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Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against
the ideas and values of modernism, as well as a description of the
period that followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory and
practice in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century.
The term is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical
critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.
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The term was
first used around 1970. As an art movement postmodernism to some
extent defies definition – as there is no one postmodern style or
theory on which it is hinged. It embraces many different approaches
to art making, and may be said to begin with pop art in the 1960s
and to embrace much of what followed including conceptual art,
neo-expressionism, feminist art, and the Young British Artists of
the 1990s.
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Anti-authoritarian by nature, postmodernism
refused to recognise the authority of any single style or definition
of what art should be. It collapsed the distinction between high
culture and mass or popular culture, between art and everyday life.
Because postmodernism broke the established rules about style, it
introduced a new era of freedom and a sense that ‘anything goes’.
Often funny, tongue-in-cheek or ludicrous; it can be confrontational
and controversial, challenging the boundaries of taste; but most
crucially, it reflects a self-awareness of style itself. Often
mixing different artistic and popular styles and media,
postmodernist art can also consciously and self-consciously borrow
from or ironically comment on a range of styles from the past.
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