff Koons combined consumer-oriented imagery with sophisticated sculpting techniques to create his stainless steel sculptures.
Andreas Gursky combines photography with computer-generated imagery to create works like Rhein II, while Jeff Wall uses digitally processed photomontages in his postmodern image creations.
There is no consensus among art critics as to which art styles can be classified as postmodern art: for example, some styles are simultaneously classified as avant-garde and postmodern. Still, the following list of movements and styles of postmodernism can be distinguished:
Dadaism
Dadaists believed that the brutality of World War I that rocked Europe, bringing pain and suffering to millions of people, was the product of logic and rationalism. For this reason, they promoted with their creativity the destruction of aesthetic canons, cynicism, systematicity, irrationality.
Collage became the primary creative method of Dada artists. Canvas or paper served as a backdrop against which the artist created a collage using scraps of fabric, pieces of paper, and other materials.
Dada existed for a relatively short time: from 1916 to 1923. This is due to the fact that its ideological platform was pacifist pathos opposing the reality of the First World War. In the 1920s, Dada merged with Expressionism in Germany and with Surrealism in France.
Pop art
Pop art (pop art) is a style that transferred consumer culture to the field of art and taught mankind to see beauty in thirty-three cans of soup. Pop art should not be confused with popular culture. The authors considered mass culture as an object, just as a portraitist looks at a model or a landscape artist: in the bosom of nature.
The theme of mass culture, on which the artist's gaze fell, was transformed into something original: an art object refracted through the artist's interpretation. From an artistic point of view, this style appealed to materiality, objectivity, unlike another popular trend, abstractionism. Pop art was born in the struggle against the creativity of the abstractionists and heralded a return to the display of specific objects on the canvas.
By itself, the appeal to everyday things is not new to the history of painting. Still life is, after all, an artist's view of the surrounding objects. In fact, there is not much difference between Caravaggio's vase and Warhol's green Coca-Cola bottles. But pop art had its own conceptual quirk: artists took iconic objects and images from mass culture, which they would now call "memes."
In addition, they paid attention not only to objects, but also to images; a typical example is Warhol's Marilyn Diptych. There is no denying the fact that pop art helped affirm the American Dream, legitimize the consumer society and the corresponding lifestyle. At the same time, he laid the foundations for a critique of the philosophy of consumption, which would later gain strength.
Word Art
The term Word Art describes a category of postmodern text-based art by various contemporary artists present since the 1950s. A simple definition of text-based art might be "art that includes words or phrases as an artistic component principal".
Text-based images containing words and phrases have been published in a variety of media including painting and sculpture, lithography and screen printing, as well as applied arts (t-shirts, mugs). It also appears in the latest forms of contemporary art, such as projection mapping.
Conceptual art
Conceptualism (from the Latin conceptus: thought, representation) is a postmodern current in art, which proclaims the supremacy of the idea of a work over the form of its artistic expression. Followers of Conceptualism are convinced that their paintings, sculptures, installations, and performances should evoke in the viewer not emotions, but a desire to intellectually rethink what they saw.
Conceptualism is not a commercial art, in it the objects for creativity can be any household items, natural materials and even parts of the human environment. The conceptual artist does not seek to create a finished work, but tries to convey his ideas to the viewer, to engage in a kind of intellectual game.
Concept art works have distinctive characteristics. These works can be identified by the following characteristics: influence not the emotional, but the intellectual perception of the viewer; frequent use of explanatory text to the work; the artist's conscious rejection of the meaning of the form in favor of the importance of the meaning (idea) of the work; create art objects from any object available to the author.
Performance Art and Happenings
Happenings are an avant-garde art form, a type of creative expression closely related to performance art, based on 1896th-century theories of conceptual art, largely derived from the demonstrations of representatives of Dada, as well as Tristan Tzara (1963–XNUMX). In practice, it is not easy to distinguish between performance art and happenings.
Both are carefully planned forms of entertainment (albeit with elements of spontaneity) in which the artist performs (or manages) an artistic theatrical event. Something easier to see than to describe in words.
In any case, a Happenings is a spontaneous piece of performance art that falls somewhere between drama and visual art and usually invites and triggers a strong response from the audience.
Due to its Dada style of transience, it was originally conceived as a radical alternative to traditional craft principles and as a "permanent art object". A full explanation of this new postmodern art form can be read in Michael Kirby's book 'Happenings' (1965).
This type of art event became particularly associated with the New York art scene around 1960 and is still featured in the best contemporary art galleries around the world.
