OUGD401: Context of Practice - Post Modernism

Post Modernism

• 1960s - present day
• Critics state post modernism is over and we have entered a phase of post-post modernism.

Post Modernism is;

•  reaction to the rules of modernism
• starts as a critique of the international style

Robert Venturi, Learning From Las Vegas, 1972
Ideas Developed by Charles Jencks

• Only one rule - no rules

Characteristics of Modernism :

• Simplified aesthetic
• Utopian Ideas
• Truth to materials
• Form follows function

Characteristics of Post Modernism

• Complexity
• Chaos
• Bricolage
• Parody

• Questioning conventions (especially those set out by modernism)
• Post modernism aesthetic = multiplicity of styles and approaches
• Theme of 'double coding', borrowing or 'quoting' from a number of historical styles
• Le Corbusier, Chapel of Notre Dame Du Haut

Robert Venturi

Las Vegas - Post Modernist city

Victor Papenek (1995) The Green Imperative : Ecology and Ethics in Design and architecture

Post Modernism architecture

• Sony Plaza (former AT&T building) New York, 1978
• Takes Classic styles and 'adds' to them
• Renzo Piano and Richard Rodges, Pompidou Centro, Paris, 1972
• James Stirling, Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany, 1977 - 1983

Post Modernism in Design

• Michael Graves, Kettle for Alessi, 1985
• Performs function - who you are, if you have money?
• Phillippe Starck, Juicy Salif 1990
• recall - not fuction, who you are as a consumer

Fashion

• Huessein Chalayan, After Words, 2000 - In response to civil war
• Veiled and Unveiled / Chardor, 1998

Fine Art

• Mark Rothko, Murals For Four Reason Restaurant, Sengram Building
• Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962 - Blur between culture and art
• Roy Lichtenstein
• Jeff Koons, Dirty - Jeff on top, 1992 - tacky, kitch?
• Jeff Koons, Michael Jacson and Bubbles, 1998
• Marcel Duchamp
• Michael Craig-Martin, An Oak Tree, 1973

• Slide on eStudio - Michael Craig-Martin
• Damien Hirst, Mother and Child Divided, 1993
• Tracey Emin, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963/95 - 1995
• Tracey Emin, My Bed - 1998
• Sarah Lucas, Au Naturel 1994
• Jake and Dinos Chapmen - Shock

• Chris Ofili, No Woman, No Cry, 1998 - Stephen Lawrence
• Holy Virgin Mary 1996
• Popular Culture - Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Starts, 1997

• Martin Creed, Work no. 227: Lights Going On and Off
• Mark Wallinger, Sleeper
• Volkswagen, Think Small - Helmut Krone

Graphic Design

• Ray Gun, double page spread - David Carson
• Don't Mistake legibility for communication - David Carson
• Barbara Kruger, I shop therefore I am - Selfridge, Buy me I'll change you life
• Banksy / Warhol - Parodies of Campbells Soup (Tescos Soup) and Marilyn Monroe (Kate Moss)
• Rachel Whiteread (1963-), House - 1993
• The K Foundation (KLF) nailed to the wall, 1994 and How to burn a million quid

Summary

• Post Modern attiude of questioning conventions (Especially Modernism)
• Post Modern aesthetic = Multiplicity of styles
• Shift in thought and theory