Postmodernism and Feminism Definitions of what postmodernism is and how it is related to feminism seem to vary with every citation. 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. Perhaps that is what the person who coined the phrase wanted it to be, an entirely personal piece of art that is not supposed to be interpreted by anyone else. 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. An early critic of postmodernism is Lucy Lippard who reviewed art from the 1970s from a feminist perspective. 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. Postmodernists believe that there are multiple viewpoints on any artwork because there are many different ways they can analyze the way society affected the artist.
This statement asserts Lippards postmodern belief that art and criticism are based wholly on the world that it was spawned from, i.e. the persons ideals and beliefs that have been forced upon them by society, or their breaking away from these ideals. Greenberg and Lippard are just two examples of more famous art critics that have taken alternate viewpoints to criticize art the major difference between the two is on the opinion of pluralistic viewpoints. 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 analyze an artists work as it changes through out their career. After the artists life has been analyzed as well, the audience is able to see what has altered this artists psyche that caused him/her to change their way of creating art. The multiple viewpoint theory can be taken from two angles.
The Essay on The Global Village HUM 300 20th Century Arts And Artist
The 20th century is replete with personages who helped set the standards or defined the course of national or international history. In the artistic world, many great individuals contributed to making the period interesting, revolutionary and creative. Literature: William Butler YeatsIn the literary world, among the 20th century giants is William Butler Yeats. An Irish-born dramatist, poet and ...
While it does create some great contrasts between artists working on the same topic area, it also allowed artists to escape from the pressure of stylistic expectation. Which 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. This piece of writing will help an audience to understand what causes the artist to create something that looks like it does. In this way critics are provoking the audience to think about the inner workings of society, no matter what level of artistic experience they have. Lippard wrote about artists from a feminist perspective to show how women were represented in the artists upbringing and adult life. 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.
The Essay on Ashcan School York Artists Art
ASHCAN SCHOOL The Ashcan School was a movement which was integral and in a way 1 inevitable with the infancy of the twentieth century. This movement in art was brought about by a handful of artists who converged on New York City around the turn of the century. 2 The major Ashcan artists who will be discussed later are Robert Henry (1865- 1929), George Luks (1866- 1933), Everett Shinn (1876- 1953), ...
They write for an educated audience but do not challenge their intelligence in any sociological way. Greenberg wrote about artists such as Jackson Pollock giving reference only to technique and inspiration from other artist. Today almost anything can be called art so long as it is named and put into a gallery. Art critics are unable to claim that they are experts in their ever-expanding field, and if no one is an expert on it then no one can actually define what art is. This inability to classify art has given artists more freedom to express their feelings in any way they wish, once again widening what our consideration of what art can be. Word Count: 664
Bibliography:
Lucy Lippard; Get the Message: A Decade of Art for Social Change, 1984, New York, pp. 149-58..
