Postmodernism
Postmodernism term used to designate a multitude of trends–in the arts,
philosophy, religion, technology, and many other areas–that come after and
deviate from the many 20th-cent. movements that constituted modernism. The term
has become ubiquitous in contemporary discourse and has been employed as a
catchall for various aspects of society, theory, and art. Widely debated with
regard to its meaning and implications, postmodernism has also been said to
relate to the culture of capitalism as it has developed since the 1960s. In
general, the postmodern view is cool, ironic, and accepting of the fragmentation
of contemporary existence. It tends to concentrate on surfaces rather than
depths, to blur the distinctions between high and low culture, and as a whole to
challenge a wide variety of traditional cultural values.
The term postmodernism is probably most specific and
meaningful when used in relation to architecture, where it designates an
international architectural movement that emerged in the 1960s, became prominent
in the late 1970s and 80s, and remained a dominant force in the 1990s. The
movement largely has been a reaction to the orthodoxy, austerity, and formal
absolutism of the International Style. Postmodern architecture is characterized
by the incorporation of historical details in a hybrid rather than a pure style,
by the use of decorative elements, by a more personal and exaggerated style, and
by references to popular modes of building.
Practitioners of postmodern architecture have tended to
reemphasize elements of metaphor, symbol, and content in their credos and their
work. They share an interest in mass, surface colors, and textures and
frequently use unorthodox building materials. However, because postmodern
architects have in common only a relatively vague ideology, the style is
extremely varied. Greatly affected by the writings of Robert Venturi,
postmodernism is evident in Venturi's buildings and, among others, in the work
of Denise Scott Brown, Michael Graves, Robert A. M. Stern, Arata Isozaki, and
the later work of Philip
Bibliography
See P. Goldberger, On the
Rise: Architecture and Design in a Postmodern Age (1983); A. Huyssen, After
the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism (1986); C. Jencks, What
is Post-Modernism? (1986); S. Gaggi, Modern/Postmodern (1989); D.
Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (1989); J. Tagg, ed., The
Cultural Politics of Postmodernism (1989); D. Kolb, Postmodern
Sophistications (1990); H. Risatti, ed., Postmodern Perspectives
(1990); F. Jameson, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
(1991); Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates on Houses and Housing (1992);
T. Docherty, ed., Postmodernism: A Reader (1993); P. Jodidio, Contemporary
American Architects (1993); D. Meyhofer, Contemporary European Architects
(1993); N. Wheale, ed., The Postmodern Arts (1995); S. Grenz, A Primer
on Postmodernism (1996).