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    11 views14 pages

    Postmodnsm

    Uploaded by

    BabarSiraj
    ttuygutgt

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Reprinted ftom Art Education: Content and Practice in a Postmodern Era, Tames Hutchens & Marianne Suggs, eds. Washington, DC: NAE/ MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM: AN OVERVIEW WITH ART EXAMPLES Terry Barrert Modernism and postmodernism in art are best understood in relation to modernity and postmodernity in general cultural history; and modemist and postmodernist art are most easily understood with art examples. The following offers cursory explana tions of central themes in modernity and postmodemity, and modemist art and post- modernist art with descriptions of artworks that make the themes more understand. sable. The art examples ar st in italics. Modernity and Postmodernity “The Age of Modernity is the epoch that began with the Enlightenment (about 1687 to 1789). Isaac Newton championed the belief that through science the world could be saved, René Descartes (1596-1650) and later, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), shaped the age intellectually by their beliefs that chrough reason they could establish a foundation of universal truths, Political leaders of modernity also championed reason as che source of progress in social change, believing that with reason they could pro- duce a just and egalitarian social order. Such beliefs fed the American and French democratic revolutions, the frst and second World Wars, and the thinking of many today. The major movements and events of modernity are democracy, capitalism, industilizaion, scence, and urbanization. The rallying flags of modernity ate fce- dom and the individual ‘There is no unified theory of posemodernity. There are many contenders putting forth contentious ideas. Proponents of postmodemmity symbolically date its birth with the riots in Paris in May 1968, when students, wich the support of prominent schol- ats, demanded cadical changes in a rigid, closed, and elitist European universiyy 53° tem. Postmodemism does not merely chronologically follow modernism, it reacts against modemism, and sight beter be called anti-modernism. ‘A, 1997. 18 Modernism and Postmodernisin Postmnodemists ctiticize modernity by citing the suffering and misery of peasants under monarchies, and late the oppression of workers under capitalist industializa- tion, the exclusion of women from the public sphere, the colonization of other lands by imperialists and, ulsimately, the destruction of indigenous peoples. Posunodemnists chim that modernity leads to social practices and institutions that legitimate dominae tion and control by a powerful few over the many, even though modernist promise ‘equality and liberation ofall people. Fred Wilton’ ecibition “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Sociesy in 1992, ofers several postmodernist artic rracgies thet adress with crtioal bite social ‘power in modemity. Among finely crafed and policed silver vesel that ome would expect to s2e in a section of an historical muscu labeled "Metalwork 1830-1880,” Wilon (placed see shackles crudely frged and hammered for slaves. in a typical diplay of antique Victorian furniture, inching a chair wih he logo of the Baltimore Equitable Society, Wilson placed a whipping post. Baxed on Wikon's exhibition, museure educators prepared material that asked vitor 0 consider any objec in the museum by asking these quetions none of which would have been asked ofan are objce during the reign of medernion: For twhors wa it created? For whom dae it exist? Who is represented? Who is doing the telling? The bearing? “Whereas modernity is influenced by the rationalism of Newton, Descartes, Kant, and others, postmodernity is influenced by philosophers such 2s Friedrich Niersche, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Witgenstcin, John Dewey, and more recentys Jacques Dersida, and Richard Rozey, who are skeptical about che modernist belie that theory can mirror realty. Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud also undermined the modernist belief cha reason is the source of tuth by identifying economic forces above the su face of society and psychological forces below ie that are not bound by reason, yet are powerful shapers of society and individuals. Postmodernists embrace a more cautious and limited perspective on truth and knowledge than modernists. Postmodernist stress that facts are simply interpretations, that truth is not absolute but merely the ‘construct of individual groups, and that all knowledge is mediated by culture and lan- sung. In a New York Ciry gallery installation in 1994, postmodern artist Barbara Kruger offre an angry eritque of how she understands reigns to wre cultural practices and lan- guage to control the pryhe and society In wall tects, photo graphicr om the walls and the Skylight and floor, and over loud speaker in the Mary Boone Gallery, Krger made sate ‘ments including these: "Think like wx. "Believe lke us,” "Pray like ws." ‘T masilate you 30 ‘you won’ fel any pleasure. I want you to have my babies, because it shows how powerful ‘and manly Lam, and you want t doit because shat is all you ve good for." Struccuralism and postseructuralism are two competing intellectual movements for- mative of postmodern thought. Stucturalism emerged in France after World War TI, Teary Barrett 19 hncavly influenced by the earlier semiotic theory of linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. De Saussure identified language as a system of signs consisting of signifiers (words) and signified (concepts) that are arbitrarily linked to each other in a way thatis designated byaculture. Claude Lévi-Strauss applied linguistic analysis to anthropology. Postmodernists build on the semiotic projecss of Roland Barthes and others undertook semiotic pro- jects studying the systems of signs in societies, believing that language, signs, images, and signifying systems organize the psyche, society, and everyday life. Structuralists in various disciplines, including literature, attempted to explain phe nomena by identifying hidden systems. They sought to discover undonscious codes or rules that underlie phenomena and to make visible systems that were previously invisi- ‘ble They especially differed frow previous scholars who explained things through his- torical sequences of events rather than the struceralst method of explaining phenom- ‘ena in relation to other synchronous phenomena. Structuralists, like modemists, believed they could with rigor attain coherence and objectivity, and they claimed s entific status for their theories, which they believed purged mere subjective unde standings. Poststructuralists, most influendally Jacques Derrida, criticize strucuralists for thei scientific pretensions their search for universal ruth, and their belief in an unchanging human nature. Both structuralists and poststructucaliss reject the idea of the autonomous subject, insisting that no one can live outside of history, and post- structuralists especially emphasize the arbitrariness of signs. Postmodernist stress that language, culture, and society are arbitrary and conventionally agreed upon and should not be considered navural. Whereas modernists believe they can discover uni- fied and coherent foundations of tuth that are universlly true and applicable, post modernists accept the limitations of multiple views, fragmentation, and indetermina- a Postmodern painter Dei Salle challenges cloed meaning systems to expose ther arbi- trary construction by juxtaposing many diverse sbjess on single cancases—for example matadors, pop-cubzure images of Santa Claus and Donald Duck, iconic profiles of ‘Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus, with potions of nude and parsialyclthed female bodies Some art erties decry Salle's pastched paintings as sexit because of “their ‘rademark girlie pinup images” (Rimanell, 1991, p. 111) and bis “crotch intensive per- spective” (Cottingham, 1988, p. 104). However, with a postmodernise perspective that depends on the ditincion berween sign and meaning, Robert Storr (1988) denies that ‘Salles paintings represent worsen eventhough they depict them. Storr acess contempt for ‘anyone who svould ine thatthe nubjet represented migh in some way have a propritary inzeest in tein representation” (p. 24) 20 ‘Modernism and Postmodernism Postmodernist paychology also rejecs the modemist notion that the individual is unified rational being. Descarte's dictum, “I think, therefore I am," and Jean-Paul Sartre's dictum that "existence precedes essence" which defines the individual as free and undetermined, place the individual atthe center of the universe, Postmodernists instead decenter the individual and claim thatthe self is merely an effect of language, social relations, and che unconscious; they downplay the ability of the individual 10 effect change oF to be creative. [Much of Gindy Sherman's artis photographs of berlf which undermine nations of individuality. In "Unveed Fa Sil” 1977-1980, she pictures heel. but a2 @ worean in a wide warery of gies from hitchhiker to hoseuife. These pictres look like als from old movies. They are piceure af Gindy Sherman, and picrures ef Cindy Sherman digased as others, ad hey are ale piccarerof women as women are represened in cultural art- facts such as movies and