Part 2: Postmodernism

1950’s to the 1990’s

 Post Modernism
Two authors have been instrumental in establishing the term ‘postmodernism’, defining the nature of postmod-
ern art. One was Charles Jencks with his essay The Rise of Postmodern Architecture (1975). And secondly
Jean-Fraçois Lyotard with his text La Condition Postmodernism (1979). Even if these writings have coined the term
postmodernism, it must be emphasized again at this point that postmodern art cannot be limited to a single style or
theory. Rather, many art forms are considered postmodern art.
These include Pop Art, Conceptual Art, Neo-Expressionism, Feminist Art, or the art of the Young British Artists around
1990.
Postmodern art emerged as a reaction to modernism, spanning 1950 to the late 20th century.
https://www.thecollector.com/postmodern-art/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKomOqYU4Mw&t=40s
Marcel Duchamp Fountain

Postmodern Roots
 Postmodern Roots
“At least it hides the face partly well, so you have the appar-

ent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the

person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we

see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden

by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and

which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the

form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say,

between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present”

Rene Magritte

René Magritte. The Son of Man (French: Le fils de l’homme) 1964

 Conceptual Art
Magritte appears to contradict reality
by nonsensically naming something
that does not need to be named, at
the same time as denying that it is
what it obviously is. By writing “This
is not a pipe” beneath the picture of
one, he illustrates that the image of
an object must not be confused with
something tangible and real.
 Pop Art
Andy Warhol born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 –
February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film di-
rector, and producer who was a leading figure in the visu-
al art movement known as pop art. His works explore the
relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and
celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a
variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, pho-
tography, film, and sculpture.
Post Modernism Pop
 Pop Art
Milton Ernest “Robert” Rauschenberg

(October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was

an American painter and graphic artist

whose early works anticipated the Pop

art movement

Robert Rauschenberg,

Monogram, 1955–59
 Pop Art
Jasper Johns, Flag (1954–55)
 Pop Art
Roy Lichtenstein was especially fascinated by print mass media, most notably cartoon and comic book illustration,
as well as newspaper advertisements. He is best known for his comic book parodies (meaning he imitated the style
of comic books, but with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect)
 Conceptual Art
One and Three Chairs, 1965, is a work by Joseph Kosuth. An

example of conceptual art, the piece consists of a chair, a

photograph of the chair, and an enlarged dictionary definition

of the word “chair”. The photograph depicts the chair as it is

actually installed in the room, and thus the work changes each

time it is installed in a new venue.

Two elements of the work remain constant: a copy of a dictio-

nary definition of the word “chair” and a diagram with instruc-

tions for installation. Both bear Kosuth’s signature. Under the

instructions, the installer is to choose a chair, place it before a

wall, and take a photograph of the chair. This photo is to be en-

larged to the size of the actual chair and placed on the wall to

the left of the chair. Finally, a blow-up of the copy of the dictio-

nary definition is to be hung to the right of the chair, its upper

edge aligned with that of the photograph

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965,

 Conceptual Art
Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoo-

sick, New York. The main focus of her work is the delivery of words and ideas in public

spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, projections on

buildings and other structures, and illuminated electronic displays.

JENNY HOLZER Truisms, 1977-79

 Conceptual Art
FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES These two identical, battery-powered clocks were initially set to precisely the same time, but inevitably they fall out of sync as the

Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991 hours and days pass, one moving ahead as the other falls behind. This inescapable loss of connection is the metaphorical message of

the work, which was created shortly after the artist’s partner was diagnosed with AIDS.
 Femisnist Art
Barbara Kruger addresses media and politics in their na-

tive tongue: tabloid, sensational, authoritative, and direct.

Kruger’s words and images merge the commercial and art

worlds; their critical resonance eviscerates cultural hierar-

chies — everyone and everything is for sale. The year 1989

was marked by numerous demonstrations protesting a new

wave of antiabortion laws chipping away at the 1973 Roe v.

Wade Supreme Court decision. Untitled (Your body is a battle-

ground) was produced by Kruger for the Women’s March on

Washington in support of reproductive freedom. The woman’s

face, disembodied, split in positive and negative exposures,

and obscured by text, marks a stark divide. This image is

simultaneously art and protest. Though its origin is tied to a

specific moment, the power of the work lies in the timeless-

ness of its declaration.

https://www.thebroad.org/art/barbara-kruger/untitled-your-body-battleground

Barbara Kruger, 1989

Untitled (Your body is a battleground)

 Femisnist Art
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (You

construct intricate rituals...),

1981
 Femisnist Art
The Dinner Party, an important icon of 1970s feminist art and a milestone in twenti-

eth-century art, is presented as the centerpiece around which the Elizabeth A. Sackler

Center for Feminist Art is organized. The Dinner Party comprises a massive ceremo-

nial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of thirty-nine place settings,

each commemorating an important woman from history. The settings consist of

embroidered runners, gold chalices and utensils, and china-painted porcelain plates

with raised central motifs that are based on vulvar and butterfly forms and rendered

in styles appropriate to the individual women being honored. The names of another

999 women are inscribed in gold on the white tile floor below the triangular table. This

permanent installation is enhanced by rotating Herstory Gallery exhibitions relating to

the 1,038 women honored at the table.

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/

Judy Chicago (American, born 1939). The Dinner Party, 1974–79.