Abstract art
Abstractionism is a style of painting and art in general, which rejects the realistic reproduction of the surrounding world. His followers represent simple and complex shapes, play with color, use lines, planes and other objects, combining them to create certain emotions in the viewer. This is how his approach differs from that used by masters who adhere to classicism and many other styles.
At first glance, a painting by an abstractionist may appear to be a chaotic jumble of lines, shapes, and spots. Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that the artist has created an entire composition designed to evoke certain thoughts or moods in the viewer.
Abstractionism, as it developed, was stratified into several directions, each of which had its own representatives. There were types of style such as:
- Geometric. In the works of artists performed in this style, clear forms and lines prevail, many of them create the illusion of depth.
- Masters adhering to this direction actively work with colors and their combinations; it is through them that they convey the emotions they want to create in the audience.
- The essence of this direction of painting is in the complete absence of references to real objects and the extremely restricted use of colors, shapes and lines.
- Artists working in this direction strive to bring dynamics, movement to their works, through which they convey emotions and sensations. At the same time, shadows, lines and shapes fade into the background.
Assembly
Assemblage is a decorative and applied art technique in which the artist creates a relief image by gluing three-dimensional pieces or objects to a flat base. In the assemblage technique, the use of paints for a pictorial addition to an artistic composition is also allowed.
Assemblage, in contrast to its related collage, is a type of technique for attaching three-dimensional, rather than two-dimensional (flat) elements to the front surface of the image. Thanks to the use of volumetric details, the image is as realistic and visually effective as possible.
Professional artists often use household scraps and garbage to create their own original works of art. In the hands of the master, a large number of scattered everyday objects becomes an artistic composition full of deep aesthetic content.
Today, works created using the assemblage technique invariably attract the attention of connoisseurs of contemporary art. They often cause fierce controversy among critics, but they leave no one indifferent, and therefore make a great contribution to the development of world culture.
Fluxus
Fluxus was a loosely organized group of artists that spanned the globe, but had a particularly strong presence in New York City. George Maciunas is historically considered the main founder and organizer of the movement, who described Fluxus as a fusion of Spike Jones, Vaudeville, Cage and Duchamp.
Like the Futurists and Dadaists before them, the Fluxus artists disapproved of the authority of art museums to determine the value of art. They also suggested that it is not necessary to have a special education to see and understand a work of art.
Fluxus didn't just want art to be available to the masses, they wanted everyone to create art all the time. It is often difficult to define Fluxus, as many of its own artists have claimed that the very act of defining the movement is already too limiting and reductive.
Unlike previous art movements, Fluxus tried to change world history, not just art history. The tenacious goal of most artists has been to eradicate any boundary between art and society.
A central tenet of Fluxus was to discard and ridicule the elite world of "high art" and find every possible way to bring art to the masses, in keeping with the social climate of the 1960s. Fluxus artists used the humor to express its intent and, along with Dada, Fluxus was one of the few art movements that was able to walk a tightrope.
Despite their playful demeanor, Fluxus artists were serious about their desire to change the balance of power in the art world. His disrespect for high art had an impact on the museum's perceived authority as the authority on who and what to consider artists.
Fluxus engaged the viewer and relied on the element of chance to shape the final result of the artwork. The use of chance was also used by Dada, Marcel Duchamp and other performance artists of the time. Fluxus artists were heavily influenced by the ideas of John Cage, who believed that one should approach a piece with no idea of the end result. What mattered was the creation process, not the final product.
Video art
Video is one of the most versatile media available. A video film can be the artwork itself and/or a record of how the artwork was made; it can also be an element in an installation and/or part of a multiple video arrangement. Video makes art more dynamic and lively. Since the late 1980s, both video and animation have relied on the use of computer software to manipulate images.
Photorealism
Photorealism is a genre of painting that emerged in the late 1960s in response to the growing popularity of abstraction. Since then, photorealistic paintings with their enormous attention to detail have provided optical illusions that can only be ascertained up close as painted images of the photographic original.
Instead of observing and representing what was happening in reality, photorealism was inspired by photography. Visual information captured by a camera is used to create illusionistic paintings, drawings, and other works of art. Artists often project photos onto canvas so the images can be rendered with precision and detail.
Poor art
Arte Povera (from the Italian expression for "poor art" or "impoverished art") was one of the most important and prominent avant-garde art movements to emerge in southern Europe in the late XNUMXs.
