ABSTRACT

Postmodernism in the visual arts is not just another 'ism.' It emerged in the 1960s as a transformation of artistic creativity inspired by Duchamp's idea that the artwork does not have to be physically made by its creator. Products of mass culture and technology can be used just as well as traditional media. This idea became influential because of a widespread naturalization of technology - where technology becomes something lived in as well as used. Postmodern art embodies this attitude. To explain why, Paul Crowther investigates topics such as eclecticism, the sublime, deconstruction in art and philosophy, and Paolozzi's Wittgenstein-inspired works.

chapter |9 pages

Introduction

Technology As Iconology

chapter 1|19 pages

Contingent Objects, Permanent Eclecticism

chapter 2|23 pages

The Eclectic Range of Postmodern Art

chapter 3|23 pages

Space, Power, and Complexity

The Modern and Postmodern Sublimes

chapter 4|25 pages

Deconstruction in Art and Philosophy

chapter 5|38 pages

Subconscious Circuitry

Paolozzi’s Wittgenstein and the Signs of Postmodernism

chapter 6|12 pages

Post-Postmodernism?