Modernism is based on social change and technology, it focuses on tomorrow.
Is Modernism mad?
It was considered arty and elitist. It seemed to leave ordinary people behind, for instance, the architects behind the modernist post war East London buildings gave no consideration to the people who would be living in them.
Frantisek Drtikol was a modernist photographer who’s experimental work photographing the female nude was based on form, body and shape.
What is modernism? Is it a revolutionary project?
A modernist, Rodchenko’s work was art in the service of revolution, whereas William Eggleston is considered postmodern in that he was one of the first art photographers to present a ‘snapshot’ concept in colour about ordinary life.
In modernism, pretty images were replaced by ugly ones, for instance Picasso’s work and Germaine Krull’s film on industrialisation made at the time of the Bauhaus movement, with the images/aesthetic very much based on form.
Is modernism just about aesthetics and form? Edward Western’s black and white image of pepper is all about form, proportion, light and dark, texture, and how it it printed.
Postmodernism can be considered a criticism or comment on modernism. It engages with popular culture and reinterprets, often with humour.
Richard Prince took conceptual photography to another level in the 1980s, directly appropriating materials from mass culture for use in his work, most famously his Marlborough Man / cowboy series, by rephotographing a print advertisement then cropping into and enlarging the image.
+1989.jpg)
Pop artist Andy Warhol is considered postmodern in that he turned mechanical reproduction into an art form itself by transferring a photographic image into a silk screen print.
Can we be certain about anything anymore?
Documentary photography was a ‘certainty’, now we probably question more, for instance Dorothea Lang’s documentary work on the FSA project.
Post modernist Nan Golding creates intimate portraits - she as also aware of culteral references and paintings.
Geoff Wall is fascinated by and has often referenced Manet.
So what is Post modernism?
Not a revolutionary project
A re-evaluation and criticism of the modernist project
It is not mad (??!!)
First political with a small p (feminism, racism)
Questions aesthetics
It is about uncertainty
Reading:
Modernity - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, from All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
On Richard Prince: http://artcritical.com/appel/BAPrinceRecord.htm
http://www.richardprinceart.com/cowboys.html
Frantisek Drtikol:http://www.radio.cz/en/article/60598
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=frantisek%20drtikol&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
No comments:
Post a Comment