Post-Modernism

What is Post-Modernism? The term "Post-Modernism" is notoriously difficult to define, mainly because it is a concept that covers a wide variety of disciplines and it is not exactly clear when postmodernism began. It is usually (and rather paradoxically) characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding modernism. Postmodernist theorist Charles Jencks terms it as: "both the continuation of Modernism and its transcendence."

Effect of Post-Modernism on Arts: The Postmodernist trend in arts has eliminated the distinction between "low" and "high" art forms that the modernists in the Western world were so obsessed with. While doing so, it has blurred the boundaries between genres, embraced diversity and contradiction, and borrowed freely from various art forms and from different styles and techniques. A distinct characteristic of postmodern art is that unlike the modern art in the Western world, it does not take itself too seriously; and although postmodernism is all about not being categorized, there is an air of humorous irony in most postmodern art as well as an underlying sense of playfulness. Critics of postmodern art dismiss it as fragmented, reactionary and shallow but few can deny that it has had a lasting impact on contemporary art of the Western world.

Specific Example of Post Modern Thought: The art of Andy Warhol (American painter and pop artist) is the quintessential and an early example of postmodernism. Warhol's depiction of common popular symbols such as his paintings of Campbell's soup and Coca Cola cans and silkscreen prints of famous icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley not only brought the previously mundane or trivial to the level of "high art," but also combined various mediums such as painting, print making, ink drawing and even cinema to produce art that related to a mass audience rather than an elite class only.

Areas such as philosophy, religion, architecture, art, literature, and culture, among others

Modernism, in arts and literature, refers to the genre emerging in the late 19th and early 20th century that made a self-conscious break with previous genres.

Postmodernism