Modernism and Postmodernism: Co-dependent Art Eras

Throughout history and through the nature of man, categories and classifications have been created for anything ever known. No matter if its concerning the homo sapiens or an object considered miscellaneous – there is place for everything and everything seems to be in its place. With art there is no exception. Society classifies each painting or sculpture into a time frame or accompany pieces with similar meanings together. A perfect example of this would be walking through a museum and noticing the different sections – European art, Impressionism, the Modern Wing, etc. Two categories, modernism and postmodernism, stand out among the rest because of how the manifestos of art began to change and their mutual dependency. Modernism and Postmodernism are separate yet co-dependent categories that relied on the immergence of Modernity to develop.

Both of these art era’s can be viewed as a frame where the manifestos are changing, but to first understand Modernism one must understand Modernity. Modernity is a

Therefore, Modernism was less about representation and more about self reflexivity. Almost everything became a by-product of mass production and consumption, so art took on a new perspective that challenged the difference between what are is and what the art is about. Paintings began to make people think, not just about what the picture was of but what ideologies were being presentenced through its medium. Pieces of work such as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso are perfect examples of modernist work. This specific painting exemplifies how art became more about abstraction, and that “The figures are not allegorical or symbolic – their meaning must be read off the canvas, the surface of the picture” (Garratt & Rodrigues 43). Modern art’s objective to set in crisis of the changing world was a direct cause of Modernity and the rapid change of consumerism through