Postmodern Art: Influence of Previous Art Movements

This article explores the influence of previous art movements on postmodern art through the analysis of three artworks since 2000. The subjective approach, societal and ethnic influences, and assimilation of different art forms are discussed. The postmodern art cannot be considered postmodern as it is greatly influenced by the different art forms and movements in the art history that have preceded it.

Running head: POSTMODERN ART
Postmodern Art
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
POSTMODERN ART
Modernism is over but today’s design/ art cannot be considered postmodern. Discuss this
statement with a focus on not more than three artworks or design artefacts since 2000.
The concept of development of art through the ages takes a differential attitude towards
the different aspects of the representation or the impressionism present in the art work of the
previous eras. The term postmodern in the form of an art is attributed when the art is self-
referential or the art has no previous influences1. There cannot exist an art form which is a
complete whole in itself which means that the art form has to take idea or the motivation or the
idea from something that moves the artist. Since the art itself cannot exist as whole and has a
meaning a context which either the artist or the appraiser ascribes to it, it cannot be considered
postmodern.
Image: THE BLINDFOLDED MAN (Marlene Dumas)
1 Nowotny, Helga. Time: The modern and postmodern experience. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.

2
POSTMODERN ART
(Source: Artspace.com)
The modern art in the present context is often the resultant of the different art forms of
the different painters like Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh among others. One of the major
factors showing the development of the different forms of art and their influence is the fact their
choice of subject and their representations can be traced back to the earlier forms of art. The
various art forms in the modern era is subject to the influence from the earlier forms no matter
how subtle they may appear. It is in general true for an artist to be inspired from earlier artworks
as that is what attracts them to take up the art form and present itself to the different users2. The
paintings of Marlene Dumas often depict distorted image of the faces of people. She is said to
have taken the subjects of her paintings from the different images published in the newspapers.
The different images that present themselves in the art collection of Marlene have an uncanny
resemblance to the art of Picasso. Be it the close representation or the distortion of the facial
features of the different subjects. The paintings on their own may not stand out bur in the depth
the resemblance is quite visible.
2 Loh, Vanessa. "The Depth and Breadth of Modernism." American Book Review 36, no. 6 (2015): 20-20.

3
POSTMODERN ART
Image 2: Krakkenhaus (Maria Lassig)
(Source: Artspace.com)
The postmodern paintings borrow heavily from all the previous ages and the art from of
the ethnicity of the artist. The influence of the different painters that the painters look up to were
quite evident in their paintings3. One of the major development of art in the modern era was the
justification of the subject to suit the artists thought of the subjects shift to imagery presentation
through art. The art is therefore a simulation of a new thought process of the previous
representations of art. The postmodern era of art is tough to achieve because the thought process
behind a self-sufficient art or an art complete in its whole of its thought process. The art having a
3 Keane, John. "The modern democratic revolution: reflections on Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition."
In Judging Lyotard, pp. 93-110. Routledge, 2012.

4
POSTMODERN ART
strong resemblance and borrowing from the previous era is the KRANKENHAUS (HOSPITAL)
by Maria Lassig which shows a strong resemblance to the portrayal of the subjects like Van
Gogh’s paintings used to. The majority of the art form represents the depiction of the different
modern art forms which have a resemblance to the use of the paint to show the expression of the
characters. The HINTERLAND by Glen Brown is another work of art which shows a strong
resemblance to the works of the eccentric painter Salvador Dali in the representation of the
colours and subject representation. The bright colors and the merging of the different subjects
into one is one of the major ways that the work shows of Dali’s impressions.
Image 3: Hinterland (Glen Brown)
(Source: Artspace.com)

5
POSTMODERN ART
Presently the post in postmodern can be taken in a worldly ordered sense. Anything that
comes subsequent to something different is "post" that something unique. This isn't exactly the
manner by which postmodern is utilized. It's gathered, rather, to mean or suggest workmanship
that supersedes, replaces, succeeds the cutting edge regarding expressive advancement, the way
that the florid succeeded idiosyncrasy and the ornate succeeded the rococo. Advancement,
originality have gotten themselves taken as the sign of Modernism, novelty as something wanted
and sought after. The idea of the postmodern has grown and spread in that same unwinding
atmosphere of taste and feeling in which pop workmanship and its successors flourish. It speaks
to unrealistic reasoning generally; the individuals who discuss the postmodern are excessively
prepared, making it impossible to welcome it. Indeed, if the cutting edge, Modernism, is finished
and ends, at that point there'll be surcease4. Craftsmanship is as yet being made that difficulties
the aching for unwinding and help and makes levels of popularity on taste. Postmodernism can't
be portrayed as a rational development and needs complete qualities. It can be better
comprehended rather as an arrangement of styles and states of mind that were associated in their
response against innovation.
4 Reckwitz, Andreas. The invention of creativity: Modern society and the culture of the new. John Wiley & Sons,
2018.

