11.1 Postmodernism: Appropriation and Pastiche

Postmodernism shook up the art world, challenging old ideas and embracing diversity. It mixed high art with pop culture, using irony and pastiche to question everything. Artists borrowed from ads, movies, and even other artworks to create new meanings.

This movement blurred lines between art forms and celebrated different styles. It reflected our consumer-driven world, often critiquing it. Postmodern artists like Barbara Kruger and Jeff Koons became famous for their bold, thought-provoking works.

Postmodernism in Contemporary Art

Characteristics of postmodern art

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• Challenges modernist ideas and embraces pluralism, rejecting the notion of a single, universal truth or grand narrative
• Emphasizes the importance of context, subjectivity, and individual interpretation in understanding and creating art
• Appropriates existing images, styles, or elements from various sources (advertising, popular culture) and recontextualizes them to create new meanings
• Employs pastiche, mixing and combining different styles, genres, or elements (high art, kitsch) to create eclectic and playful works
• Uses irony, parody, and satire to challenge established norms, conventions, and power structures in art and society
• Deconstructs traditional boundaries between high art and popular culture, questioning the distinctions and hierarchies between them
• Embraces pluralism, celebrating the coexistence of diverse styles, approaches, and perspectives in art and culture

Appropriation and pastiche in art

• Appropriation involves borrowing, copying, or repurposing elements from existing artworks, popular culture, or other sources
  • Recontextualizes the original meaning or purpose of the appropriated elements to create new interpretations and critiques
  • Questions the notion of originality and authorship in art, challenging the idea of the singular, genius artist
  • Sherrie Levine's "After Walker Evans" series rephotographs Evans' famous Depression-era photographs, questioning the nature of authorship and originality
• Pastiche combines and mixes elements from different styles, genres, or periods to create a new work
  • Results in playful, ironic, or eclectic aesthetics that challenge the idea of a singular, coherent style or narrative
  • Jeff Koons' "Banality" series combines kitsch imagery (porcelain figurines) with high art production values (large-scale, polished sculptures)

Notable postmodern artists

• Barbara Kruger creates bold, text-based works that critique consumerism, gender roles, and power structures
  • Appropriates images from advertising and media, combining them with provocative text ("I Shop Therefore I Am") to challenge societal norms and values
• Cindy Sherman explores identity, gender, and representation through photographic self-portraits
  • Appropriates various personas, stereotypes, and genres from art history and popular culture (film stills, historical portraits) to question the nature of identity and representation
• Jeff Koons blurs the boundaries between high art and kitsch in his large-scale sculptures and installations
  • Appropriates imagery from consumer culture and popular media (balloon animals, vacuum cleaners) with a sense of irony and excess, elevating them to the status of high art

Postmodernism vs consumer culture

• Postmodern art engages with and critiques consumer culture, mass media, and advertising
  • Appropriates imagery, styles, and techniques from these sources to comment on their pervasiveness and influence in shaping our identities and desires
  • Questions the distinctions between high art and popular culture, challenging traditional hierarchies and value systems that separate them
• Consumer culture itself can be seen as a form of pastiche, mixing and combining various styles, trends, and references from different sources
  • Postmodern art reflects and responds to this cultural condition, often with a critical or ironic stance that exposes its contradictions and limitations
• Barbara Kruger's "I Shop Therefore I Am" appropriates the language and aesthetics of advertising to critique consumerism's role in shaping identity and self-worth
• Jeff Koons' "Michael Jackson and Bubbles" elevates a pop culture icon to the status of high art, questioning the boundaries between celebrity worship and artistic value