October 29, 2014:

Post Modernism Dilemma in the 20^th Century

So many “isms” – these isms categorize and organize historical information neatly and, unfortunately, sometimes turning off many otherwise inquiring minds. We all learned in school about the industrial revolution and the modern movement that spun out of control after World War I and the new philosophies that advanced past 17^th century Western Enlightenment’s notions of reforming society though reason while challenging ideas based on tradition and faith, and to advance by imposing scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange.

Modernism is seen as a socially progressive trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve and reshape their environment with the aid of practical experimentation, scientific knowledge, or technology.  Modernists in the 20^th century believed the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, and activities of daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political environment of an emerging fully industrialized world. Criticizing an obsolete culture of the past the motto "Make it new!" was the modernists’ movement's approach to what was now.

20^th century Modernism tends to be self-consciousness, leading to experiments with form – the movement explicitly rejected the ideology of realism. The elements of Modernism which accentuated the benefits of rationality and socio-technological progress were being challenged. For example the International Style, emerging in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of modern architecture, reflected the modern movement --rectilinear forms; surfaces that have been completely stripped of applied ornamentation and decoration -- glass and steel, in combination with usually less visible reinforced concrete. Particularly after World War Two, the International Style provided the International Style emerged largely as a result of a strong desire to create a "modern" style of architecture for "modern man". This underlined the need for a neutral, functional style, without any of the decorative features of period styles such as Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance architecture, all of which were old-fashioned, if not obsolete.  

 

Postmodernism, a late-20th-century movement in the arts, architecture, and criticism was a departure from modernism.

Postmodernism includes skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought.  The movement reacted against tendencies in modernism, and was typically marked by revival of historical elements and techniques.