6
POSTMODERN ART
Figure 4: Dispersion (Julie Meheretu)
(Source: Artspace.com)
The Dispersion is a painting by Julie Meheretu which can be said to be chaotic at best.
The painter is known to depict the life of the city and the various aspects related to the life of the
city and the chaos and the sense of life that co-exist in today’s society among the common
people in the society. One of the major attraction of the painting are the avid colors and the sheer
dispersion of the colors as the chaotic mind of the painter portrays in the society in. though the
painting is depicted as one of the major paintings which greatly affect the social constructs of the
human behavior across the different aspects relating to the overall introduction of the chaos of
the human society. This painting too shows a great influence from the works of one of the most
notable painters Jackson Pollock. The work greatly reminds of one of the most famous of
Pollock’s work of Lavender mist except the use of the bright colours in the representations. The
different representations of the different paintings helps in the understanding of the chaos and the

7
POSTMODERN ART
development and the degradation of the overall society5. The postmodern painting therefore in
this context shows the degradation of the modern society but is very influenced by the work of
the different previous painters.
The postmodern art like all the eras displays the thoughts of the society and the thoughts
have an expression of the contemporary beliefs prevalent in the society. The different situations
presented in the society in the modern world is the resultant of the different factors affecting the
overall scenarios that are prevalent in the society. The incorporation of the newer and the better
methods of the ideological analysis will help in the overall development of the human society.
Like the development of the thought and the morality of the humankind the painting is also the
result of the previous art movements6. In the different modern works the reminiscence of the
different aspects relating to the surrealist movement of the age of Modernism where the likes of
Salvador Dali used the bright colour and morbid contrast to portray the abstract emotions and the
ideals. The shift of the subject form the representation of the subject to the expression of the
morbidity and the helplessness of the human soul is well represented in the different postmodern
paintings.
The expression of the modern approach of the paintings in the modern society is therefore
the expression of the abstract not as directly as in the paintings of Dali who used to be influences
by the Freud’s psychoanalysis in his works but nevertheless it is the representation of the
thoughts and thought process. The postmodernism has accepted chaos and the darkness as the
subject of their paintings. The different situational aspects of the influence of the painters are
5 Gaggi, Silvio. Modern/postmodern: A study in twentieth-century arts and ideas. University of Pennsylvania Press,
2015.
6 Meecham, Pam, and Julie Sheldon. Modern art: A critical introduction. Routledge, 2013.

8
POSTMODERN ART
depicted in their representations and the core meaning behind their work of art7. The different
representation and the impression in the works of art in the 21st century most shows the ethnic
and the social influence on the works of the artist. The modern era of painting is the
representation of the human mind of the modern times where the different social and moral
aspects have a major role to play in the overall depiction of the human mind. The different
sociological aspects and the interpolation of the artists by the sociological factors also has role to
play in the development of the postmodern painting.
Therefore, it can be seen that the modern art in the present context is the representation of
the self in the modern society. The paintings in this context have a very subjective approach of
the development of the human mind but the diversity in the thoughts, thought processes and the
individual experiences greatly influences the subjectivity in the modern art8. The subjectivity of
the expression is the result of the different areas of art and expression which undergoes the
different expression in the different areas of the postmodern are. Moreover the postmodern art
has become an assimilation of the different types of art that have coexisted in the past.
Therefore in the modern context it is seen that the different art forms are greatly
subjective but the postmodern art cannot be considered postmodern as though subjective is
greatly influenced from the different art forms and the movements in the art history that have
preceded it. In this context, it can be hence said, Modernism is over but today’s design/ art
cannot be considered postmodern.
7 Doll Jr, William E. A post-modern perspective on curriculum. Teachers College Press, 2015.
8 Elkins, James. Stories of art. Routledge, 2013.

9
POSTMODERN ART
Reference
Nowotny, Helga. Time: The modern and postmodern experience. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
Reckwitz, Andreas. The invention of creativity: Modern society and the culture of the new. John
Wiley & Sons, 2018.
Loh, Vanessa. "The Depth and Breadth of Modernism." American Book Review 36, no. 6 (2015):
20-20.
Keane, John. "The modern democratic revolution: reflections on Lyotard’s The Postmodern
Condition." In Judging Lyotard, pp. 93-110. Routledge, 2012.
Gaggi, Silvio. Modern/postmodern: A study in twentieth-century arts and ideas. University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
Meecham, Pam, and Julie Sheldon. Modern art: A critical introduction. Routledge, 2013.
Doll Jr, William E. A post-modern perspective on curriculum. Teachers College Press, 2015.
Elkins, James. Stories of art. Routledge, 2013.