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This essay is part
of my coursework on the MA in Fine Art I took between 2001-2003
at Cardiff School of Art.
According
to what criteria might we judge a work of visual art to be 'postmodern'
rather than 'modern'? Your answer should focus on one of two particular
works (though a range of other works may be used for comparison).
The works I
have chosen to discuss are monet's Wheatstack series, painted between
1889 and 1891, and Andy Warhol's piece 'Thirty Are Better Than One',
produced in 1963.
I will first
outline the move from Enlightenment to modern thought, with reference
to monet's Wheatstacks, and will then look more closely at postmodern
thought as applicable to Andy Warhol's piece of work. The main areas
I will be looking at are autonomy / heteronomy, the death of the
author and loss of depth.
There are several
characteristics which distinguish postmodern from modern art. Charles
Baudelaire described modernism thus:
"Modernity
is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent, it is the one half
of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable." 1.
Harvey (1990) p10
In postmodern
art, however, the belief in the 'eternal and immutable' has been
jettisoned.
Enlightenment
thought held that through scientific domination of nature and
from release of adherence to religious and superstitious thought
man could achieve freedom from need. However, after 1848, when there
were revolutions across Europe (primarily in the cause of universal
suffrage), this idea began to break down and writers and artists
began to explore different languages and modes of representation.
This reflected the insecurity of modern society. There began a loss
of faith in the 'ineluctability of progress' and 'growing unease
with the categorical fixity of enlightenment thought.' 2 Harvey
(1990) p29
Modernity reflected
the new world which moved faster, in which social and political
change occur on a wider and faster scale, and which was characterised
by ephemerality. However, modern artists "…understand
[modern life's] fleeting qualities, and yet extract from the passing
moment all the suggestions of eternity it contains." 3 Harvey
(1990) p20
monet's Wheatstacks
series reflect this belief in rational thought. His series of works
explore again and again the affect of changing light on the subject,
as if both to 'capture' the passing moment, and also to reveal 'suggestion
of eternity'. Modernist art is reductive, that is, there is an aspect
of 'uncovering' reality to it - through reduction might be found
the inner truth.
Through modernism,
art for the first time became self aware, that is, art produced
was no longer representing something else, but was displaying itself
as art. Clement Greenberg said:
'realistic illusionistic
art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art. Modernism
used art to call attention to art.' 4 Greenberg (1960), quoted in
Art in Theory (1992) p755
This self-referent
quality is called autonomy, and is analogous to science, in which
a problem in one particular branch of science is solved in terms
of that branch. 5. Greenberg (1960), quoted in Art in Theory (1992)
p755
Modern art also
took advantage of new technologies - monets paintings could not
have been done without the invention of the tube of paint, which
enabled the impressionists to work outside directly from their subject,
which undoubtedly had a big effect on the work which could be produced.
Kandinsky wrote of using tubes of paint:
"he saw emerging from their tubes 'these strange beings we
call colours - alive in themselves, autonomous." 6 Graham
Dixon (1991)
Each new movement
in modernism set up its own rules, and worked within those rules.
Modernism ultimately became stultified as a result. The 'rules'
were established by white western men and precluded participation
by any other members of the population. The rules themselves, both
as to who could be an artist but also what art was, became so exclusive
as to exclude non artists from the appreciation and understanding
of artworks.
' the essence
of modernism lies.in the use of the characteristic methods of a
discipline to criticise the discipline itself, not in order to subvert
it, but to entrench it more firmly in its area of competence'. 7
Greenberg (1960), quoted in Art in Theory (1992) p755
Greenberg also
described how each art discipline narrowed its area of competence,
so painting separated itself off from sculpture, becoming increasingly
about paint, jettisoning any reference to form, leading ultimately
to work being produced such as that of colourfield painters such
as Barnett Newman and Rothko.
Paintings also
began to flatten out, to become more 'painting-like'. This flattening
trend led eventually to Warhol's completely visually flat works,
and depthlessness, both in visual terms but also in terms of subject.
monets Wheatstacks
are not 'about' Wheatstacks, but are concerned more with the application
of paint and the exploration of the optical effects of light. They
are also self-consciously 'paintings' or pictures.. Their size is
domestic (dimension in the region of approx 60cm - 100cm). The brush
marks can be seen.
