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06-04-2007, 08:49 PM

You can write an essay about Modernism Vs. Postmodernism like this one here

Modernism Vs. Postmodernism
This question highlights one of the themes central to the account of modem art offered in this course: the tension between the theoretical perspectives of, on the one hand, Modernist criticism and, on the other, an approach focused on the relationship of the art of any given period to its social, political and historical context. The two quotations given above may be interpreted as representing these polarities. It would be an oversimplification to suggest that to accept a Modernist account of modem art must imply rejection of a socio-historical view, or vice-versa (the discussion between TJ Clark and Michael Fried about Pollock (TV21) suggests that there is room for negotiation, if not for compromise). It is, however, arguable that a definition of postmodernism should take into consideration both the close interrelationship between Modernist criticism and mid-twentieth century abstract art, which together constituted the dominant hegemony in art from the late 1940s to the early 1960s (and hence the artistic context against which postmodernism in the visual arts evolved), and the social, historical and political context within which art characterised as postmodern has developed. It seems reasonable, therefore, to start by attempting to clarify the critical positions represented by Greenberg and Burgin. Greenberg, in 'Modernist Painting' (1961) and other writings, sets the development of modem art, specifically painting, in the context of the ideas of the Enlightenment philosopher Kant, who 'used logic to establish the limits of logic' (Art in Theory p.755.) Kant thereby established a precedent for using the techniques of a particular medium to define and refine that medium, a process referred to by Greenberg as 'self-criticism'. This implies that painting, rather than 'using art to conceal art' (ibid) by creating illusionistic space and depth, should rather use art 'to call attention to art' (ibid), that is, to emphasise the unique characteristics of the medium; 'the flat surface, the shape of the support, the properties of pigment' (ibid). Greenberg states that such a process would render art 'pure', that is, autonomous, free of any extraneous elements deriving from other arts, such as theatricality or narrative. The impact of a painting should thus derive from those technical aspects characteristic of painting, such as colour, form and composition. An example of the sort of painting Greenberg was advocating at the time may clarify this. Morris Louis's painting Alpha-Phi (pl.D10) is exactly contemporary with the publication of 'Modernist Painting'. It consists of bold, ragged, diagonal streaks of pure colour against an off-white ground; Louis's use of acrylic paints, which soak into the canvas, means that the colours appear integrated with the ground and hence do not disrupt the flatness of the picture plane. Its effect depends upon the arrangement of colours and the large scale of the painting which makes it occupy 'so much of one's visual field that it loses its character as a discrete tactile object and thereby become that much more purely a picture, a strictly visual entity' (Greenberg, 'Louis and Noland', p.28). It is apparently devoid of references to anything other than the intrinsic qualities of forms and colours. Louis's painting, and the contemporary work of Kenneth Noland (e.g. Bloom, pl 141) and Jules Olitski (e.g. (Twice) Disarmed pl.D11) were seen by Greenberg as being how paintings should look if they are to continue 'the intelligible continuity of taste and tradition' (Art in Theory p.760) and offer the viewer 'a sufficient degree of aesthetic power' (Modernism in Dispute p. 173) in the 1960s. Burgin, however, sees Greenberg's approach and hence, by implication, paintings such as Alpha-Phi, as 'the terminal point of [an] historical trajectory'. It is arguable that paintings such as those of Louis represent a point beyond which art could not be further refined, and must therefore be reassessed or stagnate. Furthermore, in the context of the major social and political upheavals of the late 1960s and thereafter, such work might appear increasingly irrelevant. From Burgin's viewpoint, Greenberg's privileging of aesthetic and technical issues marginalises those types of art which can be validated by reference to their relationship with their historical context, to the way in which they represent their times. Thus Dada would be of little importance in a Greenbergian art history, but significant in the context of 'a history [i.e. an art history] which opens onto history' and which deals with representations. Following from this, if the most important thing about art is that it should connect with the conceptual framework of its socio-historical context, then technical issues can be subordinated to ideas, and new means of representation, such as photography and installation, which do not fit easily within a Modernist aesthetic, are legitimated. Burgin's statement expands the concept of art beyond the relatively narrow bounds set by Greenbergian Modernism, and thereby allows the consideration as art of a range of new conceptual works such as Mel Ramsden's Secret Painting (pl. 175) which 'plays upon the irony that language is both a medium supposedly distinct from art and the source of information about art's content and meaning' (Modernism in Dispute, p.205). Burgin provides a basis for identifying work as postmodernist rather than Modernist, and also sets postmodernism in the context of its antecedents in, for instance, Heartfield's photomontages and Duchamp's readymades. The concept of postmodernism seems to have become current from the early 1980s onwards, when it began to appear in the work of writers such as Lyotard and Jameson. These writers were not specifically discussing art but more general cultural tendencies. However, Burgin's challenge to the dominance of Greenbergian criticism can be connected with Lyotard's definition of postmodernism as 'incredulity towards metanarratives', in this case the metanarrative of technical development in painting. Early attempts to define postmodernism in the visual arts by writers such as Krauss and Owens, 'started from an assumption that the stylistic diversity of art after Modernism ... conceals from view some underlying unifying principle:' (Modernism in Dispute, p.237). However, it is arguably easier to say that a specific work, or the work of a specific artist, is postmodernist than to define what, precisely, constitutes postmodernism. The range of concepts associated with postmodernism are, as Harrison and Wood admit, complex and prone to a degree of vagueness and instability. There are, however, a number of recurrent issues associated with postmodernism which can be related to Burgin's views on the importance of representations, historical context and signifying practice. These include critiques of: gender and ethnic difference; the supposed