Postmodernism

Nathaniel Saint-Germain

Professor Caçoilo
Art and Women

April 2019

Modernism is defined as “broad movement in Western arts and literature that gathered pace from around 1850, and is characterized by a deliberate rejection of the styles of the past; emphasizing instead innovation and experimentation in forms, materials and techniques in order to create artworks that better reflected modern society” (Tate 1). Art is a self-expressive mechanism that people use to creatively share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the years as art evolves, we can see various changes in the styles, methods and themes. Although, there are many changes involved during these different time periods, the art is reflective of the time that they are created. For instance, before modernism, artists were big on producing art that portrayed their real life experiences and situations. During modernism, artists have transitioned to a more abstract representation that expresses different feelings and ideas through using new mediums. Change and innovation drove these people’s civilizations. They were constantly looking for ways to improve their means of portraying messages of the day. In the late nineteenth-century to the mid-twentieth century, a splurge of movements arose into the forever-changing art world: “movements and ‘isms’ appeared, one after another: impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dada-ism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, etc” (Guerrilla Girls, 59).

During these times, it is no news that the inequality women go through is an issue that they have been dealing with since the beginning of time. Women were sought to be inherently subordinate to the male species. While in fact, women are just as talented as men back then as they are to men now; but it was never an idea that was spoken or embraced. Many times, women artists used to have their ideas and new creations stolen by the male artists in the society. If they had a job that made more money or just sounded better than their husbands, they would refine their careers. They would do all of this marginalizing to the ladies so they would not be able to overthrow or be more powerful than the men. For instance, Hannah Höch was an artist who is referred to as “The Mama of Dada.” Dadaism is “an art movement that challenged every convention (except male supremacy) and scandalized bourgeois society” (Guerrilla Girls, 66). Despite the fact that she is one of the first artists to adopt this genre of art, men still were opposed to having a women freely making art. Therefore, at one of their soirees, she performed a skit about a man who had a nervous breakdown when she asked him to do basic chores around the house. Oddly enough, this was sufficient to let Hannah Höch’s artwork into the first international exhibition in 1921. Höch’s artwork, as pictured below, shows that she was one of the key originators of collaging diverse photographic elements. Her ability to take completely unrelated images to make significant pieces with controversial meanings and insights was emulated by many artists during this Dada and periods thereafter.

Hannah Höch, Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, 1930

Untitled (From an Ethnographic Museum)’, 1930, by Hannah Höch

Another painter who adopted a new genre of art is Claude Cahun--surrealism. Her paintings were very surreal. Surrealism “aimed to revolutionise human experience, rejecting a rational vision of life in favour of one that asserted the value of the unconscious and dreams” (Tate). In layman’s terms, this new movement channels the unconscious as a means of unlocking the imagination. Automatism was a well-known practice that helped artists and writers unleash their creative side; this method was used to get creatives to let their minds wander and create works of art without intention or consciousness. Allowing the works to flow straight from the mind to the canvas is one of the main beauties they are trying to show during this movement, and Claude Cahun has been a great female ambassador for Surrealism.

She was one of the first 20th-century females to dress herself and photograph herself for her artwork. Most of her artwork has an underlying theme dealing with sexuality and sexual identity. The Guerrilla Girls said about Claude, “Claude’s pictures were a relief from this sometimes monotonous aspect of art history. Instead of presenting herself as a passive object to be consumed by a heterosexual male gaze, she defiantly presents herself as both object and subject of her own sexual fascinations” (Guerrilla Girls, 63). In her work, it is evident that gender identity is something she advocates for through her artwork. She aims to remove the norms placed on gender by our society.

Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, 1928

Claude Cahun, I am in training don’t kiss me, 1927

The introduction of Postmodernism began in the late 20th-century. Definitively, it is specifically a reaction against modernism which had dominated art theory and practice since the beginning of the twentieth century. The term postmodernism is also widely used to describe challenges that changes to establish structures and belief systems that took place in Western society and culture from the 1960s onward (Tate). Postmodernism as a movement stresses to the people that there is not just one form of art; art is thoroughly complex and is not simple. As stated previously, innovation is the reason for all this change. Also, in addition to new mindsets a difference in mentality with new, thriving artists. “While modernism was based on idealism and reason, postmodernism was born of skepticism and a suspicion of reason. It challenged the notion that there are universal certainties or truths” (Tate).  

Women artists now have made a platform for themselves as social inequality activists and feminists. They are serving as the voices women need during the postmodern movement to take control of their own bodies. Women have been objectified for too long. Some artists during this time use their own bodies in their works as a way to show women that the body is not just sexual but can also be used to tell a story or fight a public issue.

Moving away from a more strict movement as far as who can participate, what mediums are used, and what is portrayed, we see a new voice arising from the female population. Although we as a people are still dealing with issues that we have dealt with for centuries, we are still seeking equality throughout the masses. Women are using their creativity and their uneasiness towards the injustices that they encounter every day of their lives.

Judy Chicago, Hatching the Universal Egg (1984)

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Langara College, 2016

Tate. “Postmodernism – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism.

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.

Tate. “Surrealism – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism.

The Guerilla Girls, The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.