POSTMODERNISM
In Retrospect
• Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism.
• Modernism focused on idealism and reason, assuming that certain universal
principles formed by religion or science can be used to understand or explain
reality.
• Modernists experimented with form, technique and processes rather than
focusing on subjects, trying to purely reflect the modern world under universal
principles.
• As opposed to Modernism, Postmodernism was born out of suspicion of
reason, challenging the notion of universal certainties or truths.
Introduction
• Postmodernism is notoriously vague, different people have different
understandings of the term.
• It can be seen as a quest to move ahead, or reject the universal
aesthetics and norms of modern art (1870-1970).
• Postmodernism can be seen as an accelerated form of modernism
that was shaped by factors like: increased mass production, high
dependence on technology, and an increased belief on
capitalism.
• These three factors contributed to the ‘condition’ of Postmodernism.
• The term “postmodern art” refers to a wide category of contemporary art
created from about 1970 onwards.
• This art showcases the following techniques among others:
1) Pluralism – celebrating differences
2) Hybridity – combining concepts and techniques
3) Hyper reality and dependence on technology – more real than real
4) Pastiche – no more originals (appropriation)
5) Double coding – Having several meaning for different people; open to
interpretation; no more “fixed” meanings in art
Hans Haacke: A Breed Apart
1978
photographs, black & white, and colour, on paper on
hardboard
© Hans Haacke/VG Bild-Kunst
• Pluralism: It not only advocates ‘diversity’, it
takes it a step further by involving ‘multiplicity’,
where there is diversity the nature of art forms
and artists.
• This way we see a large assemblage of
ethnicities, their socio-political issues, and their
cultural embedded in art.
• Hybridity: combining concepts and techniques
• It is the mixing of two or more elements to
create a third.
Rashid Rana: Desperately Seeking Paradise II,
2009-11
Chromogenic (c-type) prints and stainless steel
• Hyper reality and dependence on technology: it seems to be more real than real
Ron Mueck: A Girl
2006
Ron Mueck: Mask II
2001
• Pastiche: no more originals (appropriation)
• It can consciously borrow from or ironically
comment on art and styles from the past.
Is pastiche a reworking of the past or a parody?
Marco Pece: Brick Art. The
Mona Lisa (and other
masterpieces) made out of
Lego
2009
• Double Coding: Having
several meaning for
different people; open to
interpretation; no more
“fixed” meanings in art
Red Carpet seemingly depicts a classical
Persian rug but upon closer inspection it is
made up of scenes of animal slaughter.
Rashid Rana: Red Carpet III
2007
Chromogenic print mounted on
Diasec, 95”x135”
• The era coincided with the arrival
of several new image-based
technological developments e.g.
television, video, computers, and
internet.
• This led to five decades of artistic
experimentation with new media
and art forms:
• Conceptual art
• Performance art
• Photography
• New Media
• Installation
• Graffiti
• Computer-aided fields;
• Projection and Digital art
Sol LeWitt: Autobiography
1980
Court esy Est at e of Sol LeWit t
Key Conceptual Elements
They all hinge on the destruction of universal, fixed concepts
and rules
• Complex and contradictory layers of meaning
• No single style or definition of what art should be
• It can be funny, ironic, parodic, or ludicrous
• Pastiche (work that imitates the style of a previous work)
• It brought the idea and sense that ‘anything goes’
Matt Groening: The Simpsons
• It can be confrontational and controversial
• Blending of high and low culture by collapsing the distinction between the two
in art and everyday life.
• Anarchy
• Performance/ Happening/ Process
• Self Reflexivity
• Visuality (dominance of visual media; film, tv, advertising, internet)
• Globalization
• Reflection of cultural conditions, symbols, and critiques
Art As A Sociopolitical Message
• Although technology has brought
people closer, yet national, ethnic,
religious, and racial conflicts are
prevalent.
