Lecture 12: Postmodernism

Modernism: 

• initially born out of optimism, an aspirational reaction to World War 1, with a view to harnessing technology to improve people’s lives
• form follows function 
• experimentation
• individualism
• progress
• originality
• seriousness

The Postmodern condition is characterised by:

• exhaustion
• pluralism
• pessimism
• disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge

• Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions (especially those set out by Modernism)
• Postmodern aesthetic = multiplicity of styes and approaches
• Space for ’new voices’

They are both similar in the sense that they both react to technology, new materials and modern life

Uses of the term ‘postmodernism’:

• after modernism
• the historical era following the modern
• contra modernism 
• equivalent to ‘late capitalism’ (jameson)
• artistic an stylistic eclecticism
• ‘global village’ phenomena: globalisation of cultures, reaches, images, capital, products

15th July, 1972, 3:32pm the death of modernism was symbolised b the demolition of the Pruitt, Igor development in St Louis according to Charles Jencks      

• a reaction to these rules of Modernism 
• Starts as a critique of the International Style 
• Only rule is that there are no rules 
• Celebrates what might otherwise be termed kitsch

    

James Stirling - Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany, 1977-1983

Brand new but built with a hole on purpose to go against Modernism. The world is falling apart, but so what. Pessimism 

J-F Lyotard 

The postmodern condition 

• incredulity towards meta narratives (stories that seek to explain the world and the history) 
• Result = crisis in confidence 

Postmodernism does not want the simplified aesthetic, utopian ideals, truth to materials that Modernism has. 

The division between high art and low art is beginning to crumble. 

Las Vegas as a Postmodern city - Robert Venturi (1972) every language of art and architecture fused together

Andy Warhol 

• exact opposite to modernist artist 
• Says that anyone can be famous 
• Factory was not supposed to be creative, was about producing things 
• Always flaws in his work because he doesn't really know what he's doing 
• Art project of anti art 

Marilyn Monroe Diptych - not just a portrait of her, it is the mechanical production of fame and social construction of beauty in capitalism. Opposite to the expressional Modernist style such as Pollock and how he listens to Jazz music and it shows the energy 

Piero Manzoni - Artists Shit 1961

Playing games with those who declare themselves to be prestigious in the world of art and claim to know what is or isn't art. 

Postmodern artists like the mix the high row and the populist, the alienating and the accessible, and to 'sample' elements from different to styles and eras. 

Postmodernism book of illustrations - 'Don't take these drawings seriously', Nathalie Du Pasquier

David Carson Ray Gun 1992-95 

Rejecting the grid 

Found and interview/business meeting boring so set it all in a wingding typeface

Knew he didn't want to work for them

Then published the notes