-Isms and Schisms: America, Post-Modernism and the new century
- cherrydodd
- Apr 23
- 5 min read
Following the global turbulence of WW1 modernism became a vessel for reflection and speculation on the world's socio-political state. This was continued and amplified by the events of WW2 and the Nazi's direct attack on modernism. Many artists who found themselves in the midst of the wars destruction in central Europe took refuge in neighbouring, neutral Switzerland, Britain and many fled further abroad to North American soil. This move to America sparked the emergence of New York City as an artistic centre with the opening of MoMA in 1929 and Guggenheim in 1939. Notable figures from Europe such as Salvador Dali, Piet Mondrian and Marc Chagall brought European modernism and abstraction to American artists and its popularity within artistic circles formed a multitude of our postmodernist movement.
Now the core differences between Modernism and Post Modernism is the dissolving of individual movements. Individual short-lived -Isms became less apparent due to the increased autonomy of the artist. when everyone is individual it is hard to gather into sub-generic time constrained -isms this led to the emergence of a series of collective techniques and thematic concerns, many of which pre-dated modernism, that became characteristic of post-modernism. A core concern was the blend between high and low culture with advertisement, commercial products and media designed for consumption (Hollywood movies, pop music and comics) becoming key to post-modernisms visual language. This underpinned a larger concern of post-modernism: to react to and express a scepticism of modernism's concern with 'big ideas', In short post-modernism emerged as a big story that aimed to rewrite the smaller stories of modernism. This involved the extrapolation of rising cultural and social phenomena such as second-wave feminism.
Abstract expressionism, c.1940-60
Abstract expressionism emerged in 1940s America and became the American answer to the concerns of European, modernist, expressionism. As previously mentioned with the influx of European modernists to America in 40s the American art scene became captivated by their innovative use of gesture, colour, and line. This became increasingly detached from form in American hands and transformed into works that valued material-based experimentation and exploration of concepts through abstract form. Most famed of the abstract expressionists is Jackson Pollock who utilised various forms of (quite literally) throwing paint at a canvas to create an elaborate series of paint drips, pools, and floods. This method elevated the function of material to equal importance of the artist's ability to manipulate it. The nature of the paint's drip was equally as important to the mark produced as the manner in which the paint was applied. This method of abstraction utilised by Pollock was largely influenced by his wife Lee Krasner's work, whom was also a prominent figure within the abstract-expressionist field before her marriage to Pollock.
Pop Art, c.1950-1970
Moving forwards, we reach the advent of Pop Art. American Pop art utilised colour, pattern and line work heavily influenced by the period popularity of comics Pop Art inherently questioned the notion of originality in art and the post-war blindness of consumerist America. Notable names include Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol whose work returned to and impersonal realism that had characterised early modernism . British Pop Art, however, took an even more critical approach of this American-centric consumerist ideology and expressed concerns of the ways in which consumerism, specifically American consumerism that valued the product as core to societal function, was a manipulative force. Pauline Boty's work expresses this alongside critique of the male-dominated nature of the Pop Art world and popular culture she found herself immersed within. Being the only named female member of the British Pop Art Movement Boty found herself surrounded by men who were consistently re-interpreting the popular image of the female body isolating intellectual capability from sexual freedom something that Boty, and most second wave feminists of the time, vehemently disagreed with.
Simulacra and Simulation - Appropriation, Semiotics and post-modernising the postmodern c.1981-now
Post-modernisms development aligned with new philosophical and media-based theories about image and how what we saw signified what we meant. This was pioneered by French cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard and his 1981 text Simulacra and Simulation. Now like any cultural theory Simulacra and Simulation is incredibly multifaceted and complex but I shall do my best to be concise. Baudrillard proposed that symbols and signs have had their meaning realistic meaning replaced resulting in an endless simulation crafted by society. He proposes signs go through four stages the first depicts reality though a faithful copy, the second is a perversion of reality making the sign unfaithful, the third involves the sign masking its unfaithfulness by insisting it signifies reality, finally the fourth sees the sign become simulacrum as it is now completely detached from reality.
Amongst this debate of image and reality a rise in appropriative art saw signs becoming manipulated through these four stages by artists as a critical strategy. The result of this however, relied on the appropriators relationship to the material they appropriate. Barbra Kreuger is notorious for her manipulation of mainstream media to create works that "challenges how we assign meaning to visual signifiers of faith, morality, and power." (Margarita Lizcano Hernandez, MoMA, 2022) Kreuger's work was known for its feminist anti-consumerist stance however the post-modern has been further post modernised, in the case of Kreuger, through the mainstream medias’ own manipulation of her signs and signifiers. Selfridges turned the anti-consumerist into pro-consumerist through its tongue-in-cheek satire of Kreuger's work (developed in direct collaboration with her !!) in the 2007 January Sales. Supreme mimicked Kreuger's anti-consumerist sign into their own signifier of wealth and luxury utilising Kreuger's signature red and bold, white lettering.
It was at this point towards the end of the 20th century that we began to move beyond the post-modern not primarily in terms of changes in technique, new theory etc. but in this snowballing simulacra and simulation. In essence the post-modern became so lost in its own signs that it began to signify the contemporary.
Further Reading:
The Powerful Stories of Artists Forced to Flee Their Homelands — Google Arts & Culture
https://anderson.stanford.edu/collection/lucifer-by-jackson-pollock/
https://www.whitfordfineart.com/artists/81-pauline-boty/biography/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/boty-the-only-blonde-in-the-world-t07496
https://academy.artexplora.org/en/pauline-boty-the-only-female-british-pop-art-artist/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2007/dec/27/catchofthedayistheselfri
https://lesoeuvres.pinaultcollection.com/en/artwork/untitled-i-shop-therefore-i-am
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