In contrast
to modernisms closing down, postmodernist art is inclusive and open,
opening up to other influences and includes all 'styles', frequently
more than one in any piece of work. The autonomy changed to heteronomy
- or as Michel Foucault described: 'heterotopia' - the coexistence
in 'an impossible space' of a large number of fragmentary worlds'.
8. Harvey (1990) p48
Postmodernism
embraced ideas in one piece of work from a variety of sources and
with a variety of messages. Warhols piece 'Thirty Are Better Than
One' uses a photographically reproduced silk-screened image of the
Mona Lisa, thus referencing not only the Mona Lisa but also the
photographic negative and mass-media advertising images.
Whilst Modernism
absorbed and used ideas and images extrinsic to itself, these ideas
/ images were appropriated by the artist and developed further,
they were touched by the artists hand and absorbed and changed by
his mind. Postmodern art however merely 'steals' images, quoting,
making pastiche, not reworking or absorbing.
For example, Duchamp uses an the image of Mona Lisa in his piece
L.H.O.O.Q, so titled because when pronounced in French "L.H.O.O.Q."
sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul," which translates as
"She is hot in the ass." He also draws a moustache on
the piece, both absorbing what Mona Lisa represents and commenting
on it.
Andy Warhol
however steals the image of Mona Lisa, quoting it and repeating
it, in fact not using but rather lessening its meaning through its
reproduction, until it becomes no more than a pattern.
Another important
aspect of postmodern work is the declining influence of or death
of the author.
Enlightenment
thought was progressive - that is it adhered to the belief that
mans history is necessarily one of progressive development. This
can be seen as a linear or narrative interpretation of history.
This idea continued in modernistic thought, although discontinuities
had begun.
David Harvey
describes how modernism, being borne out of ephemerality, transitoriness
and fragmentation, can have but little respect for its own past,
as it is difficult to preserve any sense of historical continuity.
This leads to a series of breaks or disjunctures throughout the
modernist period, or 'movements', e.g impressionism, expressionism,
cubism etc.
By contrast,
postmodernism had lost this teleological viewpoint, and can be seen
as anti-meta narrative or meta-theory. That is, it no longer adheres
to the fact that there could be a theory through which all things
are connected.
One way in which
this 'fracturing' or discontinuity can be seen manifested in the
art produced is through the lessening importance of the author in
a piece of art.
monet's Wheatstacks
were one man's perception of changing light on wheatstacks, the
brush marks are made by his hand, the work is signed, the signature
acts as a logo. Warhol's work by contrast is unsigned, and is a
series of silkscreen prints which could have been made by anyone.
The artists touch is not visible.
Postmodernist
thought no longer treated the art / text as an aloof entity, but
rather as an interweaving of texts:
'A text is made
up of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures, and entering
into mutual relations of dialogue, parody….a texts unity lies
not in its origin but in it's destination, the birth of the reader
must be at the cost of the death of the author'. 9.
Barthes, (1977) quoted in Wolff (1981) p117
Wolff describes
how a piece of work is no longer seen as a unique creation, created
in isolation by the author, rather it is a manifestation of the
coming together of social structures and a reflection of / result
of current ideologies, beliefs and values. She describes this as
'…the personal mediation of a group consciousness'. 10. Wolff
(1981) p119
Wolff also says:
'what is under attack is a concept of the author as a determinate
and fixed source of artistic works and their meanings.' 11. Wolff
(1981) p123
It is misguided
to judge pieces of work through reference to their author, firstly
because 'this judgement depends on an unanalytical concept of the
subject (as free and creative)' and secondly because it depends
on a partial analysis of the author.
For example,
Andy Warhols statement:
'I like things
to be exactly the same over and over again, I don't want it to be
essentially the same - I want it to be exactly the same. Because
the more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning
goes away, and the better and emptier you feel.' 12.
Warhol, quoted in MacCabe, Colin on http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/Warhol/pictures.htm
is obviously not true, as in "Thirty Are Better Than One"
each repetition is plainly not the same. It would be dangerous on
this basis to believe everything the author said about his work,
and to judge it by that criteria. The author can both lie, but can
also be innocent of all the influences on their own work.