importance of originality, authorial status and allied issues; and historical narratives. Cindy Sherman's work provides relevant examples of these critiques. Her series of self-portraits showing her in different roles use photography rather than the more 'artisanal' medium of painting. Some of her pictures take their images from cinema, pointing to the stereotyped representation of women in that medium (e.g. No.13, pl.74). Others use images from 'old master' paintings: No.228 (pl.72) shows her in the role of Judith with the head of Holofernes, and draws attention to a complex series of ideas, including feminist interest in masquerade and the exploitation of male desire, and (by means of the obviously fake, humorously grotesque severed head) the constructed artificiality of representation. Her use of numbers rather than titles may be an ironic reference to the similar practice of canonically Modernist painters such as Pollock. Sherman 'wanted to imitate something out of the culture, and also make fun of the culture as I was doing it' (Modernism in Dispute, p,82) Her work thus connects with and critiques the 'history of representations' of women, the nature of art as a medium and, by using a replicable method, photography, together with a reworking of existing images, ideas about originality. It can be seen as an example of art 'centred on a medium but certainly not bounded by it'. A similar range of issues is raised by artists whose work, by its use of consumer durables, spans the boundaries between avant garde art and kitsch, thereby transgressing one of the fundamental tenets of Greenbergian modernism, the clear distinction between 'high art' and 'mass culture'. Although the work of Jeff Koons, which includes displaying vacuum cleaners in a perspex showcase (pl.202) can be seen as postmodernist, it could be connected both with the work of pop artists such as Richard Hamilton (e.g. $he, pl. 149) and the 'readymades' of Duchamp. Koons' work, however, fits with Burgin's view of art as 'a set of operations in a field of signifying practices'. His use of consumer durables as art relates to Baudrillard's ideas about living in 'a world of representations, of consumption, of media images, of shifting surfaces and styles' (Modernism in Dispute, p,241) (where individuals are defined by the types of commodities they possess). By appropriating objects and displaying them as art, Koons critiques the Modernist idea of art as essentially original. His use of commodities as art is also interesting in relation to the commodification of Abstract Expressionist paintings, which were advocated as a sound financial investment in the early 1950s. The variety of work produced by Koons raises an issue not explicitly mentioned by Burgin, the eclecticism often associated with postmodernism. This, and its occasionally ephemeral nature (as in the case of Puppy, made of flowers) relates more closely to Jameson's sense of the postmodern as involving 'superficiality' and 'deathlessness' (Art in Theory, p.1077). There are other issues relevant to postmodernism to which Burgin does not directly refer, such as: a critical approach to the exhibitions and museums system, which has lead to alternative ways of presenting works of art; a tendency to pastiche or parody of earlier works of art; and, in some instances, the necessity of active involvement by the viewer. While Burgin's statement does not emphasise these points, they are illustrated by his own work. What does Possession mean to you (pl. 189) uses a glossy advertising-style photograph which is placed in the context of a caption about the ownership of wealth to put a different, socio-political perspective on the image, calling into question issues of gender dominance and property ownership and thus critiquing social norms. It was exhibited not as a single 'artwork' in a gallery, but in a set of '500 copies posted in the streets of the centre of Newcastle-upon-Tyne'. The replication of the image and its display on the streets can be seen as critical both of the idea of the importance of orginality and of the exhibitions and museums system. A decoupling of art from the established methods of presenting it to the public seems to be characteristic of postmodernism, and is also exemplified by developments such as the Land Art of Richard Long and Robert Smithson, and the public projections of Krystof Wodiczko. These images, for instance his projection of hands holding prison bars onto a courthouse (pl.D71), function, like Burgin's poster, as socio-political commentary and also share with it the ephemeral quality mentioned in relation to Koons. Work by Burgin such as 'Any moment previous to the present moment' (pl.169), which consists of text from which the viewer/reader has to construct his/her own image, highlights both Burgin's view of the importance of concepts in postmodernist art, and the tendency within postmodernist art to invite the viewer to sustained active participation in the work of art. This is in direct opposition to the passive contemplation advocated by Modernist critics such as Fried who, in Art and Objecthood, claims that good art should be 'instantaneously present'. This idea of the importance of 'presentness' is contradicted by the title of Burgin's article, 'The absence of presence'. Taking Burgin's statement as a point of departure, it is possible to connect postmodern ideas to a diverse range of works of art, which are in turn associated with a series of contemporary concepts and concerns. While Burgin provides a means of distinguishing postmodernism from Modernism in art, there remains the problem of how to, or indeed whether, one ought to distinguish qualitatively between different postmodernist works. If social relevance is a characteristic of postmodernism, then degree or accuracy of social relevance may be used as an evaluative tool; however, as Harrison and Wood have pointed out (see Modernism in Dispute, p.240) radically critical work may become marginalised and lose its ability to challenge. Furthermore, if the main impact of a work depends on its contemporary relevance, it is likely to lose conceptual value with the passage of time; Haacke's The Safety Net (pl.D24) borrows its meaning from contemporary politics rather than conforming with Greenberg's idea of art as self-defining, and is hence now arguably of historic rather than artistic interest. The aesthetic of Greenbergian Modernism may never recover a dominant position within art history but, as Harrison and Wood have suggested, 'the contingency of the historical is only half the point of art'.
http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/aa3/cng205.shtml
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additional links
http://www.english.ilstu.edu/strickland/495/modpomo.html
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~amerstu/573/pomochart.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17612893.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
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a free essay on Modernism in The Metamorphoses

