Postmodern Art

What is Postmodernism

Postmodernism is best understood by defining the modernist ethos it replaced - that of the avant-garde who were active from 1860s to the 1950s. The various artists in the modern period were driven by a radical and forward thinking approach, ideas of technological positivity, and grand narratives of Western domination and progress. The arrival of Neo-Dada and Pop art in post-war America marked the beginning of a reaction against this mindset that came to be known as postmodernism. The reaction took on multiple artistic forms for the next four decades, including Conceptual art, Minimalism, Video art, Performance art, and Installation art. These movements are diverse and disparate but connected by certain characteristics: ironical and playful treatment of a fragmented subject, the breakdown of high and low culture hierarchies, undermining of concepts of authenticity and originality, and an emphasis on image and spectacle. Beyond these larger movements, many artists and less pronounced tendencies continue in the postmodern vein to this day.

Postmodernism is distinguished by a questioning of the master narratives that were embraced during the modern period, the most important being the notion that all progress - especially technological - is positive. By rejecting such narratives, postmodernists reject the idea that knowledge or history can be encompassed in totalizing theories, embracing instead the local, the contingent, and the temporary. Other narratives rejected by postmodernists include the idea of artistic development as goal-oriented, the notion that only men are artistic geniuses, and the colonialist assumption that non-white races are inferior. Thus, Feminist art and minority art that challenged canonical ways of thinking are often included under the rubric of postmodernism or seen as representations of it.

Postmodernism overturned the idea that there was one inherent meaning to a work of art or that this meaning was determined by the artist at the time of creation. Instead, the viewer became an important determiner of meaning, even allowed by some artists to participate in the work as in the case of some performance pieces. Other artists went further by creating works that required viewer intervention to create and/or complete the work.

The Dada readymade had a marked influence on postmodernism in its questioning of authenticity and originality. Combined with the notion of appropriation, postmodernism often took the undermining of originality to the point of copyright infringement, even in the use of photographs with little or no alteration to the original.

The idea of breaking down distinctions between high and low art, particularly with the incorporation of elements of popular culture, was also a key element of postmodernism that had its roots in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the work of Edgar Degas, for example, who painted on fans, and later in Cubism where Pablo Picasso often included the lyrics of popular songs on his canvases. This idea that all visual culture is not only equally valid, but that it can also be appreciated and enjoyed without any aesthetic training, undermines notions of value and artistic worth, much like the use of readymades.

History

Beginnings

The first signs of postmodernism were evident in the early twentieth century with Dada artists who ridiculed the art establishment with their anarchic actions and irreverent performances. The term, however, was not used in the contemporary sense until 1979 in the philosopher J.F. Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition. In art, the term is usually applied to movements that emerged beginning in the late 1950s in reaction to the perceived failures and/or excesses of the modernist epoch.

Modernism

From the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century, art as well as literature, science, and philosophy was defined by a sense of progress and technological advancement, brought about by the industrial revolution and affiliation with the positivity of modern life. Artists such as Paul Cézanne and Piet Mondrian strove to find a universal means of expression through the increasing abstraction of their subject. Other artists who focused on the subjective and the forbidden, such as Salvador Dalí or Marcel Duchamp were seen as outliers in this emphasis on progress and rationality and their work became precursors to postmodernism. By the 1930s in certain artistic circles, the process of painting, once the means to depict a subject through the use of line, color, and form, became the subject itself. This emphasis on formalism was first observed and championed in the U.S. by Clement Greenberg, an art critic and fierce proponent of modernism. His theoretical writings are often seen as the antithesis of postmodernism because of their advocating of artistic purity and for their singular focus on formalism at the expense of subject matter. By the time the Abstract Expressionists were painting in New York lofts in the 1940s, representation had been entirely eliminated in favor of a direct gestural expression that focused on paint application rather than narrative. Fundamental to the modernist avant-garde artist was individuality, autonomy, and the tendency for radical experimentation in search of an ultimate truth or meaning.

Most Important Art

Marilyn Diptych (1962)

Artist: Andy Warhol

Artwork description & Analysis: This series of silkscreen prints of Marilyn Monroe was taken from her image in the film, Niagara and reproduced first in color, and then in black and white. They were made in the months after her death in 1962 by Warhol who was fascinated by both the cult of celebrity and by death; this series fused these interests. The color contrasted against the monochrome that fades out to the right is suggestive of life and death, while the repetition of images echoes her ubiquitous presence in the media. This work can be conceived of as postmodern in many senses: its overt reference to popular culture/low art challenges the purity of the modernist aesthetic, its repetitive element is an homage to mass production, and its ironic play on the concept of authenticity undermines the authority of the artist. The use of a diptych format, which was common in Christian altarpieces in the Renaissance period, draws attention to the American worship of both celebrities and images. All of these translate into an artwork that challenges traditional demarcations between high and low art and makes a statement about the importance of consumerism and spectacle in the 1960s.

