Art (Postmodern)

As a means to help me grasp what postmodernism is and what it means I opened up an Art History book that I kept from my undergraduate work for a visual reference. ( "Gardner's Art through the Ages", Tansey&Kleiner) In Postmodernism thought the barriers between Art and daily innovation begin to blur. The rules of the rigid modernist are thrown out and the perspective of the viewer/society is what is important. There is no more distinction between arts and crafts. Human reasoning and science take the forefront and they begin to reject popular belief. In Postmodernism there is no more absolute truth, mainly because it may be proved false tomorrow.

The self portrait of Chuck Close, painted in 1968, is a great example of postmodernism expression. The piece expresses egalitarianism, not just for everyday people within our society, but it expresses that everything in our environment has equivalent artistic value. The portrait draws inspiration from the media, a mugshot in harsh lighting that you might see in the newspaper or on the news. He is obviously wearing no make-up, no shirt, his hair is a mess and he is smoking. This is a painting of a real photo of the artist, as he is in everyday life. It rejects the rules of "self portrait painting and that of prior artistic movements. "It confronts us with the Postmodern paradox of the importance of the unimportant in a faceless culture that is full of faces." (Tansey&Kleiner)

A few other web resources listed below describe some characteristics of a "Postmodernist" and also a few more images of graffiti that I thought portrayed the ideals of Postmodernism.



http://weburbanist.com/2008/07/05/8-postmodern-appearances-of-the-mona-lisa-classic-subject-resurfaces-in-urban-street-artworks/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1907324/7_steps_to_understanding_the_characteristics.html?cat=4