Modernism in The Metamorphoses

The modernist movement in literature began around the turn of the century and createda dramatic change in the way that author's viewed their work. The new breed of writers were extremely affected by the new perception of the world and our place as human beings in it. WWII was on the verge of beginning, and the literary world was expressing their fears and attitudes toward their impending doom through their writings. Modernism has a few key themes that Franz Kafka follows throughout his piece, "The Metamorphosis." One of the most common themes among popular modernist literature are the rejection of literary tradition through experimentation with a darker style of writing. Surrealism was common among pieces which often involved the decaying of the human existence that was occurring in the (at the time) current, more face-paced, disconnected society.

In "The Metamorphoses," Kafka has his main character, Gregor Samsa waking up one morning only to discover that he is a giant insect. Despite his bizarre state, Gregor still feels as though he is well enough to go to work. Unfortunately, his new burden of being an insect leaves him having quite a difficult time getting himself out of bed and out the door of his bedroom. Gregor is always distressed to find that no one can understand or even hear what he is saying to them from his room because they did not understand his "bug language" This is Kafka's way of showing his inner feelings of uncomfortableness within his own body not only due to the impending war but also because his livelihood (writing) began to take on an overall theme of sadness and hopelessness as a result of the changing desires of society within the literature that they preferred to read. Not many people during the Modernist period wanted to read stories of happiness and success when they could not achieve these things in their lives. Misery loves company, and the public majority who read Kafka's works wanted just that from his literature.

Kafka's portrayal of Gregor as a disgruntled salesmen who was unhappy with his position in work and in life even before he somehow metamorphosed into an insect. Gregor's constant state of travel has left him little opportunity for friendships and in a constant state of loneliness, further propelling The Metamorphosis into a state of ultra-modern writing.

I wonder if Kafka wanted us as readers to assume that Gregor has really turned into an insect, or whether the pressures of the world around him, including his debts, his need to support his family, and the job that he has been forced to take in order to pay off his father's debts as well caused him to dehumanize himself in his mind only. The only evidence that I see to support the first theory rather then the second is the response that Gregor got from his parents and his boss when he was finally able to exit the room. His father goes so far as to drive Gregor back into his room with his cane, further adding to the isolation that Gregor feels from society.
http://sv2.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=16201
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another free essay on postmodernism. I think this one is more useful because it includes references
http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/1855.html

