Postmodernism And The Four Postmodernist Artists

Though the start of the modernisation may trace back to the beginning of Industrial Revolution. “Modernism in the design world did not exist in a fully developed form, until well after First World War.” (Wilk, 2006) Causing the great loss of lives and other countless damage to the world, it reshaped many people’s way of thinking the world. With the inspiration of early avant-garde movement, the modernism began to emerge advocating an utopian future and shared certain core principles by various styles of modernists: rejecting the past and applied ornament; forms follow function, a preference for

period where people had a new found freedom to follow their own path in life, whether it was

A worldwide movement encompassing all disciplines, postmodernism arose in response to the dominant idea of modernism, which is described as the social condition of living in an urban, fast-changing progressivist world governed by instrumental reason.

Postmodernism is a term which is highly contested in the sociological world, where it is used to indicate a significant detachment from modernism. It is easier to give the uses of the term; ‘to give a name to the present historical period, to name a specific style in arts and architecture and to name a point of rupture or disjuncture in epistemology’ (Buchanan, 2010). For this,

To fully appreciate the differences and similarities between Postmodernism and Modernism, it is required to understand exactly what they are. Modernism is the term we give to the accumulated creations and activities of designers in the early 20th century, who had the theory that traditional forms of literature, religion, social organization, and most of all, art and architecture, had become outdated in the new social, political, and economic environment of a fully industrialised world. One of the main characteristics of Modernism is self-consciousness, which typically caused exstensive experimentations of form and function. The creative process of generating work was also explored, forming new techniques in design. Modernism rejected all ideology of realism and prefers to reference and parody works of the past. Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a radical rejection of Modernist design. Taking place in the late 20th century, it is a movement in art, criticism, and architecture that disputes the majority of modernist tendencies. The Postmodernist analysis of society and culture lead to the expansion of critical theory and advanced the works of architecture, literature, and design. This entire re-evaluation of the western value system of popular culture, love, marriage, economy, that took place from the 1950s and 60s, leading to the peak of the Social Revolution in 1968, is commonly referred as Postmodernity which influenced postmodern thought, as opposed to the term

The realm of postmodern art encompasses various aspects of contemporary styles. There is no set format to creating artwork anymore. Art pieces in the past basically conformed to the Kantian-Hegelian theory of art. Thomas McEvilley claim, "It was essentially an aesthetic theory of art, which held Beauty is a universal force that enters the soul with immediate, unquestionable authority at the instant when the soul approaches the beautiful object with openness to it" (qtd. in Weintraub 245). Beauty became an inborn characteristic of art. Pieces of artwork inevitably possessed the quality of beauty, seeking to inspire and touch the soul with powerful, aesthetically pleasing images.

Rolling into the late 19th and early 20th century, modernistic literature became the style of writing. Modernistic thinking was a rebellion against realism, in which the literature was very abstract. The writers of that time period were experimental and used unusual techniques. There were four sub-categories of modernism: surrealism, cubism, existentialism, and dadaism. Surrealism and existentialism were the most popular of the four. Surrealism was very dreamy-like writing, such as the work done by an artist named Daly. Existentialism dealt with the belief that the human existence had free will- there were no gods and humans had control of there own philosophy. Writers such as Camus were existentialists. The final literary movement that will be discussed is postmodernism. Postmodernism was an attempt by many artists to arrive at a united, global culture. Postmodernists had optimistic views that things could get better. Instead of concentrating on the fragments of destruction, they gathered all of the fragments together and made an optimistic outlook.

‘Modernism’ is derived from ‘modo’, a Latin word which means “just now”( Philosophy Basics. n.d.). Modernism, in its broad explanation includes the different movements related to art in the Europe, initiating from the end of the 19th century till the beginning of 20th century (Design History Mashup, Philip S. , 2008). These latest European movements developed to reject the conventional arts of the previous times. The public, who showed initial controversy to the new ideas, gradually acknowledged them. A major portion of these European movements and the public and political protests were

Modernism was a movement that was developed during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Modernism developed due to the changes happening in societies at the time. Around the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century there was a rise in the industrial society’s where there were advancements in technologies and machines, and a rapid growths in cities. This lead to a change in cultural trends and philosophies, which is known as modernism. Modernism was well known for the rejection on traditional way, such as the arts and beliefs. It rejected the idea of realism and religious beliefs. During these years modernism could be distinguished by two aspects, High and Low Modernism.

Anne Rorimer writes in the group reading text, Introduction, about the evolution of art. She notes the writings of Clement Greenberg and his ideas of modernism and its differences from postmodernism. Postmodernism is directly derived from abstract expressionism and shows the evolution from painting to sculpture. Simply, modernists say their paintings are about the paint used to create them, whereas postmodernist believe that paintings are about the painting themselves.

There is often some confusion when people start talking about the post-modernism and modernism in architecture in terms of  their philosophical terminology differences. Modern architecture is known for its minimalism (Linder, 2004); buildings were functional and economical rather than comfortable and beautifully decorated. The post-modernism architecture, however, is called a “neo-eclectic, significantly assuming the role of a regeneration of period styles for designing houses, and a never-ending variety of forms and characteristics, asymmetrical designs for commercial buildings” (Fullerton Heritage, 2008). An example of these two polar opposites, “Less is more” made by Mies van der Rohe in 1928 (Blake, 1976) and "Less is a bore" made by

Postmodernism was a reaction against the modernism philosophical values and assumptions. Although many agree that there is a thin line between modernism and postmodernism, postmodernism is not modernism. In modernism, scientific theories were used to determine what is true. However, postmodernism allows individuals to question the theories and not take them as facts (Duignan, 2014). While modernism emphasized on objectivism, postmodernism allows extensive subjectivism in all aspects of life.

The Modernist Period was first a reaction against the previous Victorian culture. Intellectuals and artists of the 20th century believed that the previous era’s way of doing things was a cultural dead end and they wanted to break away from traditions.

Post Modernism architecture originated as an international style in America around the 1960’s to 1970’s and quickly spread throughout the rest of the world. The goal of the Post Modernism movement was that it was a reaction against Modernism and rejected the modernist desire for

Postmodernism refers to a broad term used to explain movements in philosophy, art, music and critical theory. Postmodernism is viewed as a reaction to the pioneering modernist movement. In literature and art, postmodernism responds against classical ideas. With respect to post-structuralism and structuralism, there is a great difference between postmodernism