Post-modernism, like Modernism follows these same ideas. It rejects boundaries and rigid distinctions and emphasises pastiche, appropriation, parody, irony and playfulness. Post Modern art and thought favours reflex, subjectivity, self-consciousness, fragments and the subject free from centre and structure. Although post-modernism is similar to modernism in these ways it differs from modernism in its approach and attitude to these ideas. Modernism presents a fragmented life of lost meaning and attempts to ‘fix’ this perceived tragedy through the unity and coherence of its art. Post-modernism however, celebrates inconsistencies by accepting that art cannot ‘mean’ and thus is nonsense to be played with. Post-modern thought relishes chaos and uses it as subject. That which modernism rejects now takes on central importance and has critical perspectives on reality.
Modern and Post-modern theories are products of culture and time. Modernism grew with the industrial revolution and its technical developments that produced a realist aesthetic. Post-modernism relates to the current culture of multinational consumerism, marketing and commodities. Post-modern and Modern theories are reflections of different attitudes and approaches. They contain philosophical, political and ethical ideas that affect the frame of reference through which we perceive. Thus a modernist approach can occur in a post-modern society. Jean-Francois Lyotard thought that modernism created ‘grand narratives’ or stories that were told to explain the belief systems that exist. These ‘grand narratives’ claim universal truth, reason and stability. Post-modernism critiques these ‘grand narratives’ by revealing the contradictions and instabilities that the narratives attempt to mask. The Modernist grand narrative tells us that order is good and chaos is bad. Post-modern ideology rejects these artificial categories of good and bad. It instead prefers ‘mini narratives’ that are situational, temporary, subjective and provisional.
Major avant-garde figures of Modernism helped to radically redefine what art could be and do. Les Fauves were a group of modern artists named because their paintings were as if done by wild beasts. They rejected the previous ideals of realism and narrative in painting and instead painted the sensation of a scene. Matisse would paint au plein air, with exaggerated brushstrokes and intense raw colour. He painted from his experience of a scene, not what he saw but what he felt whilst looking at it. Thus, he did not merely paint a table but the emotion it produced. When we speak of Nature it is wrong to forget that we are ourselves a part of Nature. We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we too are linked to the entire universe.
Pablo Picasso practiced modernist theories through his collages. He no longer saw art as historical narrative but rather as subjective response. He engaged with fragmented forms and formed random-seeming collages of different materials. He moved away from the apparent objectivity in third person narrative and realism. Instead his readymade art leapt from the canvas and into life. Picasso no longer painted an object, the object became art, subjectified and de-constructed. In his paintings Picasso moved away from the grand photorealism of the old tradition and instead sought to paint like a child would; free, random and subjective. He said it took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
Post-modern artists have further challenged theories on what art is and should be. They were inventors of the new and rejectors of the past and art became more about ideas than visual aesthetic. Marcel Duchamp once said I don't believe in art. I believe in artists. He considered the concept, the decision in art to be the important thing. Duchamp produced ready-mades such as ‘Fountain’, an upside down urinal on a pedestal, that were void of any real meaning. He chose neutral objects, neither ugly nor beautiful, neither plain nor interesting. He created art for the sake of art. I enjoyed looking at it, he said. Just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in the fireplace.
Jackson Pollock was not interested in the recognisable scenes in art of the past, instead he dripped paint onto a floored canvas in random, exaggerated movements denying any ‘accidents’ in the process. He moved away from the usual painter's tools of the easel, palette and brushes. Instead he preferred the immediacy of sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added. Painting for Pollock was as much about the process as it was the product. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.
The evolution of art in recent time is viewed through the modern and post-modern frames of reference. Throughout history artists have sought ways to critique the past through avant-garde methods and ideas. These theories and ideas are what forms artistic approach within a cultural context. Modernism challenged the traditions of its past, Post-modernism further progressed. Today, in our art-making practice we are perhaps in a state of stasis and limbo. We no longer invent the new as did modernism, nor can we shock and challenge as did post-modernism.
The modernist age, of "one way, one truth, one city", is dead and gone. The postmodernist age of "anything goes" is on the way out. Reason can take us a long way, but it has limits. Let us embrace post-postmodernism—and pray for a better name. ()
Bibliography
Jean-François Lyotard 1979 The Postmodern Condition Manchester University Press
. 1995 The Idea of the Postmodern: A History London: Routledge.
. 2000 Liquid Modernity Cambridge: Polity Press.
Harvey, David. 1989 The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change
Tomkins, Calvin. 1996 Duchamp: A Biography Henry Holt and Company, Inc.,
Whitfield, Sarah 1991 Fauvism London: Thames And Hudson.
Cirlot, Juan-Eduardo 1972 Picasso: birth of a genius New York and Washington: Praeger
Herskovic, Marika 2003 New York School Press
Lecture notes, Post-modernism: an end to the critical condition?
