Can we ever describe ourselves as modernists? Up to date with all the trends, the coolest kids on the block or is there always something new just around the corner. With retrospect we can look back and see that perhaps we should have used more expandable collective terms to describe the Artistic movements of the times. What we have ended up with is Modernism, Postmodernism and it has now been suggested that we have entered a new era of Post-postmodernism.
Definitions
The Tate Gallery defined Modernism as “In the field of art the broad movement in Western art, architecture and design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. Hence the term modernist or modern art.”
Tate defines Postmodernism as “specifically a reaction against modernsm It may be said to begin with Pop Art and to embrace much of what followed including Conceptional Art, Neo-Expressionism, Feminist Art and the Young British Artists of the 1990s”
Tate Gallery (http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=174, No Date)
They go on to say.
“it collapses the distinction between high culture and mass or popular culture; that it tends to efface the boundary between art and everyday life; and that it refuses to recognise the authority of any single style or definition of what art should be”.
Tate Gallery (http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=230, No Date)
I say. "The terms modernism and postmodernism are umbrella terms which themselves house many different and diverse movements and disciplines."
Examples of Modernist Art
One of the earlier Modernists was Marcel Duchamp who broke the boundaries with his Nude Descending a Staircase 2. Instantly perceived by many as controversial it later gained acceptance and is regarded as one of his finest works.
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| Woman Descending a Staircase 2. Marcel Duchamp. |
“Provoking negative reactions from even the Parisian avant-garde, the painting was rejected by the Salon des Indépendants for both its title and the artist's mechanistic, dehumanizing rendering of the female nude”
(Rosenthal, N. 2004)
An Example of Postmodernist Art
A contemporary example of postmodernism is the popular street artist Banksy whos unconventional murals decorate buildings and walls all over London and beyond.
To begin with he was an enigma completely unknown and his work deemed as meer graffiti. His concept of Street Art has now been widely embraced by society and whilst remaining an enigma his work has reached a worldwide audience.
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| Banksy Woman Smoking |
BanksyStained Glass Window.2011
Postmodernism has been described in this short clip from the popular satirical animation the Simpsons with Moe the bartender explaining all.Moe Explains Postmodernism
Further examples of Modernism
Gustav Klimt (Symbolist)
Water Serpents II (1907)
Van Gogh (Post Impressionism)
The Stary Night (1889)
Henri Matisse (Fauvist)
Le bonheur de vivre (1905-06)
Further Examples of Postmodernism
Roy Lichtenstein (Pop Art)
Whaam (1963)
Jose Gomez Fresquet (Feminist Art)
Lipstick (Circa 1970)
Tracy Emin (Conceptual Art)
The Unmade Bed (1999)
References
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=174 (No Date) (Accessed 7th March 2012)
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=230 (No Date) (Accessed 7th March 2012)
Rosenthal, Nan. "Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/duch/hd_duch.htm (Accessed March 2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0DwRAVJZ4A (2012) (Accessed: 5th March 2012)
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