Postmodernism
In recent years, multiculturalism, tolerance and political correctness have been integrated into how American society thinks. America seems to be trying to learn more about the ingredients of her melting pot. These efforts can be best understood by examining post-modernism. Post-modernism is especially important to breaking down stereotypes such as those that exist surrounding the black family.
To understand post-modernism we must first understand modernism. Modernism is the philosophy that began with the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an era when science and art flourished. European society used the Enlightenment to object to the oppression of the church. This era emphasized only those things that are observable or measurable (Smith, 1995). The scientific method developed at this time became the standard to which everything is measured. Modernism, although moving away from the confinements of religion, was limiting in its own way.
Post-modernism can be viewed as an expansion of modernism. It does not limit the idea of truth to only that which can be observed. Post-modernism is all encompassing. Post-modernism does not allow for only one definition for anything. There are several explanations for phenomena. Where modernism emphasizes racial classifications, post-modernism emphasizes cultural and ethnic classifications. Post-modernism sanctions differences from family to family and person to person within the parameters of one culture.
This multiculturalism is being used to educate from primary education through higher education. In Percival and Black’s study with sixth-graders and multiculturalism, they realized that, although they were examining a specific Native American tribe, stereotypes of that tribe or people can develop (2000). For example, all African Americans from the South eat collard greens and corn bread. So, educating oneself about other cultures cannot be used to generalize to the entire group. Post-modernism is, thus, very important to understanding the concept of a black family.
Post-modernism reveals that circumstances cannot be explained in one way. Modernism has clear procedures and criteria for defining phenomena. The question of truth is determined by science. Scientists control the worldview or meta-narrative of the dominant group (Western society). Much of the way current societies view the world is dominated by Western culture. The meta-narrative for the black family is defined by the Western standards: income and education and any other quantifiable unit.
The history of the black family is difficult to research according to Barnetta McGhee White because there are few written documents to substantiate the oral history (Staples, 1991 p.50). In terms of the prevailing meta-narrative, familial ties must be documented by family trees. Black families, due to the breakdown of the family through the slave trade, rely on oral history to tell the story of their lineage (Staples, 1991, p 51). The genealogy of author Barnetta McGhee White helps illustrate certain points. The first is that since a majority of the research into genealogy is dependent on written documents dating into the founding years of this nation, these documents are only telling what the writer wants the reader to know. The history of black families is told through the story of the slaveholder and, thus, gives information relevant to the business of slavery—everything that measurable. Another point is that those in power in the past control the future. If current society is viewed in chronicled terms, there is little control blacks can have over the account of their family history because it will always be in terms of the dominant meta-narrative based on modernity. The conclusion to be made by the former points is that modern thought is to blame for stereotypes against blacks. Post-modern thought allows for the black family to be viewed by criteria other than income and education.
Post-modern thought must be applied in discussing the black family in order to form a complete opinion or analysis for combating the problems of the black family. Senator Daniel Monyihan posited that the problems black society faced are a result of a breakdown in the black family (Staples, 1991, p250). A factor that may not have been considered in the 1965 thesis was the fact that there was a nationwide deterioration of the family due to social factors, such as the Vietnam War. From 1960 to 1970, the percentage of married couple families—defined by the Census’ Current Population Survey as “…two people or more (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together.”(1980)—dropped four percent, and it dropped even further from 1970 to 1980 by ten percent (1999).
Postmodern theory also helps us to understand while according to the Census’ definition of family blacks have a higher percentage of families of four or more people with female householders, the assumption that that black mothers are solely taking care of large families is false. The reason for the five percent difference between black and white families headed by females cannot be taken at face value (Census 2000). The female may live with other adults who contribute resources to the family. Furthermore, the householder may be providing in contract only; she signed the lease, deed or mortgage but does not live there and provide the everyday (other that pecuniary) support.
Other factors weigh heavily in understanding the plight of blacks. Two correlated elements, which affect blacks, are income and education. The percentage of black families in poverty in 1990 was eleven percent higher than that of white families, which was eight percent (Census Statistical Brief, 1993). It is not surprising that thirteen percent more whites were college graduates that same year (ibid). The difference dropped to twelve percent for the year 2000—twenty-eight percent of whites were college graduates and sixteen percent of blacks were college graduates (Census 2000).
These two factors are important because one of the meta-narratives in America stresses making as much money as possible. In order to make money, you must have an education. In order to receive the higher education needed for better employment, you need money. The idea of this cycle does not permit blacks to succeed according to the standards of this particular meta-narrative. However, there are black families who succeed by these standards through various means such as community help, financial aid and their own volition. Some families would not rate success according to income or education. Post-modernism allows different reasons and ideas to determine the truth. Therefore, in a postmodern world, truth is an opinion that is flexible to change.
References

Staples, R.(Ed). (1991). The black family: essays and studies. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Percival, J. and Black, D. (2000). A true and continuing story: Developing a culturally sensitive, integrated curriculum in college and elementary classrooms. The Social Studies, 91 no.4 151-8.
Smith, R. (1995). The question of modernism and postmodernism. Arts Education Policy Review, 96 2-12.
United States. Census Bureau (2000) Current Population Survey, Racial Statistics Branch, Population. Retrieved February 24, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black.ppl-142.tab06.txt
United States. Census Bureau (2000) Current Population Survey, Racial Statistics Branch, Population. Retrieved February 24, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black.ppl-142.tab07.txt
United States. Census Bureau (1999) Statistical Abstract of the United States. Retrieved February 8, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.census.gov/prod/99pub/99statab/sec31.pdf
United States. Census Bureau (1993) Black Americans: A profile. Retrieved February 15, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.census.gov/apsd/www/statbrief/sb93_2.pdf
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