Postmodernism As Modernism

 

One of the features of postmodern art is that it’s clever and can be puns or send-ups. That’s actually modernist. Just because there is humor in art doesn’t make it postmodern. Warhol’s and Lichtenstein’s appropriation of advertisements is postmodern in the sense that “anything goes”. But the whole act of painting, regardless of subject matter, is modernist, or even pre-modernist. There was always some sort of “graffiti” in the margins of the traditional or sacrosanct. That’s not “anything goes” as something novel. We’ve been tagging for time immemorial. The fact that we’re irreverently having fun is not postmodernism. It’s simply refusing to be stuffy, like symphonic music where no one can tap their feet. It would be good if classical music got a new postmodern treatment because it deserves it.