Modern and postmodern art started after World War I. Its incredible destructiveness killed the nineteenth-century progress myth. The shock of the war first produced the dada movement, which deliberately produced incoherent art reflecting the destruction of the optimistic ethos of European civilization. Marcel Duchamp’s sculpture entitled The Fountain is sometimes cited as an early example of postmodern art. This work was first submitted to an art exhibition in New York City in 1917, where it sparked a controversy about the nature of art. Duchamp, who was a member of the Dadaist movement, purchased an ordinary urinal and signed it with the pseudonym “R. Mutt.” According to Duchamp, the urinal became art when he chose to call it art, meaning that an object’s status as a work of art is dependent upon context and perception. Movements that fall under the umbrella of postmodern art include installations, multimedia and conceptual art. Hybridization of forms and media is common. Eclecticism, juxtaposition and globalization are common threads in postmodernism. In the wake of multiculturalism and feminist theory, postmodern art tends to deconstruct traditional narratives of race, gender, nationality and family. By refusing to acknowledge distinctions between high art and lowbrow art--for example, comic book illustration or graffiti art--postmodern artists further break down class distinctions in the hierarchy of art criticism. Postmodern art rejects the high valuation of authenticity and originality in modernism, asserting instead that there can be no more innovation or progress in art. Thus, according to postmodernists, the use of techniques such as pastiche, collage and parody are the only authentic ways to produce art. By appropriating history, pop culture and traditional forms or techniques, postmodern artists manipulate existing symbols and narratives.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 19:52:26 +0000
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