 A major figure of 1960s Postminimalist

Post Minimalism
and feminist art, Eva Hesse used ma-

terials such as latex, fiberglass, felt,

wire, and plastic in her groundbreak-

ing sculptures. Her unstable, flexible

media made her structures slack and

spindly—radical departures from tra-

ditional, monumental sculpture and

Minimalist ideals. Hesse also made

paintings and drawings. Throughout

her practice, eroticism and the female

body were major themes. Hesse’s work

has been exhibited in cities including

New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, and

Hamburg, and belongs in the collec-

tions of the Art Institute of Chicago,

the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture

Garden, the Museum of Modern Art,

the Guggenheim Museum, the Tate,

and the Whitney Museum of American

Art, among other institutions. Her piec-

Accession II
es have sold for up to seven figures on
Eva Hesse
the secondary market.
Date: 1968 - 1969
https://www.artsy.net/artist/eva-hesse
 Performance Art
Just like in politics, philosophy and sociology – the 1960s were also a period of great and radical

changes in the art scene, which allowed performance art to become more popular and accessible

to the public. Of course, a lot of influence came from technical innovations, such as the availability

of video cameras, which changed the idea of broadcasting. Suddenly, everyone could tape their art

without having to be responsible to a large producing company and their wishes, therefore perfor-

mance art could become more accessible to the public. However, it also opened up new possibili-

ties to the artists, and a whole new world of video art. Movements like Fluxus changed the way we

view art itself, and started questioning the zone where everyday activities and art become inter-

wined through Happenings, where already in 1959 in 18 Happenings in 6 Parts by Allan Kaprow

gave the audience clear directions in how to conduct a performance themselves, through activities

like painting a picture, squeezing an orange, climbing a ladder or shouting a political slogan – just

like in the early Duchamp’s readymades, but now moving it forward by making everyday subject

and object of art identical. During this period, because of this new and interesting concept of the

identity between subject and object, artists also started raising questions about the body. Here,

they explored new ideas like pain, suffering, ritual, the position of female body and identity. One

of the most important pieces of this period which combines all of these ideas is Yoko Ono’s Cut

Piece (1964). Other influential artists from the period were Yves Klein with his key piece Anthropo-

mentry of the Blue (1960), where the artist used female bodies as paintbrushes for his famous blue

pigment, Joseph Beuys with his work which broadened the definition of art itself How to Explain

Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965), politically engaged and anti-war work by Yayoi Kusama, which

included doing an action nude inside the public space trough Flag Burning on the Brooklyn Bridge

(1968). https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/performance-art

Marina Abramović and ULAY. Rest Energy. 1980

 Fluxus Performance Art
Beuys spent 8 hours a day, for 3 days with a wild coyote. He came to America for this performance wrapped in felt and was transported by an ambulance so as to never

step foot on American soil, or experience anything typically viewed as “American”. There are many symbolic aspects to this concept, but Beuys’ controversial identity

as a self-proclaiming shaman is often noted more than his gestures during this performance. Shamanism was not a new concept among artists in the 20th century.

Joseph Beuys

“I like America and America likes

me” 1974
 Performance Art
Chales Ray, Plank Piece I-II 1974

In Plank Piece I–II, two photographs capture Charles Ray hanging in the air, draped over a plank of wood that leans against a wall. The work references minimalist sculpture; the exposed unfinished plywood is reminiscent of the industri-

al materials used by Carl Andre and Richard Serra and the slanted board recalls artist John McCracken’s “planks” of the 1960s. By including his body as an element within the work, Ray approaches sculpture not as a static object but as

an activity. The work is humorous and disarming, yet also decidedly devoted to sculptural principles. Ray studies the forces of weight, gravity, and the intrinsic ability of the plank to support his mass without breaking.
 Performance Art
Charles Ray: Figure Ground
“What if art was violent? What if art hurt? What if it scared the shit out of you?”

Performance Art
Cris Burden

Chris Burden, Trans-Fixed (1972)

On April 23, 1974, performance artist Chris Burden was crucified shirtless onto the back of a pale blue Volkswagen Beetle.[1] Burden stood on the car’s rear bumper and leaned backwards.His attorney hammered

two nails through his open palms into the roof. Three other assistants ran the engine and opened the garage door, which opened into an alley called Speedway in Venice, California.[1] The assistants rolled the car

out of the garage, where it ran while stationary for two minutes with the engine at full throttle.[2] Fifteen of his friends were there, having been invited but not briefed on what to expect.

Burden later displayed relics from the performance, including a plaque alongside the two nails.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Fixed
 Identity Politics and Postmodernism
Cindy Sherman - Untitled # 183, 1988 / Right: Cindy Sherman - Untitled # 213, 1989. https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/identity-art

The question of identity boomed at the moment in history when stories needed to change, and when the language was no longer considered as given. The Postmodernism philosophy,

in particular, dominates around the topic of identity and identity art. The question of the “I”, and issues around representation, self-representation, and the staging of the “I”, influenced

artists of different movements and periods in Art history

 Left: Ulay - Polaroids. Image via americansuburbx.com / Right: Marchel Duchamp as Rrose Selavy by Man Ray. Image via studyblue.com

Identity Politics and Postmodernism

In the contemporary society, the shared view around the topic of identity and the identity artworks seems to be the one that suggests that the identity is fluid and under con-

stant construction. https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/identity-art

Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United

Land Art
States but that also includes examples from many countries. As a trend, “land art” expanded boundaries of art by the materials used and the siting of the works. The materials used were

often the materials of the Earth, including the soil, rocks, vegetation, and water found on-site, and the sites of the works were often distant from population centers. Though sometimes fairly

inaccessible, photo documentation was commonly brought back to the urban art gallery Jetty

Robert Smithson Spiral Jetty 1970

Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83

Land Art
 Photo Realism
Richard Estes - Supreme Hardware, 1974