Acrylic on Canvas - Tate Modern, London

Floor-Burger (Giant Hamburger) (1962)

Artist: Claes Oldenburg

Artwork description & Analysis: Giant Hamburger was one of Oldenburg's first soft sculptures, where he recreated common objects using cushioned materials that belied their solid structures. His works are monumental but placed directly on the floor, dispensing with the pedestal or plinth normally associated with sculpture in a way that literally places the work of art in the viewer's own space. Giant Hamburger uses the banality reminiscent of Dada's readymades to elevate a piece of everyday life to the status of art. In his re-appropriation of this object with discordant materials he underscores the larger than life quality of popular or low culture - in this case junk food - in everyday life. Oldenburg's essay entitled, 'I Am for an Art,' (1961) succinctly expresses his belief that anything can and should be considered art.

Canvas filled with foam rubber and cardboard boxes, painted with acrylic paint - Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988)

Artist: Jeff Koons

Artwork description & Analysis: In this piece, Michael Jackson and his pet monkey (and closest friend), Bubbles, are shown life-size sitting on a bed of flowers. The work is a good example of the excesses that characterize Koons' art in terms of color, size, and theme. At the time, Jackson was at the height of his popularity, which Koons underscored by painting the figures in gold in order to make Jackson into a "god-like icon." The gold and white coloring is also reminiscent of Byzantine, Baroque, and Rococo art; this hearkening back to past styles and deliberate theatricality is typical of the camp aesthetic that characterizes some postmodern art. The work was done as part of Koons' "Banality" series and serves as a good example of the kitsch aspect of much of Koons' art in that it valorizes the garish and the sentimental. Like most postmodern art, the work seems to be a deliberate challenge to conventional notions of taste and to the modern separation of high art and popular culture.

Porcelain - The Broad Art Foundation

Conceptual art

 What is conceptual art?

Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. It emerged as an art movement in the 1960s and the term usually refers to art made from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

Conceptual art can be – and can look like – almost anything. This is because, unlike a painter or sculptor who will think about how best they can express their idea using paint or sculptural materials and techniques, a conceptual artist uses whatever materials and whatever form is most appropriate to putting their idea across – this could be anything from a performance to a written description. Although there is no one style or form used by conceptual artists, from the late 1960s certain trends emerged. Browse the slideshow below and read the captions to see examples of conceptual art and to find out about some of the main ways conceptual artists explored and expressed their ideas.

When, why and where did conceptual art happen?

The term conceptual art usually refers to an art movement that emerged in the mid 1960s and continued until the mid 1970s. It was an international art movement happening more or less simultaneously across Europe, North America and South America. 

Artists associated with the movement attempted to bypass the increasingly commercialised art world by stressing thought processes and methods of production as the value of the work. The art forms they used were often intentionally those that do not produce a finished object such as a sculpture or painting. This meant that their work couild not be easily bought and sold and did not need to be viewed in a formal gallery situation. 

It was not just the structures of the art world that many conceptual artists questioned, there was often a strong socio-political dimension to much of the work they produced, reflecting wider dissatisfaction with society and government policies.

Key conceptual artists

Some of the main artists associated with the conceptual art movement are: Art & Language, John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Victor Burgin, Michael Craig-Martin, Gilbert & George, Mary Kelly, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, John Latham, Richard Long and Piero Manzoni.

Keith Arnatt
Trouser - Word Piece 1972-1989

The development of conceptual art

Although the term ‘concept art’ had been used in the early 1960s. it was not until the late sixties that conceptual art as a definable movement emerged. Joseph Kosuth’s series Titled  1966-7. the proposal for an exhibition Air Show Air/Conditioning 1966-7 by English artists Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin . John Baldessari’s word paintings exhibited in LA in 1968; and important group exhibitions such as that organised by art dealer Seth Siegelaub in New York in 1969.

In 1973 a pioneering record of the early years of the movement appeared in the form of a book, Six Years, by the American critic Lucy Lippard. The ‘six years’ were 1966–72. The long subtitle of the book referred to ‘so-called conceptual or information or idea art’.

John Latham
Time Base Roller 1972

Origins and influence

As a definable movement conceptual art is associated with the 1960s and 1970s, but its origins and its influence reach beyond these two decades. Marcel Duchamp is often seen as an important forefather of conceptual art, and his readymade Fountain of 1917 cited as the first conceptual artwork. The influence of conceptual art also stretches way beyond the early 1970s with contemporary artists such as Martin Creed, who is often referred to as a conceptual artist, championing the importance of the idea and process of art making over the art object.

Marcel Duchamp
Fountain 1917, replica 1964