• Some of the most eloquent voices
raised in protest about the major
political and social issues have been
of painters and sculptors, who use art
to amplify the power of the written
and spoken word.
Lorna Simpson: Poets
2013
silver gelatine prints, aluminium, acrylic, oil stick,
installation dimensions variable
Social Art: Gender and Sexuality
Many artists who embraced the postmodern interest
started investigating in the dynamics of power and
privilege have focused on issues of gender and
sexuality in the contemporary world.
Social Art: Race, Ethnicity, and National Identity:
Race, ethnicity, and national identity are among the
other pressing issues that have given rise to
important artworks during the past few decades.
Shahzia Sikander: Perilous Order
1994–1997
Vegetable color, dry pigment,
watercolour, and tea on Wasli paper, 10 1/2”×8″
Political Art:
While some artists made
commentaries on contemporary
society, as seen through the lens of
their personal experiences, others
have incorporated references to
specific events, addressed
conditions affecting all people
regardless of their gender, race, or
national origin, for example, street
violence, homelessness, and
industrial pollution.
Hans Haacke: MetroMobiltan
1985
Fiber glass construction, three banners,
photomural, 11′ 8”×20′×5
BLM - Black Live Matter
BLM is an international anti-racist and human rights movement that originated in the US
in 2013 from a hashtag #BlackLivesMatter after the acquittal of George Zimmerman,
who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012.
The phrase “black lives matter” also refers the ‘Black Lives Matter Global Foundation’
that operates across the US, UK and Canada.
BLM holds protests and speaks out against police brutality and killings of black people,
while aiming at issues of racial profiling, and racial inequality within the US criminal
justice system.
The movement has flared up to national headlines and gained international attention
during the global George Floyd protests in 2020, following Floyd's death by police in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Pakistani truck-art
painter Haider Ali,
has painted a
mural depicting
George Floyd
surrounded by a
garland of flowers,
with slogans
#BlackLivesMatter,
justice, and
#Equality.
In Minneapolis, five artists used their art to help ensure that Floyd will
not be forgotten. Xena Goldman, Cadex Herrera, and Greta
McLain, Niko Alexander and Pablo Hernandez, created a mural in
Floyd’s honor at the very intersection where he was murdered.
A makeshift memorial and mural
out side Cup Foods where George
Floyd was murdered by a
Minneapolis police officer.
Rhythm 0
1974, Table with 72 objects and slide projector with slides
Marina Abramovic
Serbian artist
Rhythm 0 was a six-hour work of
performance where Abramović
stood still while the audience was
invited to do to her whatever they
wished, using one of 72 objects she
had placed on a table. These
included a gun, bullet, a rose, blue
paint, comb, bell, whip, lipstick, and
pocket knife etc.
Marina Abramovic performing 'Rhythm 0'
The Artist Is Present
2010, 700 hour static, silent piece with the artist sitting immobile in the museum's
atrium while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her
“I understood that…I could make art with
everything…and the most important
[thing] is the concept. And this was the
beginning of my performance art. And the
first time I put my body in front of [an]
audience, I understood: this is my media.”
“Nobody could imagine…that anybody
would take time to sit and just engage in
mutual gaze with me. In fact, the chair
was always occupied, and there were
continuous lines of people waiting to sit in
it. It was [a] complete surprise…this
enormous need of humans to actually
have contact.”
Marina Abramović performing The Artist Is Present, MoMA, Nueva York
Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face)
1981, Photograph, red painted frame, 4′ 7″×3′ 5″
Barbara Kruger
American artist/ Graphic designer
In the 1970s, some feminist artists, explored the
“male gaze” and the culturally constructed
notion of gender in their art. Kruger examines
similar issues in her photographs.
Untitled (We Dont Need Another Hero
1986, Photographic silkscreen/vinyl, 109”x209.8”.
Barbara Kruger
She is known to aggressively
lay directive slogans over
black-and-white
photographs that she finds
in magazines.
