Postmodernism: A Movement to Challenge Modernism - Free Essay Sample

Introduction

Postmodernism came about to challenge the ideas that were brought by modernism. Postmodernism started as a wide movement in the mid-20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism as departing modernism. The campaign was characterized by widespread skepticism, subjectivism, and relativism. Postmodernism acted as a replacement of the traditional, modern approach. On the other hand, modernism refers to a movement that existed in the 20th century that sought a new alignment with experiences of the new modern industrial life. Modernism was primarily driven towards modifying traditional beliefs in line with modern ideas. Modernism was based ideally on a utopian vision of human life and a strong belief in progress and logic. Feasibly, the two movements, modernism, and postmodernism had significant differences.

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Cultural Movements

On the one hand, modernism relates to the number of cultural movements in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The Dutch painters used modernism in the form of realism in their paintings. During the modernism period, a lot of importance was designated original art, including paintings and poetry, together with other forms of art. The authentic art was considered to be a unique creation. Modernism also purportedly learned from the past by using traditional methods in their artwork. Modern thinkers used logical thinking as they sought life’s meaning. The artist and painters foraged for life’s realities.

On the other hand, postmodernism points to the state of cultural developments that came after modernism. Postmodernism was set off by the events that took place in the era of modernism. Postmodernism proves to be a little difficult to conceptualize as it was characterized by growth in the economic, social, and cultural around the state world. The postmodern approach to thinking; was considered to be illogical and inconclusive. A significant difference is that postmodernism never believed in the abstract truth of life. Postmodernism also had firm disbelief in gaining from the past and using traditional means in their approach. Unlike modernism, postmodernism also paid absolutely no attention to original works. The postmodern period labeled original works as pieces that gained popularity through propaganda. Contrary to modernism, postmodernism used surrealism instead of realism in their artwork with the former using traditional methods of artwork (Voorhies, 2004). Postmodernism saw no complete truth in its genuine artwork because of the development in technology, science, and other fields.

Differences

The main differences between the two would be in their thinking. In modernism, the thinking was primarily based on logic, while in postmodernism, the thought was considered illogical and inconclusive in its approach. In originality matters, modernism paid way too much notice to indigenous work that was in the forms of paintings and other forms of art. In contrast, postmodernism considered such action to be propagated from propaganda. Another difference would be that artists created their pieces using the traditional forms and ideas of making art in the modernism era. At the same time, postmodernism did the contrary and used the media to increase the speed of creating their pieces.

Conclusion

Conclusively, modernism addresses the enlightenment assumptions concerning the role of reason and logic to everyday human life. At the same time, the postmodernism seeks challenges assumptions and ideologies that arose in the modernism period. The elementary difference between modernism and postmodernism is that modern thinking aims to find life’s truths, while postmodern thinkers believe that there is no reality of life. Today themes of modernism and postmodernism can be combined to provide various forms of artwork, including paintings and dances. As the time change, so do our beliefs.

References

James Voorhies. (2004, October). Surrealism | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn timeline of art history. The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm