Modernism-Postmodernism

The question of Postmodernism is in a cultural debate and its meaning is difficult to grasp. Hovewer many philosophers and literary theorist have met in conferences trying to underline the main points. I researched materials from ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) focused on the major conference held in 1985 on the Philosophical Dimensions of the Post Modern Debate. The term comes from it’s rejection of the modern scientific mentality of objectivity and progress associated with the enlightenment. The start of the period of postmodern art has been dated after the modernist era (1948-1969). Generally Postmodernism is a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the rejection of the objective truth and global cultural narrative. The main modernist ideas of authenticity, formal purity, universality, originality, avant-gard, advancment or progress in art and Paradox are now rejected. Characteristic of postmodern art is its combination of high and low colture through the use of industrial materials and the mixing of different artistic styles and media. The recent history of art that focuses particularly on Pop, Minimalism and Conceptualism combined with the use of Intermedia, Instalation art, Multimedia and video are currently described as postmodernist. For instance the use of large colour trasparency mounted on a light box is charactheristic in Jeff Wall’s work. The Canadian artist was born in Vancouver, british Columbia in 1946. His pictures have a distinctive presence, rich in detail and descripition leading to tableu photography. Most of the photographs are displayed in a large scale that physically draws us into the pictorial space. The picture shown above titled ‘Insomnia’ is made with compositional devicies similar to reinassance paintng, the angles and objects of a kitchen scene suggest our understaing of the action and narrative. It describes the state of mind of man during the night time and the stress provoked by the lack of sleep. His work has been a source of information and inspiration for my last project especially in terms of the use of the light box wich I belive suggests a spectacular physical experience.

Reference:

·Introducing Postmodernism by Richard Appignanesi (Author), Chris Garratt (Author), 2007

·Postmodernism ICA Documents by Lisa Appignanesi London 1989

·Postmodernism and Society 1990 by Roy Boyne and Ali Rattansi

·Postmodern Culture 1985 by Hal Foster

·Jeff Wall Catalogue Raisonne’ 1978-2004

·Jeff Wall by Peter Galassi

·The photograph as contemporary art. Charlotte Cotton

·time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592850,00.html