Jeffrey Mehlman
summed up the new attitude to works of art thus:
'the text must be regarded less as a monument than as a battlefield'.13.
Wolff (1981) p120
This fall in
the aura and autonomy of the art and the artist corresponded not
only with the rise in the importance of the audience, but also with
that of the theorists, critics, curators and dealers.
With the death
of the author, comes a loss of depth.
Modernist work
was reductive - i.e. it searched for an inner truth, by leaving
the superfluous behind it aimed to get to inner core of truth. However
postmodernist work becomes depthless - it no longer looks below
the surface for an inner truth but is only surface.
Frederick Jameson
described it thus:
'The first and
most evident is the emergence of a new kind of flatness or depthlessness,
a new kind of superficiality in the most literal sense'.14. Jameson,
(1984) in Art in Theory (1992) p1075
This is particularly
noticeable in Andy Warhols work. The same image is repeated, lessening
its aura,
'That which
withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the
work of art'. 15. Benjamin, (1936) in Art in Theory (1992) p514
At once calling
on the image of Mona Lisa and yet simultaneously stripping it of
its uniqueness and importance. Heiner Bastian says in the Warhol
Retrospective catalogue:
'Warhols reprographic images exist by virtue of the conversion of
the subjectivity of the distant aura of the original…..'
16. Bastian, (2001), p31
He continues
by saying that although the images exist by converting this distant
aura, the reduction of the aura through its mode of production registers
to us as a loss of uniqueness 'nevertheless constitutes an hard
to describe, defensive 'yet' - that the reinstatement of that aura
has / carries within itself a resonation of the sadness of loss.'
17. Bastian, (2001), p31
So "Thirty
Are Better Than One" does not repeat the image to find its
hidden depths or inner truth, (unlike monet's Wheatstacks), rather
it lessens its importance, as Barthes put it:
'what pop art
wants is to desymbolize the object, that is, to release the image
from the deep meaning into …simulacral surface.' 18. http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/Warhol/pictures.htm
To summarise,
modernity signalled the fracturing of the teleological, linear,
narrative view of history, which in postmodernism resulted in a
disjointed, individual, personal view of history / progress. Modernist
art was autonomous, played within its own carefully established
set of rules, was made by auractic artists, the author being more
important in the interpretation
of the work than the audience. In postmodern art the emphasis shifted
so that the authors influence diminished, to be replaced by that
of the audience and other
consumers (theorists, gallerists, curators and dealers). The 'interweaving
of texts' and loss of the importance of the author also resulted
in a loss of depth in work, exemplified in much of Andy Warhols
work, where Pop Art which might be seen to be critiquing consumerism,
in fact becomes consumerism itself.
Bibliography
Barthes, Roland
(1977) The Death of the Author, quoted in Wolff, Janet, The Social
Production of Art, Wolff (1981) p117
Barthes, Roland
quoted in MacCabe, Colin, et al, eds. Who Is Andy Warhol? Pittsburgh,
PA: The British Film Institute and The Andy Warhol Museum, 1997,
on www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/Warhol/pictures.htm
Bastian, Heiner,
Warhol, Tate Publishing 2001, p31
Benjamin, Walter,
(1936) Zeitschrift fur Sozialforschung, quoted in Art In Theory
1900-1990, Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, 1992, published by Blackwell
Publishers, p514
Graham-Dixon,
Andrew, article 'Beyond the Pale' in The Independent newspaper,
May 21st 1991
Greenberg, Clement
(1960), 'Forum Lectures', quoted in Art In Theory 1900-1990, Charles
Harrison and Paul Wood, 1992, published by Blackwell Publishers,
p755
Harvey, David
(1990), The Condition of Postmodernity, published by Blackwell Publishers
1990, p10, 20, 29, 48
Jameson, Frederic
(1982), Post Modernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,
quoted in Art In Theory 1900-1990, Charles Harrison and Paul Wood,
1992, published by Blackwell Publishers, p1075
Wolff, Janet,
The Social Production of Art, Wolff (1981) p119, p120, p123
Warhol, quoted
in MacCabe, Colin, et al, eds. Who Is Andy Warhol? Pittsburgh, PA:
The British Film Institute and The Andy Warhol Museum, 1997, on
www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/Warhol/pictures.htm
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