This included the work of a dozen Italian artists whose main creative feature was the use of everyday materials reminiscent of a pre-industrial age. Dirt, stones, and clothing were particularly popular: "waste" or cheap materials that they used for their art. This approach to art attacked prevailing notions of value and correctness and subtly criticized the industrialization and mechanization of southern Europe at the time.
His work marked a reaction to the abstract painting of modernism that had controlled European art in the previous decade, from which he distinguished himself by focusing more on sculptural work than painting.
Some of the group's most significant works were created through the contrast between raw materials and simultaneous references to the rise of consumer culture. Convinced that modernity threatened to eradicate collective heritage, Arte Povera attempted to contrast the new with the old.
In addition to rejecting the technological contest, the artists associated with Arte Povera rejected what they perceived as scientific realism. Contrary to a methodical approach to spatial relationships, they evoked a myth whose secrets were not easy to explain.
The artists presented absurd and playful juxtapositions, often of the new and the old or the highly processed and the pre-industrial. In doing so, they have illustrated some of the effects of modernization that is contributing to the destruction of places and memories as it moves ever further into the future.
Arte Povera's interest in poor materials can be linked to several other art movements of the 1950s and 1960s. For example, they shared some techniques with movements such as Fluxus and Nouveau Réalisme in their combination of easily accessible materials with an undercut. rebellious from its usual function.
postminimalism
In post-minimalist art, a term first used by art critic Robert Pincus Witten, the focus shifts from the purity of the idea to its communication. As an example you can see the works of the German-American artist Eva Hesse.
feminist art
An artistic movement that deals with specifically female issues such as birth, violence against women, women's working conditions and much more. Participating artists include Louise Bourgeois and Japanese-born performance artist Yoko Ono.
deconstructivism
Deconstructivism is one of the most visually impressive art forms ever conceived. His quirky but intensely creative style of 80th century architecture emerged in the late XNUMXs, primarily in Los Angeles but also in Europe.
As part of postmodern art made possible by the use of aerospace industry design software, deconstructivist architecture contrasts with the ordered rationality of geometry and favors an alien approach to design that typically distorts the exterior of a structure while undermining the elements. values of modernity.
Some historians believe that deconstructivist philosophy is also opposed to postmodern art, although the practical consequences of this are unclear. After all, a deconstructivist architect must follow the modern and postmodern laws of science, whether he likes it or not.
The most famous representative of deconstructivist architecture is the Canadian-American Pritzker Prize winner Frank O. Gehry. Other well-known deconstructivists include Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Bernard Tschumi, and Peter Eisenman. Extraordinary deconstructivist buildings include: Dancing House (Prague), Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao) and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.
Deconstructivist architecture is characterized by surface manipulation, fragmentation, and nonlinear forms that distort and override architectural conventions of structure and surface. In doing so, elements that appear to contradict each other are deliberately contrasted to challenge traditional ideas of harmony and continuity.
cynical realism
Contemporary Chinese art movement that emerged after the defeat of Tiananmen Square (1989). Cynical Realists used a figurative painting style with a mocking narrative. The recurring motifs are figures, bald men and photographic portraits. The style mocked China's political and social status, and since this was a new dawn for Chinese artists, it was well received by Western art collectors.
Postmodern literature and cinema
Characteristics of postmodern literature include a thoughtful handling of what is available in the form of citations and allusions and playing with literary genres. Also characteristic is the construction of numerous levels of action and relationships, often broken.
Probably the best-known postmodern novel is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. With a very complex literary structure reminiscent of a detective novel, Eco managed to bridge the gap between so-called high and mass culture. The historical, literary, and art historical quotations and references make the book an educational novel or even a literary quiz. But even those not interested in it can enjoy Eco's work as a gripping thriller.
Similarly, Peter Greenaway combined the historical film genre with the thriller in his 1982 film The Cartoonist's Contract, but unlike Echo, it doesn't solve the riddle. Although the plot provides numerous classic clues, they all lead nowhere.
visual arts
The use of the term postmodern is rejected by many theorists and artists, especially in the field of visual arts, given the wide spectrum of forms of expression. The rejection of the modernist belief in innovation is also one of the foundations of postmodern aesthetics in fine art. Postmodernism is linked to historical categories of art that were rejected by modernity, such as narrative and mythological structures.
This already begins with Andy Warhol's depictions of 1950th-century icons, from Elvis to Jackie Onassis. Pop art also marked the break with modernity in the XNUMXs by saying goodbye to abstraction. In the XNUMXs, the visual arts, like the architecture of the time, emphasized the importance of sensual, emotional, and traditional aspects over theory and concept.
In the XNUMXs, the New Wild (Neue Wilden) collective broke the dominance of the minimalist and conceptually industrious avant-garde with its expressive and representative painting. There were similar trends in the United States and Italy.
After the whirlwind settled around the New Savages, trends took hold that focused on reflection on the medium of painting and sensual experimentation with pictorial media (Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter), painting representational the predominance of the minimalist and conceptual labor avant-garde. There were similar trends in the United States and Italy.
Characteristic of the time are two artists whose work incorporates the aesthetics of subculture and mass culture: Keith Haring and Jeff Koons. Haring managed to combine elements of graffiti art, comic books, computer sign language, children's drawing, and early history painting into a highly poetic sign language that is understandable across many cultures. Jeff Koons made a name for himself in the early 1990s with the provocative banality of his subjects.
The material used is usually of high quality, but its surface design evokes the world of knick-knacks and kitsch, such as the partially gold-plated, life-size porcelain figurine of Michael Jackson with his chimpanzee Bubbles.
Postmodern aesthetics' demand for pluralism, subjectivity, a move away from abstraction, the inclusion of mass media, the blurring of gender boundaries, and the acceptance of quotation as an artistic medium has brought color and movement to the landscape. artistic and museum.
The eventual recognition of photography and film as an art medium may well be seen as a lasting result of postmodern trends. Temporary highlight: In the summer of 2002, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne will show all five films from Matthew Barney's recently completed "Cremaster Cycle" as part of a major exhibition.
Architecture
In the mid-1970s, Charles Jencks introduced the term postmodernism into architectural discourse. In this way, postmodern discourse reached the general public for the first time. The stylistic principles of postmodern architecture had already clearly emerged by this point.
A democratic and communicative architectural language was required, whose aesthetics should not be based solely on function, but also on significant content. The inclusion of fictional elements was also requested, such as the Gothic, which saw an image of the heavenly Jerusalem in the cathedral.
At the same time, the trend to preserve and redesign historic buildings increased. The most prominent example was the Gare d'Orsay in Paris, which opened as the Musée d'Orsay in 1986. Such historic buildings influenced the language of postmodern architecture, which from the start was strongly determined by citations.
To avoid a new historicism, the motto was that eclecticism, which was expressed, for example, in the use of columns, windows and latticework, should be ironically broken. The spectrum of postmodern architecture developed particularly in the museum building of the XNUMXs and XNUMXs.
In addition to Hans Hollein's Abteiberg Museum (Mönchengladbach), James Stirling's State Gallery (Stuttgart) is considered a successful and characteristic product of postmodernism. In Stirling's design, numerous allusions to historic architecture, from Egypt to classic modernism, are fused with pop culture colors and typical regional materials of sandstone and travertine to create a cohesive, contemporary form.
In recent times, when it comes to museum construction, the character of the experience has come to the fore more and more than the educational requirement.
Instead of contemplating meditative art, staging is required, and the architecture itself is staged with stunning views and theatrical effects. The first public visits are increasingly taking place before the paintings are hung so that the architecture can be experienced.
Postmodern focus on popular culture
Art critics often use the term "high culture" when trying to distinguish the art of painting and sculpture (and other visual arts) from the popular culture of magazines, television, and other mass-produced products. Modernism and its influential followers like Greenberg (1909-94) viewed these forms of culture as inferior. In contrast, postmodernists, who prefer a more democratic conception of art, see "high culture" as more elitist.
Pop art, the first postmodern movement, turned ordinary consumer goods into art. Pop artists and others went even further in their attempts to democratize art by printing their "art" on mugs, paper bags, and T-shirts: a method that, incidentally, exemplifies postmodern desire, originality, and authenticity. undermine art.
Postmodern artists have abandoned the notion that a work of art has only one inherent meaning. Instead, they believe that the viewer is an equally important source of meaning. Cindy Sherman's surreal photography, for example, underscores the idea that a work of art can be interpreted in many ways.
In fact, some artists, like performance artist Marina Abramovic, even allow viewers to participate in their art, or even require audience input to complete their work.
Focus on the show
In the absence of true meaning in life, especially when we are subjected to radio and television commercials day and night, postmodern artists have preferred to limit themselves in style and spectacle, often using promotional tools and techniques to achieve greater impact. This approach is exemplified in the commercial printing process that uses poster-like images by pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist.
