PostModernism

Postmodernism

Post modernism is resistant to a definition. There are only few people devoted to Cultural Studies who could confidently say what they think it is. Personally postmodernism for me seems to infuse with the use of digital sampling within films music videos and even fashion. But basically flooding current life with the recycling of information and ideas for new ideas. Some may say that post-modernism is the death of originality due to ideas being created and recycled with other old ideas for something new.

For example to infuse two ideas this could be the famous painting of Adam and God where they almost touching fingers but instead using a modern product such as a phone, mp3 or really anything from today put together would be classed as post-modernism. Post-modern art holds that all stances are unstable and insincere. Therefore irony, parody and humour are the only positions that can not be overturned by critique.

By Jake Coventry

The term itself was used first in the 1870s, ‘postmodern’ was used to describe a painting where the style had moved forward from French Impressionism. This was during the time where Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley organized the ‘Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs’, to exhibit their worked, later joined by other notable artists, the group soon became known as the Impressionists. Though this does relate to the first uses of the term, the movement of impressionism itself did not become post-modernism, and instead later works of this style were described as post-impressionism, however impressionism is a precursor.

The term has been used throughout the 20th Century and as a result it is difficult to pinpoint specific influences, as metioned earlier, it can be simply described as anything new, with attempt to not be influenced by previous works. The 1870s saw the collapse of the Second French Empire and the new formation of the French Third Republic, and though very unlikely, it may have been events of change such as this more globally that also inspired artists to create new artwork, and in theory this would be a potential factor throughout history.

Post-modernism can still be seen in examples of art today.
-Anthony James is a contemporary English artist who’s work has been noted for its post-modernism, he combines the use of performance, paint and sculpture, and his work is recognised for combining minimalism and pop art, both aspects popular in postmodernism of the past. James also uses surrealism within his work, the idea of recycling older values to create a new piece of artwork.

Example of Anthony James work, Birch Quad, 144” x 96” x 144,” Birch, Aluminum, Glass, Fluorescent Lights, 2007

By Mike Sutton

- Bridget Riley

"For me Nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces - an event rather than an appearance - these forces can only be tackled by treating colour and form as ultimate identities, freeing them from all descriptive or functional roles." Bridget Riley.

Bridget Riley was born in London and studied there at Goldsmith's College and the Royal College of Art. She has been influenced by thd Neo-Impressionist technique of Pointillism, but taking up 'Op Art' in the early Sixties she worked initially in black and white.  In 1958 she was deeply impressed by the large Jackson Pollock exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. This was one of the reasons that led her to pursue her own art, finally leaving her job as illustrator at the J. W. Thompson advertising agency in 1962. In 1966 Riley turned to colour with 'Chant' and 'Late Morning'. She was already receiving considerable recognition, secured in 1968 when she won the International Prize for painting at the 34th Venice Biennale. After a major retrospective in the early Seventies, Riley begins to travel extensively. Up until early 1980 she had been working on her 'curve' paintings, but these came to an end after a particularly inspiring sojourn in Egypt. Her extensive exploration of colour and contrast began after this. In 1983 she designed a mural made up of soothing bands of blue, pink, white and yellow for the Royal Liverpool Hospital. In the same year, she made her first set for the ballet 'Colour Moves' first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1983. Three years later she met the postmodern 'Simulationist' painters Philip Taaffe and Ross Bleckner, and inspired to introduce a diagonal element to her work, thus adding another dimension to her fascination with the juxtaposition of colours. Bridget Riley is one of the finest exponents of Op Art, with her subtle variations in size, shape and position of blocks within the overall pattern. Her work is characterised by its intensity and its often disorientating effect. Indeed the term 'Riley sensation' was coined to describe this effect of looking at the paintings, especially her early black and white pictures. Riley is fascinated with the act of looking and in her work aims to engage the viewer not only with the object of their gaze but also with the actual process of observation. - Jasper Johns "I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason." Jasper Johns. Jasper Johns was born in Augusta, Georgia and studied at the University of Southern Carolina before dropping out and moving to New York in late 40s'. After two terms at a commercial art college and a brief stint doing military service, Johns met Robert Rauschenberg. Their close relationship was to endure for eight years. Forming a partnership, their first project was designing upmarket window displays. With the money they earnt, they were able to concentrate on their artistic experiments. 'Flag' (1954) is one of Johns' key works. Inspired by a dream, the painting depicts the American flag rendered in heavily textured brushwork. It was the first of many such studies, as he produced not only variations on the flag image in various mixed media, but also replicated other commonplace two-dimensional objects such as targets, numbers and maps. Similarly, his sculpture work depicted banal everyday objects such as beer cans and brushes in a coffee tin. In 1958 Johns exhibited his first one-man show at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. It was a tremendous success and his reputation was confirmed. In the 1970s a cross-hatching motif characterised much of his work. While in the 1980s autobiographical elements entered his paintings, for example in 'Racing Thoughts' (1983), his collage contains personal references such as artifacts from his bathroom. The everyday objects in Johns' work raise questions about the relationship between art and reality. His paintings are essentially open texts with a multitude of readings available to the viewer. At the same time realistic and artificial, Johns' paintings are admired by many but dismissed by others as uninteresting and as banal as the objects he depicts. For Johns his interest lies beyond symbolism, instead he claims merely to try and understand the familiar with a fresh outlook.

- Donald Judd

Though a failure as a societal ethic, simplicity has nevertheless exercised a powerful influence on the complex patterns of

American culture. As a myth of national purpose and as a program for individual conduct, the simple life has been a perennial dream and as a rhetorical challenge, displaying an indestructible vitality even in the face of repeated defeats. It has, in a sense, served as the nation's conscience, reminding Americans of what the founders had hoped they would be and thereby providing a vivifying counterpart to the excesses of materialist individualism.

- Frank Stella

People say that the paintings are always big because they're striving for effect, but they're also big so that I don't trip over myself, so that I have room to work, and people can come in and be comfortable - F. Stella

Printmaker and painter Frank Stella was born on May 12, 1936 in Malden, Massachusetts. He attended high school in Massachusetts and, upon graduating, moved on to Princeton University and majored in history. Stella soon found himself influenced by figures the likes of Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock while in school, and visits to the art galleries of New York subtly shaped Stella’s techniques.

Stella’s work attained recognition for its uniqueness and level of skill as early as 1959, when he hadn’t even reached the age of 25. By 1960 he was reproducing paintings with aluminum and copper paint. He had a fine sense for geometry and many of his early paintings used straight or curved lines, often in arcs, to excess.

By the mid-1960’s Stella found himself branching off in to a new medium, however: print making. He began working with printer KennethTyler and soon enough produced his first set of abstract prints, utilizing screen printing, etching and lithography, among other mediums. By 1970 he received a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, the youngest artist to ever receive such an honor.Many of his prints incorporated several different techniques to create one unique effect. It was inevitable, then, that in 1973 he had a print shop installed into his home in New York.

The mid 1980’s onwards saw Stella working in three dimensions with increasing frequency, and by the 1990’s he’d moved on to creating free-standing sculptures for display in public places. One of his crowning achievements is the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, for which Stella provided the decorative scheme that has made the theater so popular.

Stella is still an active artist in New York, and he works not only to protect his own work but that of fellow artists. Most recently he attacked the proposed U.S. Orphan Works law which, if passed, would remove copyright infringement penalties if the creator of a work cannot be found.