Postmodernism had begun as a radical fringe movement in the s, but became the dominant look of the s, the 'designer decade'. Vivid colour, theatricality and exaggeration: everything was a style statement. Whether surfaces were glossy, faked or deliberately distressed, they reflected the desire to combine subversive statements with commercial appeal.
Magazines and music were important mediums for disseminating this new phase of Postmodernism. The work of Italian designers — especially the groups Studio Alchymia and Memphis — was promoted across the world through publications like Domus.
Meanwhile, the energy of post-punk subculture was broadcast far and wide through music videos and cutting-edge graphics. This was the moment of the New Wave: a few thrilling years when image was everything.
The excitement and complexity of Postmodernism were enormously influential in the s. As the 'designer decade' wore on and the world economy boomed, Postmodernism became the preferred style of consumerism and corporate culture. Ultimately this was the undoing of the movement. Postmodernism collapsed under the weight of its own success, along with the self-regard that came with it.
It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage gained significant popularity at the same time as 20th-century post-structural thought. Postmodernism postulates that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs and therefore subject to change.
It claims that there is no absolute truth and that the way people perceive the world is subjective and emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations in the formation of ideas and beliefs. In particular, it attacks the use of binary classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, white versus black, and imperial versus colonial; it holds realities to be plural, relative, and dependent on who the interested parties are and the nature of these interests.
Postmodernist approaches consider that the ways in which social dynamics, such as power and hierarchy, affect human conceptualizations of the world have important effects on the way knowledge is constructed and used. Postmodernist thought often emphasizes constructivism, idealism, pluralism, relativism, and skepticism in its approaches to knowledge and understanding.
Following the Second World War, evolutionary and social scientists were acutely aware of how beliefs about race were used to justify discrimination, apartheid, slavery, and genocide.
This questioning gained momentum in the s during the U. A great deal of art during this era sought to deconstruct race through a postmodern lens. The author bell hooks is widely known for her writing focused on the connection of race, capitalism, and gender and what she describes as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination.
She has published more than 30 books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films, and participated in various public lectures. Primarily through a postmodern perspective, hooks has addressed race, class, and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media, and feminism. Other African-American artists made it into important New York galleries by the s and s: Horace Pippin and Romare Bearden were among the few who were successfully received in a gallery setting.
The Civil Rights Movement of the s and s led artists to capture and express the times and changes. Galleries and community art centers were developed for the purpose of displaying African-American art, and collegiate teaching positions were created by and for African-American artists.
Martin : Midnight Golfer by Eugene J. Martin, mixed media collage on rag paper. Post-black art arose during this time as a category of contemporary African-American art. It is a paradoxical genre of art where race and racism are intertwined in a way that rejects their interaction. By the s and s, hip-hop graffiti became predominate in urban communities.
Most major cities had developed museums devoted to African American artists. The National Endowment for the Arts provided increasing support for these artists. The characteristics of postmodernism, such as collage, pastiche, appropriation, and the destruction of barriers between fine art and popular culture, can be applied to sculptural works.
The characteristics of postmodernism, include bricolage, collage, appropriation, the recycling of past styles and themes in a modern-day context, and destruction of the barriers between fine arts, craft and popular culture, can be applied to sculpture. While inherently difficult to define by nature, postmodernism began with pop art and continued within many following movements including conceptual art, neo-expressionism, feminist art, and the young British artists of the s.
The plurality of idea and form that defines postmodernism essentially allow any medium to be considered postmodern. In terms of sculpture, characteristics like mixed media, installation art, conceptual art, video light art, and sound art are often regarded as postmodern.
The pop art movement emerged in the mids in Britain and the late s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising and news. Typewriter Eraser by Claes Oldenburg, : Claes Oldenburg is known for memorializing everyday objects in his works, challenging the idea that public monuments must commemorate historical figures or events.
His works have sold for substantial sums, including at least one world record auction price for a work by a living artist. Koons gained recognition in the s and subsequently set up a factory-like studio in a SoHo loft on the corner of Houston Street and Broadway in New York.
Today, he has a 16,square-foot factory near the old Hudson rail yards in Chelsea, working with 90 to regular assistants. Made from mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating, the Orange version was sold in for a record price for a living sculptor. Koons is a good example of a postmodern sculptor because his works elevate the mundane, contain a heavy dose of kitsch, and project an element of ambiguous cynicism often seen in postmodern works.
Neo-expressionists sought to portray recognizable subjects in rough and violently emotional ways using vivid color schemes. However, says Croughan, chunky knits and natural wood grains can be used to add warmth and charm to a postmodern room.
Lush materials like velvet and fur are also welcome. The key to texture in postmodern design is layering. The use of asymmetry increased during the postmodern period, while at the same time straight lines gave way to odd angles and ambiguous shapes. Building upon what began with Andy Warhol and pop art, the postmodern period welcomed pop culture references in art and design. The lines between pop culture and high culture were blurred as vintage toys or action figures became display items, and references to popular movies or music would find themselves on walls.
Sweeping references to street art or urban culture also appeared in the form of wall treatments or complete design themes. Rebecca Rosenberg is a freelance copywriter, digital media strategist and world traveler. You can find her currently bumming around Europe. Often flying solo, she has visited over 35 countries and lived abroad in four.
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