Modernism and Postmodernism
Art Critics are educated people who have educated guesses on what an artist's symbolism or inspiration was for an artwork. There are many periods and schools of thought for art and each critic has an original viewpoint of what the artist attempting to convey to an audience. Modernist critics are of the school of thought that art theory must be taught to the public before they are able to analyse the symbols or motivation behind the image, also that an image can have only one analysis made of it. This one way is an examination of the actual technique that was used in the creation of the artwork or a description like 'heavy black and whitish or gunmetal chiaroscuro'. 1Clement Greenberg is an example of a modernist critic who argue that modernism allowed the painting to be without any misapprehensions. He believes that one must learn an artist's 'idiom' before they are able to realise the artwork's flexibility and he describes Jackson Pollock's works as 'among the strongest abstract paintings I have seen by an American painter'. 2 As a modernist Greenberg allows himself to judge a painter because he considers himself to be educated enough to air his opinions.''Postmodernism'. Definitions seem to vary with every citation'.
Lippard wrote about artists from a feminist perspective to show how women were represented in the artist's upbringing and adult life. The multiple viewpoint theory can be taken from two angles. They write for an educated audience but do not challenge their intelligence in any sociological way. 5Which permitted the expansion of movements such as DADA which were not postmodern art critics are writing reviews because they are attempting to consign an artist to a certain period of time, which shows they came from a certain society. After the artist's life has been analysed as well, the audience is able to see what has altered this artist's psyche that caused him/her to change their way of creating art. She insisted that feminism was not just another style, like postmodernism or modernism, the difference, she asserts, is that feminists know 'that it is impossible to discuss [art] without referring to the social structures that support and often inspire it'. This statement asserts Lippard's postmodern belief that art and criticism are based wholly on the world that it was spawned from, i. Therefore, a postmodern art critic would have to be someone who interprets the work as a visual representation of the society from any perspective they choose, so the conceptual framework (world, audience, artist and art work) could apply to both the critique and the artwork. 4 Postmodernists believe that there are multiple viewpoints on any artwork because there are many different ways they can analyse the way society affected the artist. Modernists have the belief of a singular perspective and are much like the traditional liberal humanists of English, while the more recent creation postmodernism believes in multiple perspectives for an artwork from Marxism to Post-colonial. The concept of singular criticism was formed so that the critic and audience are able to analyse an artist's work as it changes through out their career. Modernist critics write reviews with the intension of bringing the reader around their opinion of the artwork; in creating the desired image the writer uses emotive language and examples of the artworks' features. 3 This taken into consideration we may say that postmodernism is simply what anyone wants it to be, changed to suit their view on the matter.
Common topics in this essay:
Marxism Post-colonial,
Jackson Pollock's,
Lucy Lippard,
Art Critics,
Jackson Pollock,
Greenberg Lippard,
Clement Greenberg,
art critics,
audience able,
modernist critics,
able analyse,
feminist perspective,
wrote artists,
postmodern art,
art critic,
|