Postmodern Art

Post-Modern Art

Presented by:Ashdeep Singh

Agnes Jaise

Origins of Postmodernism

Postmodernism began to emerge around the 1920’s with the Dada movement.

It was not until after the Second World War that postmodernism was really recognized.

One of the reasons that postmodernism was thought of as a different movement from that of modernism was because of the different economic and technological changes that took place.

Origins of Postmodernism, cont.

Another basic concept of postmodernism is that every form of rebellion has already been explored

Because of this, postmodernist artists usually use ideas from many different periods and combine them to form one image

Authors and their ideas of postmodernism

Arnold Toynbee

Jean Baudrillard

Arnold Toynbee

Is thought to be the first person to use the term postmodern

Used this term in his A Study of History, and said that this idea of postmodern occurred from around 1850-1875

He later changed his original thought and said that the modern came to and end during the First World War, and that postmodernism really began to form during the years between the first two world wars (1918-1939)

Jean Baudrillard

Wrote that there are four processes of obtaining value:

1. There is a functional value of an object

2. There is an exchange value of an object

3. There is a symbolic value of an object

4. There is a sign value of an object

Deconstruction

One of the key ideas of postmodernism is to conceive things as texts

Derrida Argued that deconstruction shows that texts can

have multiple meanings and these different meanings can be cleared up through close textual analysis

One possible consequence of deconstruction is that texts may be defined too broadly

Technology and Art

Aspects of

Photography Digital Photography Computers Mass Media and Communication What Technology Has Done

Photography

From painting light to capturing light

Art of the few

George Eastman

George Eastman

Kodak Mass Production Brings Camera’s into

everyday use

Everyone’s a Photographer?

Eastman brought photography into mainstream culture

No longer an art for the few Popularization of photography as art New technologies create new demands

Digital Photography

Snapshots of anything Editing Photos A new outlook on

Photography Is what you see really

what you see? Broadens the definition

of ‘art’

Photoshop Sunset

Computers

Digital Editing

Digital Spaces

Photoshop

New outlet of imagination

Mass Media and Communication

“Information and communication have therefore become terms of comparison with which to redefine and reinterpret the roles of all disciplines.”

Radio

Newspaper

Mass Media and Communication cont.

Magazine Post-Cards (art as communication) Internet Commercialization of Art Loss of aura as art/anything as art No longer art for arts sake

What Technology Has Done

“the institutions of the art world continued to believe in – indeed to expect – breakthroughs, and the galleries, the collectors, the art magazines, the museums and finally the corporations that had become the major patrons of the age were also awaiting prophets and revelations” - Arthur Danto

Created a demand for ‘new’ art

Movements and Artists

Neo-Expressionism

Emerged in late 1970s; prominent until mid 1980s

Developed in Europe reaction to conceptualism and minimalism

Heavily promoted by the media and art galleries

Characteristics

Recognizable objects

Rough, violent or abstract interpretation

Vivid colors

Inspired by German expressionism

Jedd Garet

Curtain of Protection (1980)

Prominent Neo-Expressionist Artists

George Baselitz

Julian Schnabel

Keith Haring

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Francesco Clemente

Julian Schnabel

Imfluences include Antoni Gaudi, Cy Twombly

Plate paintings Schnabel said he was,

"aiming at an emotional state, a state that people can literally walk into and be engulfed."

Other mediums

Graffiti Art Used to display artists tags,

as well as social and political messages and sometimes advertising

Spray paint, markers or other materials

Application without authorization to public spaces

Public art? Radical and political

purposes High art

Graffiti Art


Graffiti background SAMO tag

“The Radiant Child” by Rene Ricard

Andy Warhol Art periods

1980-1982 1982-1985 1986-death


Prayer (1984)

Keith Haring

Grafitti/pop artist NYC subway chalk

drawings “The Radiant Baby” Andy Warhol The Keith Haring

Foundation

Francesco Clemente

Combines both surrealism and expressionism

Career in the 1970s Career in the 1980s Collaborations with

Warhol and Basquiat

Post-Modern Conceptualism

Laurie Anderson

“I Hate Television”

A

Public Service

Announcement

Matthew Barney

Drawing Restraint 9(trailer)

The film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto.

Matthew Barney

Common Criticisms

Questions Raised by Postmodernism

What is art?

What is the purpose of art?

How has the purpose changed in the face of Postmodernism?

What is Art?

How do we decide what is art? Philosophical in nature? Representation of reality? Consumer oriented? Aesthetically pleasing? What is the role of skill in art?

What makes art?

What makes this art and not boxes?

Arthur Danto, an art critic, said, “Art is dead. Art [has] raised…the philosophical question of

art.”

Andy WarholBrillo Boxes, 1964

Barbra Kruger (Untitled)

Robert Gober1986Playpen

Is using someone else’s work art?

Commodities as art?

Consumerism

Art is now created to be sold

Is this good or bad, or even true?

Danto: The Market needed something to sell and artists

needed to make a reputation

RembrandtThe Sacrifice of Abraham1635Oil on Canvas

The Importance of Skill

“Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art,” Tom Stoddard.

Lack of Skill?

Roberto Matta

Enerjeros

Charcoal and pastel

1985

Subjectivity of Art

Since Art is entirely subjective can it ever really be defined?

What makes a piece “good art” opposed to “bad art”

Is Rembrandt a better artist than Matta? Who is to say?

Will we ever know what art is?