[Post-Transitionalism]: Charting Modernism

Define the Post-Modern Art Movement

When and how did it begin?

The Post-Modern Art movement began in the 1970s. At this time art was revisiting its past and reevaluating what had come before it. The prefix post- was added to styles from the Modern Art movement in an attempt to rejuvenate what had happened before. Artists were putting their Modernist energy into challenging what has already happened. Simply put, Post Modernists were reacting to and rejecting the abstraction of the early twentieth century. Pop art, a return to realism, was an early transition into the Post-Modern era.

When did it end? Did it end?

The Post-Modern Art Movement ended when the Altermodern Movement began at the turn of the twenty first century. The term Altermodern was defined by Nicolas Bourriaud and describes how artists have become distinguished by the speed and global opportunities that exist in our world today. Rather than being defined by a particular style of art, he explains that art is now open to the simultaneity of different cultures and time zones. He defines the end of post modernism as an existence of the past, present and future melted into a non-central, more universal movement. I believe that Post-Modern art did not end; rather Alter modern began and is a convergence of its previous movements.

What are the main principles associated with the Post-Modern Art Movement?

Many of the principles that exist within the Post-Modern era are reactions to the Modern Art movement. The prefix, post, is an example of how artists and critics considered this movement to be directly correlated to its predecessor. The movement challenged the art that came before it by returning to realism and objectivity. Many people were unsure and in question of their linear path into the future and instead looked back to reclaim art’s history. Others, such as women, took a major leap forward with the feminist movement in the 1970s.

Who are the main artists/critics associated with it and what is the aesthetic character of Post-Modern Art?

Some of the leading artists of the Post-Modern movement include: John Baldessari, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Christian Boltanski, Gilbert and George, Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, Nancy Spero, among many others. Jacques Derrida is a French philosopher; however, his theories on “deconstruction” are published in the late 1960s. Michael Fried is another art critic whose criticism was vibrant in the 1960s and 1970s. Linda Nochlin is a feminist art critic whose work extends through the 1970s at the peak of the Post-Modern Art Movement. Robert Rosenblum’s art criticism is spread out between the Modern and Post-Modern eras.

The aesthetic character of the Post-Modern movement is the revival of realism in a reaction to the non-objective ideals of Modern Art. Artists pursued a wave of “neo” in the as an afterthought to Modern Art, including styles of objectivity, performance and conceptual art.