The focus on the surface is a common feature of postmodern art and sometimes comes to the fore with theatrical, brilliant, highly impactful imagery. Since 1980, the use of computers and other technologies has revolutionized multimedia art (eg animation) and created specific possibilities in areas such as architecture.
How important it is to capture the attention of the audience in postmodernism is shown by the shock tactics of a group of students from Goldsmiths College, known as Young British Artists, in London in the late XNUMXs and XNUMXs. Made famous for three shows, the YBAs were criticized for their poor taste, yet several of them became Turner Prize winners, while others achieved considerable notoriety and fortune.
Meet consumer needs
The rise of consumer behavior and the immediate culture of enjoyment in the last decades of the XNUMXth century have also had a strong influence on the visual arts. Consumers now want innovation. They also want recreation and fun. Many postmodern artists, curators, and other professionals seized the opportunity to turn art into a product of fun.
The introduction of new forms of art such as performance, events, and installations, as well as new themes, including dead sharks, giant ice sculptures, many of nude bodies, buildings that appear to be in motion, a collection of thirty-five thousand terracotta figures , painted bodies, creepy projections on public buildings (and many more) - they have given viewers a host of new, sometimes shocking, experiences.
Whether these new forms of art are actually "art" remains a question that causes much discussion. Postmodern conceptualists maintain that it is, while traditionalists refuse to consider it as such.
principles of postmodern art
For specialists, postmodern art consists of three basic principles that govern it in a general way without being totally limiting:
immediate meaning
No more faded oil paintings depicting hair-raising events from Greek mythology to elicit a knowing smile from the cultured observer. From its beginnings in the Pop Art movement, postmodern painting and sculpture have been bold, brilliant, and instantly recognizable.
Themes and images were primarily taken from high-profile consumer products, magazines, commercials, television, movies, cartoons, and comics. For the first time, everyone understood the art on display. Although postmodernism has evolved from pop art, one main goal of meaning remains immediately apparent.
Art can be made from anything
Building on the traditions of Marcel Duchamp, whose urinal with the title Fountain (1917) was the first famous example of an ordinary object turned into a work of art (another example: The Story of the Ready-made), art artists Postmodernists made it their business to create art from the most unusual materials and debris. The idea behind it is to democratize art and make it more accessible.
The idea is more important than the artwork itself
Until the 1960s, artists generally believed that without a finished product there would be nothing. Great attention was paid to the quality of the finished work of art and the craftsmanship required for it. Today things are different.
Postmodernists tend to believe more in the concept behind the final product than in the product itself, which is why much of "postmodern art" is called "conceptual art" or "conceptualism." Other forms of conceptualism include installations, performing arts, happenings, projection art, and a few others.
Notable postmodern artists
Since we are contemporaries of postmodern art, it is difficult to distinguish the iconic names of the time. Only after a lapse of time will it be possible to say which artists left an expressive mark on the history of painting, and whose fame was only a tribute to fashion. But, since postmodernism has been developing for more than half a century, we can name some of the names already inscribed in history. These include, for example:
- Dadaist, surrealist and founder of conceptualism Marcel Duchamp
- Andy Warhol pop art leader
- The pioneer of assembly César Baldaccini
- Renowned conceptualist Bruce Nauman
- Robert Rauschenberg, Remedios Varo Uranga, Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons.
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp (born July 28, 1887 – died October 2, 1968) was a master of avant-garde art, known for his extravagant works of art. Marcel Duchamp's work defied established traditions and was repeatedly discussed in the scandalous chronicle on both sides of the ocean.
At the beginning of his career, he painted pictures in the Post-Impressionist style, paying homage to Cubism and Fauvism, but then he gave up painting and became interested in creating installations where he mixed techniques and used materials of various textures. The revolutionary ideas of the artist had a great impact on the development of conceptual art in the XNUMXth century.
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (born August 6, 1928 – died February 22, 1987) was a sought-after XNUMXth-century American artist and gallery owner. He made a great contribution to the development of commercial pop art. Andy Warhol is rightfully considered the leader of such a trend as uomo universale.
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg (born October 22, 1925 – died May 12, 2008) the titan of American art of the XNUMXth century according to The New York Times newspaper, was an outstanding artist and creator, representative of abstract impressionism, conceptualism, ready made and founder of pop art.
Robert Rauschenberg's paintings are collages and installations, obelisks, household items, and other objects that are difficult to classify. The master's work, like his biography, is shocking, surprising, disgusting and charming, but leaves no one indifferent. Fiery bisexual, frustrated pharmacist, opponent of all that is classic and ordinary, he constantly challenged himself and the world around him.
