Postmodernism vs. Modernism - What's the difference?

During the beginning of the 20th century, a new art movement emerged from other well-known art movements prior to the 20th century such as Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and many more. (Guerilla Girls, 59). The new art movement was called Modernism, and this art movement marked the time of an international revolution in more ways than just one. Modernism can be most understood as a cultural transition or opportunity to resist and change traditional norms and beliefs of art, architecture, philosophy, and more. Various countries had political and artistic revolutions, most specifically, women were fighting for their civil rights and to be treated equally as men in politics, society, art, and universities. Women began to protest, openly showed their art and music, as well as changing the narratives of women being inferior to men. Doing these acts of social activism, women created new forms of art that eventually influenced the art industry in many ways.

Sonia Delaunay, "Simultaneous Contrasts," 1912

        Dadaism, one of the first forms of anti-art, came about and was influenced greatly from the reactions of World War I. The art movement focused more on self-expression rather than beauty. Dada artists would often express political views and positions through their work. A great Dada artist and influencer, Sonia Terk Delaunay (1885-1974) helped develop a theory of color called Simultanism, also known as Orphism or Orphic Cubism, with her husband, Robert Delaunay (Guerilla Girls, 60). Delaunay had to the financially support both her and her husband until her family lost their wealth during the Russian Revolution. Even being the sole bread winner of her family for the time being, Robert was the only one that was able to paint and create work with no worries. Sonia created works of art too, but Robert received most of the credit from her developments because her role required her to only take care of her husband, her son, and the home. Chadwick states: 

“The Dada contempt for traditional painting as a static, materialistic form, unable to communicate the vitality of modern life, found a sympathetic spirit in Delaunay, but it was her employment of a variety media and her liberal attitude to breaking down the distinction between art and craft that probably inspired Dadaists” (Chadwick, 272). Sonia Delaunay influenced the Dadaists, by challenging the norm.  Her combination of art and innovation influenced and challenged Dadaists to expand the genre.

    Women began using different forms of art to reflect posters, furniture like curtains or chairs, and fashion such as shirts and dresses. Despite being ignored and seen as inferior to men in the art industry, many women and their art were eventually preserved and acknowledged as influential modern art. One of the first women artists that influenced modern art was Georgia O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe was inspired by other artists and commonly used similar techniques, and one artist that influenced many very well-known pieces of her art is Paul Strand. O’Keeffe would typically do close up paintings, where she would use Strand’s method of cropping, to paint objects and things an American would know in very detailed and abstract ways. American-known objects to then create abstract and detailed versions.

Georgia O'Keeffe "Taos Mountain," New Mexico, 1930

         According to Chadwick, Surrealism was a very important art movement for women, as there were no artistic movements since the nineteenth century that celebrated the idea of woman and her creativity. Surrealism seemed to attract many women artists to join the movement due to the movement's anti-academic stance and Surrealism had evolved the role of women and the way women were perceived in modern art (Chadwick 309). Women particularly favored surrealism because the sanctioning and stance of art could now represent their personal reality. Claude Cahun, a woman artist from Paris, played a huge role in the development and influence of Surrealism. Cahun typically challenged gender roles and stereotypes, and she so happened to be one of the first women to consider a photograph of herself dressed up to be a form of art. “Claude’s pictures were a relief from this sometimes monotonous aspect of art history. Instead of presenting herself as a passive object ready to be consumed by heterosexual male gaze, she defiantly presents herself as both object and subject of her own sexual fascinations” (Guerilla Girls, 63). Cahun also happened to be an open-lesbian, and this caused many not to acknowledge her great work. Her sexuality, though, was constantly represented in her work to resist the dominating male gaze.

Claude Cahun, "Self Portrait," 1928

Postmodernism, however, was the complete opposite of modernism. While modernism generally aimed towards elitists and their expressive messages through art, postmodernism focused on way more than that. Postmodernism embraced all kinds of artists and audiences, no matter their religion, race, gender, or class, and it allowed for multiple perspectives to exist. Postmodernism resisted the idea that there was one exclusive meaning to a work of art that the artists determined at the time of the creation of said work of art, and instead, acknowledged the perspective of the viewer. The viewer became just as important as the artist in this sense, in which many artists even insisted that viewers participate in the process of creating the work of art. A great example of a modern-day artist that exemplified Postmodern art is Judy Chicago. Chicago's works of art usually revolves around the concept of birth and reproduction, which relates to the usual role that women had in history and society. One of Chicago's most acknowledged art pieces happens to be located in Brooklyn, New York at the Brooklyn Museum: The Dinner Party. The Dinner Party is literally a dinner party for all of the brave and notorious woman heroes we all know and love today, with about fifty women seated at the dinner table, with the names of at least thousands of other women on the floor beneath the dinner table. Usually, dinner parties were for the men, so the fact that Chicago made a dinner party with only women, shows her critique to the idea that women were inferior to men. The Dinner Party celebrates the women that risked their lives, status, and overall wellbeing to change the status quo, and shows that through the use of vaginal imagery. In every dinner piece, a vagina was depicted, and while many may see this as playful, this just further celebrates the power of woman because it acknowledges that we have something that men cannot handle or have: the power to give life. The Dinner Party, in my opinion, satirizes the common belief that women were only good for giving birth because the vaginal imagery emphasizes the difference yet similarity each woman have as each dinner piece relates to specific women and their power. 

Judy Chicago "The Dinner Party," 1974-79

Works Cited

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

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