The Postmodern Era of Art that arose in the mid-20th century revolutionized the art world by embracing pluralism, cultural diversity, and subjectivity. The era shatters conventional limits in media of art as well as in cultural representation, subverting the white, male, Eurocentric perspectives that had dominated previous art movements. Postmodern painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kehinde Wiley, and Barbara Kruger use colourful, multicultural forms and styles to represent marginalized people, providing space for Black, feminist, and queer voices to speak and listen. Postmodern art by using paintings that blur high culture and low culture, Eastern culture and Western culture, and private and collective histories enjoys the intersectionality of the modern identity. It is a feast of self-expression, allowing marginalgroups to speak back and demystify past misrepresentations. Defiant ofbeing driven by conventional concepts of beauty, convention, and gender, Postmodernism requires the complexity of human experience and challenges the audience to experience art in terms of facing the complexity and fluidity of identity. Through this deconstructive and expansive vision, Postmodern art not only depicts diversity but puts it at the forefront of the art discourse, changing the way we view culture, power, and identity in contemporary society.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan. She is an innovative painter, sculptor, installation artist, performer, and visionary artist whose rugged and avant-garde work gave birth to the world's first female artist. She employs her signature approach in an effort to present repetition of repetition of repetition of polka dot design, color dizziness, and metallic glow, repeatedly hinting at concepts of infinity, self-destruction, and madness. Traumatized as a child by mental illness, Kusama's life is wackily autobiographical, confronting the horror of her own life and alienation from the world. She relocated to New York City during the 1960s, where she was one of the city's most visible avant-garde artists and collaborated with artists like Andy Warhol in attempting to become famous throughout the entire world. Her transporter installations, Infinity Mirror Rooms, and infinite pumpkin sculptures are her signature of her imagination that made her one of the most significant and visionary 21st-century artists.
...........................................................................................................................................................................
Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin sculpture
Yayoi Kusama's
Pumpkin sculptures have been exhibited at various international locations, such as the Benesse Art Site Naoshima in Japan. She has also showcased her
Mirror Room (Pumpkin) installations at events like the Venice Biennale. In addition, her iconic pumpkins have appeared in London's Kensington Gardens and Milan's Piazza San Babila.
Yayoi Kusama's pumpkins utilize color and organic form to provide anintensely visual yet emotionally inclusive experience. Often painted in yellow, red, and black, and finished with her signature polka dots, the pumpkins are arresting as well as radiating playfulness and warmth. Their smooth, asymmetrical, biomorphic forms stand in contrast to the hard-cornered, geometric shapes of Western traditional sculpture, offering instead a softer, feminine appearance that subvertshegemonic norms within the art world. Within these embracing, open, celebratory forms, Kusama is making a statement of diversity and representation—inviting all individuals from all walks of life to outstretch their arms wide to beauty in the flawed, the emotional, and the deeply personal. Her pumpkins, her own uniqueness and experience of mental illness, address all of us, opening conversations of universal subject matter of vulnerability and other art themes of theday. I personally would love to have this sculputre (but small) in my kitchen someday.
...........................................................................................................................................................................
Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms
Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms have been showcased at numerous prestigious venues worldwide, including the Tate Modern in London, the Broad in Los Angeles, the Rubell Museum in Miami, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Other locations that have hosted these immersive installations include the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms are a profound investigation ofcolor, shape, and the human condition. The voids are often filled with colors—like shining balls, neon tubes, and Kusama's signature polka-dot patterns—that give off a sense of celestial energy and wonder. The shape of the recurring motifs, like pumpkins, spheres, and lanterns, isreflective of Kusama's preoccupation with infinity and self-destruction, in which boundaries between self and universe are dissolved. The reflective surfaces reflect these forms, creating the illusion of infinite reflection, which overpowers the viewer but also makes them feel partof something much bigger than themselves. In diversity, Kusama's workspeaks to individuals in its universality: the space is not for any oneculture or identity but open to everyone—irrespective of race, gender, or background—to access the artwork as an emotional and psychological denominator. Kusama, who has been marginalized in her native Japan and in the international art world, uses her paintings to subvert traditional notions of art and to speak in a unique feminine, outsider voice. Infinity Mirror Rooms are a work of revolutionaryhumanness, where art transcends personal identity and brings all together with the cosmic, the eternal, the infinite. I have visited one of these before, and I loved it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kehinde Wiley is an African American artist who was born in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. He is perhaps best known for his extremely vividly colored, full-size portraits which reenvision the work of classical portraiture by painting people of color, traditionally from the world oftoday, in heroic, imperial poses hitherto held only by European royalty. Wiley's paintings overcome Black erasure in Western art history withbright colors, gentle textures, and urban wear for modern-day clothingin bridging past and present. His historical "Portrait of Barack Obama" (2018) and "Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps" (2005) are the most eloquent testaments to his painting of past and present connection and inhabiting oppressed identities. Wiley's work not only redefines nobility, power, and beauty but also negates racializedstereotypes and space to celebrate Black culture and identity.