Hollywood Africans
1983, Acrylic and oil stick, 84 1/16”×84”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
American artist of Haitian and Puerto
Rican descent
His work focuses on the minority cultural
experience in America.
Horn Players
1983, Acrylic and oil paint stick, 8′×6′ 3″
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Many of his paintings celebrate black
heroes, e.g. the legendary jazz
musicians Charlie “Bird” Parker and Dizzy
Gillespie, whom he memorialized in Horn
Players.
Jean-Michel Basquiat with Andy Warhol at their joint show in 1985
Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?
1983, Acrylic on canvas with fabric borders, quilted, 7′ 6″×6′ 8″
Faith Ringgold
American artist
She addressed issues associated with
African American women and the
realities of racial prejudice.
She incorporated references to gender
as well and, in the 1970s, turned to
fabric as the predominant material in
her art.
Using fabric enabled Ringgold to make
more pointed reference to the domestic
sphere, traditionally associated with
women, and to collaborate with her
mother, Willi Posey, a fashion designer.
After her mother’s death in 1981,
Ringgold created Who’s Afraid of Aunt
Jemima?
The “story quilt” merges the personal
and the political?
Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank
(Two Dr J Silver Series, Spalding NBA Tip-Off)
1985, Glass, steel, pneumatic feet, 3 rubber basketballs and water, 60.4”x48.7”x13.2”
Jeff Koons
American artist
His work deals with popular culture and
his sculptures depict everyday objects.
Michael Jackson and Bubbles
1988, Ceramic, 42”x 70.5”x32.4”
Jeff Koons
What does the sculpture shows, a
realistic outlook or whitewashing?
Screen 2
1986, 1 wooden accordion screen, 3 silver gelatin prints, vinyl lettering, 73 ½”x60x22
Lorna Simpson
American artist
She uses photography, video and
collage to explore identity and uses
her own experiences as a black
woman as inspiration.
Memory Knots
1989, 5 silver gelatin prints, 10 engraved plaques, 18″×16″
Lorna Simpson
The Homeless Projection
1986, Outdoor slide projection at the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Boston.
Krzysztof Wodiczko
Polish artist
When he moved to New York City the
homelessness troubled him, and he used his
art to publicize the problem.
In 1987, he produced The Homeless Projection
as part of a New Year’s celebration. He
projected images of homeless people on all
four sides of the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors
Monument on Boston Common.
Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into
the Met. Museum?
1989, Print, colour offset lithograph, (L)17”x21.9” (R)10.9”x27.9”
Guerrilla Girls
An anonymous group of
feminist female artists fighting
sexism and racism within the
art world.
It originated New York City in
1985.
© Guerrilla Girls, courtesy of guerrillagirls.com
How many works by women artists were in the Andy
Warhol and Tremaine auctions at Sotheby's?
1989, Print,16 15/16”x22 1/16”
Guerrilla Girls
Limited edition signed poster
Public Enemy
1991, Photographs, balloons,sandbags, guns, and other mixed media
David Hammons
African American artist
Racism of all kinds is a central
theme of his work.
Installation at Museum of Modern Art, New York
Homage to Steve Biko
1992, Mixed media, 3’ 7 5/6”×3’ 75/6″
Willie Bester
South African artist
He shows political oppression in South Africa
in his paintings and was vocal critics of
apartheid (government-sponsored racial
separation).
Bester’s 1992 Homage to Steve Biko is a
tribute to the heroic leader of the South
African Black Liberation Movement whom
the authorities killed while in detention.
Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People)
1992, Oil and mixed media on canvas, 5′×14′ 2″
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Native American artist
Trade is her response to what she
calls “the Quincentenary NonCelebration,” that is, White
America’s celebration of the 500th
anniversary of Christopher
Columbus’s arrival in what
Europeans called the New World.
The sports teams represented all have
American Indian–derived names,
reminding viewers of the vocal opposition
to these names and to practices such as
the Atlanta Braves’ “tomahawk chop.”