magazines and paintings, and especially as pictured by male prov ducers, director, editors, painter, and photographers. They are about "tbe cultural con- struction of femininity” (Hlearsney, 1987, p. 18)- Modernist Aesthetics and Criticism [Artistic modernism is more recent chan philosophical modernity. Art critic Robert ‘Atkins (1993) dates modernism “roughly from the 1860s through the 1970s" and ‘writes thatthe term is used to identify both the styles and the ideologies of che art pro- duced during those years (p. 139). Although modernism is now old, and some think finished, i was once very progressive, bringing a new art for a new age. Modernism emerged amidst she social and political revolution sweeping Europe. ‘Westem European culrure was becoming more urban and less rural, industrial rather than agrarian, The importance of organized religion in the daily lives of people was diminishing while seculatism was expanding. Because the old system of artistic patronage had ended, artists were free to choose their own content. Theit art no longer needed to glorify the wealthy individuals and powerful institutions of church and stare that had previously commissioned their paintings and sculptures. Becaute it was not likely chat their art would flourish in the new capitalist art market, artists fle frce to experiment and made highly personal art. The slogan of the era, "Art for the sake of at" is apt Modernists signified cheir allegiance to the new by referring to themselves as avant-garde," thinking they were ahead of their time and beyond historical limita- tions. Modern artists were especially rebellious against restrictions put on previous artists by che art academies of the 1700s, and later artists rebelled against the domi- nance of the art salons and their conservative juries in the late 1800s. Modern artists ‘were often critical of the status quo and frequently challenged middle class values. “Terry Barrett a Premaderviss Jacques Louis David painted scenes from the Fronch Revolution, and Francisco de Goya depicted Napoleon's invasion of Spain. Modernists Gustave Courbes ‘and Edouard Manet surmed sheir easel away from nobility and wealth to paint ordinary (ie around them. The imprexionies and postinpresionits abandaned historical subject matter, and alo raed asvay from the relism and illasioniam arvsts had been refining in the Wee since the Renaisance. Some modernists, such as the futurists im Taly during the 1920s, celebrated in their work new technology, especialy speed, while others such as the construciviss in the Soviet Union, embraced scientific moddl of thinking. Abstractions: Was Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian ersbraced spiritualism to office the sculerin of 1modernsociey, Pal Gaugin, and later Pablo Pcaso and Henri Mate sought solace and inspiration in non-Weserm cultures, while Paul Klee and Joan Mir “employed childlike imagery that embedie she yearning t0 excape adulthood and all ts responsibility" (Atkins, 1993, p. 176). In 1770, Immanuel Kant laid the philosophic foundation for artistic modernism. Kant developed a theory of aesthetic response which held that viewers could and should arrive ar similar interpretations and judgments of an artwork if they experi- enced the work in and of itself. When viewing ast, according to Kant, people should put themselves in a supra sate of sensory awateness, give up their personal interests nd associational responses, and consider art independently of any purpose or utility other than the aestherc. An aesthetic judgment should be neither personal nor rela tive. The viewer should rise above he time, place, and personal idiosyncrasies, reach- ing aesthetic judgments of art with which all reasonable people would agree. In 1913, Edward Bullough, an aesthetician, added the concept of "psychic distancing.” ein- forcing Kant’s idea thatthe viewer should contemplate a work of ar with detachment. In the 1920s, modemist ar theory received « big boost fiom two British critics, Clive Bell and Roger Fry, who introduced what is now known as formalism. Formalism and modernism are inextricably linked, although the former is an out- growth of the later. Bell and Fry sought to ignore as irelevant the artist's intent in ‘making a work of are and any social or ideological function the artist may have wanted the work to have. Instead, the “significant form" of the artwork was what was co be ‘exclusively attended co. Atkins (1990) credits Bell and Fry's critical purpose as being responsible in part for the eatly 20th century interest in Japanese prints and Oceanic and African artifacts. Theie eitical method of attending to arc was meant to alow a

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