Post moderism
· Born out of optimism, aspirational reaction to
world war 1 – view to harness technology to improve life for people.
· Ends up doctrinaire – blind obedience to rules
· FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Modernism is
associated with experimentation, innovation, individualism, progress, purity,
originality and seriousness.
Post modern condition
is characterised by
· Exhaustion
· Pluralism
· Pessimism
· Disillusionment with idea of absolute knowledge
Within modernism and
postmodernism some of these characters overlap
Modernism expression –
Modern life, Technology, new materials and communication.
Postmodernism reaction
– modern life, technology, new materials, communication.
Origins of
postmodernism
· 1917 – German writer Rudolph Pannwitz – spoke
of ‘ nihilistic, amoral, post modern men’
· 1964 – Leslie Fielder described a ‘post’
culture, which rejected the elitist values of Modern Culture
Timeline of
Postmodernism
· 1960 – beginnings
· 1970s- established as term ( Jencks)
· 1980s- recognisable style
· 1980s & 90s – dominant theoretical
discourse
· Today – tired & simmering
Postmodern terms:
· After modernism
· Historical era following modern
· Contra modernism
· Equivalent to ‘late capitalism’ (Jameson)
· Artistic and stylistic eclecticism
· ‘global village’ phenomena – globalization of
cultures, races, images, capital and products
15 July 1972 –
modernism dies according to Charles Jencks – demolition of the Pruitt
Postmodernism has an
attitude of questioning conventions
Post modern aesthetic
= multiplicity of styles and approaches – space for new voices
Postmodernism
Reaction to the rules
· starts as a critique of the international style
· only rule is that there are no rules
· celebrates what might otherwise be termed
kitsch
Frank Gehry –
Guggenheim museum, bilbao 1997 – references to modernist skyscrapers. Humour
and allusions to waves? Melting in the heat.
J-F Lyotard
The postmodern
condition 1979
· incredulity towards metanarratives
· Metanarratives = totalising belief systems
· Result – crisis in confidence
Postmodern aesthetics
· Complexity
· Chaos
· Mixing materials / styles
· Re-using images – parody & irony
High art / low art
divide beginning to crumble.
Quote 1. Robert Venturi
‘I like elements which
are hybrid rather than ‘pure’, compromising rather than ‘clean’, distorted
rather than ‘straight-forward’, ambiguous rather than ‘articulated’, perverse
as well as impersonal….’
At end of 1950’s the
purest form of Modernist painting was FORMALISM – theorised by the critic
Clement Greenberg
Quote 2. ‘Generally
post-modern artists like to mix the highbrow and the populist, the alienating
and the accessible, and to ‘sample’ elements from different styles and eras….’
Quote 2 (cont) ‘…..now you can reinvent yourself
endlessly, gaily pick ‘n’ mixing your way through the gaudy fragments of a
shattered culture’
Crisis in confidence –
but also = freedom,
new possibilities
questioning old
limitations
space for marginalised
discourse
women, sexual
diversity and multiculturalism.
Conclusion
• A vague disputed term
• Po-Mo attitude of
questioning conventions (esp. Modernism)
• Po-Mo aesthetic =
multiplicity of styles & approaches
• Shift in thought
& theory investigating ‘crisis in confidence’ Eg. Lyotard
• Space for ‘new voices’
• Rejection of
technological determinism?
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