Postmodernism
Postmodernism refers more to a broad collection of ideas and cultural trends than an actual artistic movement. Critics and theorists since the 1970s have offered differing views on when postmodernism began, and some have even argued that it is simply a groundless concept concocted by academics. In the realm of art theory, postmodernism animates two schools of thought; one holding that modernism as a whole is finished (aka Deconstructive Postmodernism), and the other that modernism requires extensive revision (aka Constructive Postmodernism). Globalization is greatly reflected within Postmodernist works, embracing the idea of one connected world rather than separate nations. Believing ethics to be relative, postmodernists subject morality to personal opinion. They define morality as each person’s private code of ethics without the need to follow traditional values and rules.
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space - Umberto Boccioni
The contours of this marching figure appear to be carved by the forces of wind and speed as it forges ahead. While its wind–swept silhouette is evocative of an ancient statue, the polished metal alludes to the sleek modern machinery beloved by Boccioni and other Futurist artists.
Citation: "Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. .
Metropolis II - Chris Burden
Metropolis II is an intense kinetic sculpture, modeled after a fast paced, frenetic modern city. Unmeltable steel beams form a grid interwoven with an elaborate system of many different roadways, including one six lane freeway, and train tracks. Miniature cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour; every hour, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulate through the dense network of buildings. This is actually really cool.
Citation: "Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. .
L.A.P.D. Uniforms - Chris Burden
Many Postmodernist creations continued to reflect political beliefs, such as this depiction of Los Angeles Police uniforms. Burden proposed this project soon after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which were precipitated by the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers accused of unnecessarily beating Rodney King - an event captured on videotape and played repeatedly on news stations throughout the world. While L.A.P.D. Uniforms offers commentary on a specific event in recent American history, it also provides a vehicle for more general questioning about the nature of authority.
Citation: "Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. .
Three Flags -Jasper Johns
Claiming that the American Flag was "seen and not looked at, not examined", Johns portrays the flag in a way that leads the viewer to participate in closer inspection. The trio of flags (each successively diminished in scale by about twenty-five percent) projects outward, contradicting classical perspective, in which objects appear to recede from the viewer’s vantage point. This is simply the best damn painting on this website.
Citation: "Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. .
I shop therefore I am - Barbara Kruger
This graphic design provides commentary on materialism and our culture's default form of identification. As paintings became less and less popular, graphic designs that appear on advertisements, labels, and newspapers began to be characterized as the new modern art.
Citation: "Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. .
President Elect - James Rosenquist
The painting President Elect includes a portrait of John F. Kennedy borrowed from a presidential campaign poster. Rosenquist contrasted this portrait with images of middle-class wealth and consumerism - advertisements from Life magazine - in order to satirize the commercialism of America within politics. Kennedy was the first presidential candidate to fully utilize the mass media in his campaign, and the painting is about “a man advertising himself.”
Citation: "Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. .
10 Marilyns - Andy WarholT
Cambel 's Soup Cans - Andy Warhol
La Trahison Des Images (The Treason of Images, "This is not a pipe") -
Rene Magrite
The Son of Man - Rene Magrite
Magrite said about the painting: "At least it hides the face partly well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present".
The man's left arm, which is slightly bent backwards, is meant to represent man fighting the urge of want: in this case the man is trying to fight the urge to pick the apple from the invisible tree in front of him. Anyone could see that.
Citation: "Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. .
Citations:
"Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. <http://www.onpostmodernism.com/art>.
"Postmodernism | Art." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/472215/postmodernism>.
"Postmodern Art." OnPostmodernism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. <http://www.onpostmodernism.com/art>.
"Postmodernism | Art." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/472215/postmodernism>.