Discourse – Modernism/Postmodernism

Postmodernism is simply the term used to describe the movement that follows the modernist movement. Modernism is a movement in visual arts, music, literature, and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed, and what it should mean. On a rough scale, the modernist movement concurred with the twentieth century. What is hard to judge is where postmodernism actually began in relation to the modernist movement ending. Mostly because they follow some of the same ideas. Postmodernism art favours simultaneity, fragmentation and discontinuity, emphasizing the need for things like structure and visual likeness to its subjects. The difference between modernism and postmodernism loosely comes down to the fact that within modernism any distortion, fragmentation or change of human subjectivity is seen as a loss to the art. Modernism brought a new angle and broke down what was commonly perceived and accepted as art and mostly looked at philosophical, political, and ethical ideas which provide the basis for the aesthetic aspect of being ‘modern’. As opposed to postmodernism which completely removes any barriers and does not have to conform to any ideologies or remain consistent in subject matter common to any predeceasing art forms.

An example of a Postmodern artwork: