Postmodern Art: a new way of see reallity

Classmates, as we know everything change in life and ART is not the exception. That’s why though this post  I will be taking about postmodernism art and artists, who have develop this new way of communicating things.

To begin with, I have found this expectacular video, in which it is explained in detail postmodernism art.

                                

We need to know that postmodernism art it is understood as way of opposition or distinction from the previous style, which was the modern art. Additionally, it is outstanding because of the wide range of variety of styles and even of materials, which are mixed with the old and the new things. A clear example of this is the artist Andy Warhol, who used several materials to create his pieces of art.

Although, now we already know what is postmodernism art. Do we know the themes in which is based on? Mainly, postmodernism artists are centered on the popular culture, globalization, consumer culture and the combination between higher and lower classes in society.

Moving on, every single artist execute in different ways his/ her piece of art, due to the fact that all of us see and perceive different the world. Having that in mind, I have found two artists who developed their masterpieces in quite attractive, impressive and fascinating ways. 

One of them is an American painter called Jean-Michael Basquiat , whose work called my attention merely because of his reasons of  why he decided to create his works . In his masterpieces he showed one issue that we have covered in class, which is racism. With the intention to show the world this polemic issue, he used to mix the traditional art with a recently style in from that  period, which was graffiti.

  

                                           

 

On the other side, Jenny Holzer is an American artist, who concerned more in the ideas, concepts and messages rather than the form or the aspect of the masterpiece.  What´s more incredible is that the place where she developed her pieces of works was on the street. For instance, she usually used important buildings, benches, advertising spaces and so on. The intention of this was to pushed the person, who is walking down the street, to stop and read the images with her messages, which usually are created with the objective that the person made a reflection of his/her life.

                                  

In a nutshell, these new artists have discovered new themes, thus new ways of representing it. As well as we have covered in the latest classes not only art changed but also literature. As an example we have Art Spiegelman's Maus or Daniel Clowes's Ghost World.  Furthermore, we can drew a comparison between the aforementioned artists, since both based their messages on controversial themes.  

and...                     Do you have a favorite postmodern artist? 

A BRAVE MAN

Muas the 1st graphic novel. It created a new genre, a master piece. 

It said that artist use its pieces to deal with what is going on in their lives, it´s their way to express their feelings. It is also said that their art is a living part of themselves. I think this idea will be better explain with this extract:

"I know you will laugh at me," he replied, "but I really can't exhibit it. I have put too much of myself into it."

The Picture of Dorian Gray 

by Oscar Wilde.

Some psychologists believe that for people to deal with their issues, they have to talk about them, or write about them, or maybe draw them in children cases. In this oportunity Art, mixed the last two. He was a survivor of the holocaust, the biggest traumatic event of humman history, it moved people all around the world, how can he not be changed by it if everyone else was? his parents were changed, it was the cause of many of their problems, but the main reason was that they were not able to talk and deal with these horrible events they had to suffer. 

To learn how to deal with what happen to us is hard, most of the time we just shut things down, and try to forget about it. We have to be brave enough to deal with it, something that not all are willing to do. To know why things occure is a  major step to go on with our life. 

Bravery is only for some. 

Inglourious history

The only thing that MAUS and “Inglourious Basterds” have in common is that Hitler is present in both of them. The latter is a 2009 movie directed by Quentin Tarantino with Brad Pitt as one of the main characters. While Spiegelman’s graffic novel tells the story of his father being a survivor of the holocaust, Tarantino’s movie plots around the assassination of Hitler and the persecution of Nazis by Pitt’s American-Jewish squad.

On the one hand, MAUS remains as truthful as possible to the story of the author’s father. Art made it clear that he wanted to state everything “the way it was”. On the other hand, in Quentin’s movie you would expect to see another holocaust story, but in fact he changes the entire set of events and creates an alternate situation in which (SPOILERS) Hitler is killed by a bomb within a cinema.

 

Unlike most of the movies that have been created about this topic, Tarantino breaks the taboo and creates a parody of it. The parallel I draw between Spiegelman’s novel and Tarantino’s movie is mainly that some “balance” is created among a dramatically plotted novel and a parody movie, in this case between what the Nazis did to the Jews and what the Jews did to the Nazis in the movie.

 If the situation portrayed in the movie would have indeed occur, would you think something of the same caliber would have happened instead? Do you think the vendetta taken by the Germans would have been even worse that the real situation? Or maybe the movement would have decayed? I leave you the trailer in case you want to watch the movie.

A Story told through Images

During the last classes, we have been analyzing and discussing over Spiegelman's post-moder work "Maus". Its odd combination of comic-like images, text and semi-memoir plot makes it an extremely interesting pice of work. The author has an incredible ability to convey messages through the use of images and mixed graphic techniques.

This has made me think of another great anrtist that also combines a graphic style ( grafitti) with words and personal stories: Keith Haring.

Keith Haring was an american artist whose artkor became extremely popular from early 80's up to today. His signature single-stroke technique  is now widely know.

Most of his paintigs where biographical and usually contained words as well.

For example, on this 1985 paintig, Haring tell his own struggle with AIDS. During the 80's many rumors appeared regarding AIDS. Haring, an AIDS patient himself had to face many criticism, thus he made this painting " IGNORANCE= FEAR/ SILENCE = DEATH/ FIGHT AIDS, ACT UP"

Here we have another painting depicting his battle with AIDS.
The painting above "Safe Sex" was extremely contreversial... can you guess the message behind it ?

 

His painting not only showed his personal struggle , but also the american reality during the 80's 

This is one of Haring's most political paintings, yet one of the simpliest. Its  the words USA, with a star, a crux,  and a dollar signed been worshiped by people.

As seen during class, words are not the only way in which artist convey a message or depict a reality. Do you know of any other artist that mixes text with images?