Above the painting, as if hung from a clothesline, are
cheap t rinket s she proposes to trade for the return of
confiscated land.
Smith, “Why won’t you consider
trading the land we handed over to
you for these silly trinkets that so
honor us? Sound like a bad deal?
Well, that’s the deal you gave us.”
Dripping red paint,
symbolic of the shedding of
Native American blood.
Newspaper clippings
chronicle the conquest of
Native America by Europeans
and include references t o t he
problems facing those living
on reservations today—
poverty, alcoholism, disease.
Tambo
1993, Welded steel, 28 1/8”x25 ¼”x 22”
Melvin Edwards
American artist
Edwards’s welded sculptures to allude
to the lynching of African Americans
and the continuing struggle for civil
rights and an end to racism.
Away from the Flock
1994, Glass, stainless steel, Perspex, acrylic paint, lamb and formaldehyde solution,
37.7”x58.6”x20”
Damien Hirst
English artist
Part of the group of Young British Artists
who dominated 1990s art scene
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2020.
Mother and Child (Divided)
1994/ 20017, Glass, stainless steel, Perspex, acrylic paint, cow, calf and formaldehyde
solution, 2 Parts: 82.1”x126.9”x42.9” each, 2 Parts: 44.7”x66.4”x24.4” each
Damien Hirst
Exhibition copy 2007 (original
1993)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.
Wall Drawing #1136
2004, Paint on wall
Sol LeWitt
American artist
Acrylic paint installation
© The estate of Sol LeWitt
Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps,
2005, Oil on canvas, 9′×9′
Kehinde Wiley
His trademark paintings are reworkings
of historically important portraits in which
he substitutes figures of young black
men in contemporary dress in order to
situate them in what he calls “the field
of power.”
Barack Obama
2018, Oil on canvas, 84.1”×58”×1.3”
Kehinde Wiley
American artist
Many African American artists have lamented
the near-total absence of blacks in Western art,
except as servants, until quite recently. Wiley set
out to correct that discriminatory imbalance.
He achieved renown for his large-scale portraits
of young urban African American men.
Offshore Accounts-1
2006, Chromogenic print mounted on Diasec, 118 1/8”x68 7/8”
Rashid Rana
Pakistani artist
Oos sheher ki oonchi deewar
2009, Photographic print, 15.7”x11.4”
Farida Batool
Pakistani artist
Kahani Eik Shehr Ki
2012, Lenticular print, 20”x2144”
Farida Batool
World Cup ˜16
2016, Digital printed 58 hand stitched Footballs
Farida Batool
And How Many Rains Must Fall before the
Stains Are Washed Clean
2013, Acrylic
The installation on the Metropolitan
Museum's roof . The work's title, “And
How Many Rains Must Fall Before the
Stains Are Washed Clean,” comes from
a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Imran Qureshi
Pakistani artist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX
tb5pz3Rx0
And They Still Seek The Traces of Blood
2013, Site-specific installation
The work is printed on thousands of
crumpled sheets of paper. Thework’s
title, “And t hey st ill seek t he t races of
blood quotes a poem by Faiz.
Imran Qureshi
I See my Streets/I See Karachi
2017, Participatory interactive Installation, video projections, social media
interaction, 179.9” cube
Faisal Anwar
Pakistani artist
Banksy’s Postmodern Parody of
Postmodernism Itself?
• Banksy is an anonymous England-based
street artist, graffiti artist, a political
activist, and often called a vandal and
Guerrilla artist, active since the 1990s.
• His satirical street art plays with pastiche
and parody and can be found all over
the world in socio-politically significant
places.
Banksy: Original Thought
2010
New York
The Slave Labour mural as it appeared in May 2012
Love is in the Bin
2018
The work shredded itself shortly after
it was hammered down at $1.4
million at a Sotheby’s auction in
London