Appearance has always been and always will be important

We’ve all been in the “adolescence” period and it very likely that some of us might stay in that process forever. It is said that it last from 13 to 20 or 25, it will depend on the theorist; however there are certain characteristics that allows us to recognize a teenager or a “spirit of teenager” person, such the search for identity, the necessity to find a friend who supports your point of view, the idea that we are almost always right and we do not care about other’s opinions, but inside they really do as well as a feeling of uncertainty.

In Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, I would say that Enid and Rebecca, at the beginning of the comic, are still seeking for their identities as individuals. An example of this is when Enid changes her hair to green, provoking negative responses from people around her. Also, they play a mean joke on Seymour, a middle-aged vinyl record collector who also has some issues getting well with people.

Part of the growing-up process is to leave friends from the past, being independent and autonomous when making decisions, but are our decision really based on values and our real convictions or prejudices? Media has helped to introduce in our minds even more prejudices every day. The idea that appearance determines who we are has been imposed unconsciously through media. 

Homeless Veteran Timelapse Transformation

After watching the video, let me ask you, would you treat this man in the same way if you see him as homeless and if you see as a “businessman” as a result of his transformation? Do we judge as television does?

Is it a coincidence that teenagers spend hours editing their pictures for facebook and watching makeup tutorials on the internet? Guess what? No!!!!  Appearance is so important in our society that Photoshop programs and makeup have become the BFF of most women. Are you woman that cannot leave home your makeup? And you guys, do you prefer a woman with or without makeup?

Here are some examples of the miracles of Photoshop 
and makeup.

Photoshop make miracle - 
photohop makes anything possible

10 Stunning Before And After Make Up Pics

As a final thought, I would say that almost nobody

 is either as beautiful as his/her propile picture on 

Facebook nor as ugly as he/she looks in his/her ID. 

Art Spiegelman and his inherited survivor´s guilt

As you may already know, Art Spiegelman was the son of two holocaust survivors. His parents struggled with survivors guilt which is the feeling of constantly questioning one’s reason to be alive while in this case, almost 6 million people died. When surviving such a terrible think like the holocaust, one might wonder: Why me? Why did my friend died and not me? What is so special about me that I lived but all my family died?

Being the son of two holocaust survivors, Spiegelman inherited this sense of guiltiness and struggled with the constant feeling of having to validate himself. However, it did not matter what he did, or how much he suffered because he would never suffer as much as his parents, and your existence becomes insignificant as your problems are worth nothing.

I believe that Art Spiegmelman wrote this story for many reasons. One of them could be as a way of self-therapy to deal with his mother’s suicide and to reconstruct the story that his father had taken away from him by burning his mother’s diaries.

The second reason I believe Art Spiegmelman wrote a story like this, was because he felt it was his duty to tell it and to tell it his way. Even though it was the hardest way, he chose to be innovative. Every time a person tells a story of something real, they are running the risk of trivializing it. But running the risk of trivializing something as terrible as the holocaust, especially when he was the son of 2 survivors, may turn you into a monster.

Even if Spiegelman is telling the story of his father, he is also telling the story of his complex present and instead of choosing a congregated genre to do it, he uses comics to tell stories that maybe should not be told; as how can I put myself in the shoes of anther so as to recreate my own story?

Taking into account the effect of inherited survivor´s guilt that he suffered, reflect upon the following questions:

1)    Why did he chose animals to tell his story?

2)    Do you think writing this story was a way of validating his existence?

3)    Why is it so necessary for him to know about the past in order to understand the present?  

Drawing Parallels...

The graphic novel ‘’ Ghost World’’ by  Daniel Clowes portrays the lives of two  teenagers ; Enid & Rebecca  who have already graduated from high school and wander aimlessly around their neighborhood ,criticizing harshly every single solitary person they come across with. The two main characters embody the spirit of youth in the 90s, taking a firm stance against becoming part of the system. What’s more, the characters are continuously looking for their identity and trying hard to make sense of life. For instance, Johnny Apeshit who used to be a punk rocker has become a yuppie and  John Ellis who has become an advocate of the worst political movements.

While I was reading the comic, I couldn’t help drawing a parallel between the graphic novel and ‘’The Catcher in the Rye’’ by J.D. Salinger and ``The World of Henry Orient`` by Norah Johnson, both written in the 90s. Albeit there are subtle distinctions between them, they do bear resemblances to each other.  The stories take place in the streets, highways, parks, supermarkets or inside characters’ houses. The writers create an effect through monologues and dialogues, highlighting daily-life as the hub of the action. The characters are strikingly similar. In ‘’The World of Henry Orient’’ the main characters are two teenagers fellows who enjoy wandering purposelessly around the town and passing judgment on people akin to what the two main characters of ‘’Ghost world’’ look like. In the case of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of ‘’The Catcher in the Rye’’ who takes issue with the hypocrisy, ugliness and the system that society has established is strikingly similar to the protagonists of Ghost World.

Additionally, the novels are a clear reflection of the so-called Generation X, those born after the W.W. II.  This generation found future disappointing and unappealing. Besides, they question authority, think globally, develop behaviors of independence and see the world with cynicism and distrust. Each of the characters of the novels embodies these characteristics. 

Finally, Have you ever watched Daria? If not, it’s an animated television serie. The main character is Daria Morgendorffer who analyses the world in which she is immersed and criticizes harshly popular culture and social classes. The characters of Ghost World are strikingly similar to Daria in the way the think, act and see life. What’s more, Daria is cynical as well as Enid & Rebecca. The T.V show tackles issues alike the one that Clowes does in his graphic novel.

What other connections could you establish regarding the historical background in which the graphic novel takes place? How do the author portrays them? Can you make a connection between the graphic novel an any movie, serie or so on? If so, how are they alike?