...........................................................................................................................................................................
Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps
Kehinde Wiley's Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps was created in the United States in 2005 as part of his Rumors of War series. The painting is now part of the collection at the Brooklyn Museum. Kehinde Wiley's Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps recasts the history of portraiture by conflating classical and contemporary conventions to subvert conventional understandings of power and identity. In this genre painting, Wiley replaces Napoleon, a emblem of European colonialism, with a unidentified young Black man he encountered via "street casting" in Harlem. Wearing the latest streetwear-fashion—camouflage pants, Timberlands, and a gold cloak—he sits astride the horse in the same commanding position as Napoleon, radiating strength, leadership, and dignity. The attire selected fuses street fashion with traditional pomp, turning the tradition on its head as to whom one would think should be honored or even heroic. The polychrome floral and gold ground contrast againstthe naturalistic Alps background of the original that declares the unnaturalness of art and recovers space traditionally given to European aristocratic subjects. The shift of imagery indicates difference by inserting a Black figure in traditional space once held by white aristocracy and breaking racial stereotype and demanding Black bodies have long been worthy of such heroic iconography. Wiley's work not only redefines art history through the inclusion of oppressedindividuals but also values the intersectionality of modern identity, showing that power and beauty reside in all individuals and must be respected in every culture. This is not a painting I'd have in my house but I like it.
...........................................................................................................................................................................
Triple Portrait of Charles I
Kehinde Wiley's Triple Portrait of Charles I was created in his studio in Saint Louis, Missouri, and was featured in his exhibition Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The painting offers a contemporary reinterpretation of Daniel Mytens' 1633 portrait of King Charles I, portraying Ashley Cooper, a St. Louis resident, in the same pose. Kehinde Wiley's Triple Portrait of Charles I uses color and form to specifically challenge and contradict the traditional representation of power and identity and honor diversity. The dramatic motifs of the background, another hallmark of Wiley's work, are contrasted with the restrained, historically accurate colors of traditional portraiture, signaling the constructed quality of the image and charging the work with an energetic, contemporary force. The subject's lines, painted in graphic, insistent strokes, contrast with the idealized lines of classical royal portraiture, affirming the young Black man in the commanding, monarchic space reserved for white royalty across history. Wiley's incorporation of modern street culture (like camouflage trousers and Timberland boots) also continues to challenge the classical aristocratic appearance, inserting urban culture within the traditional art form. Diverse in nature, the painting also redefines who becomes heroic andnoble. By inserting a Black body into the symbolic space long thedomain of white royalty, Wiley's work declares that Black bodies too must be ensconced in power and dignity without racial stereotype. This piece is an invitation to a wider, more expansive history of hybridity and intersectionality of contemporary identity that demonstrates power, beauty, and nobility belong to no single culture, not even one based onrace. Again, not a painting I'd have hanging in my house, but I do enjoy looking at it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kerry James Marshall is a renowned African American painter, born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in Los Angeles. His paintings reflect on the absence of Black figures in the history of Western art, wherein he prefers replacing white characters with Black characters in contemporary and ancient scenes. His most widely recognized compositions, including "Past Times" (1997) and "School of Beauty, School of Culture" (2012), resist racial stereotyping by illustrating Black individuals commanding, respectful positions denied them overcenturies. His big, very symbolic pictures are part of the process of reclaiming cultural space and celebratory Blackness, and defianceagainst the excluding tendencies of classic art history and dominantcultural story. Marshall is more than a painter, his work being hispromotion of diversity and representation of the art community.
...........................................................................................................................................................................
Past Times
Kerry James Marshall's large-scale painting Past Times was created in Chicago, where the artist resides and works. Initially purchased by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) in 1997 for $25,000 from a Los Angeles gallery, the painting was displayed at McCormick Place. It was later sold at auction for a record-setting $18.5 million. Kerry James Marshall's Past Times is a dense exploration of color, form, and multiplicity, one that disrupts traditional depictions of Black life oncanvas. The vibrant use of color in the painting's composition—from the rich, warm bodies of the figures themselves to the golden park surroundings—collects a sense of tranquil, group celebration, purposefully countering the historical effacement of Black bodies from recreational and leisure sites. Marshall's figures are large and silhouetted in relief against their individual environments, each figurelying back in his or her area, completely involved in such recreations as boating and golfing, stereotypically white, middle-class activities. By placing Black women and men in these historically white places, Marshall reverses Western art's legacy of exclusivity and redefines what can be leisure, happiness, and success for Black people. The placementof hip-hop culture, through such symbols as a boom box blaring Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Dogg songs, also makes it morecomplicated because high art and African cultural practices are now entwined. Not only does this run against culture expectations, but it resists reduction of Black existence into a single way of beingrepresented and instead inscribes difference as not just a matter of representation, but of cultural legitimacy and unapologetic being. Marshall's novel interpellates Black people into history not just—butrewrites history, creates a new history with room that is configuredaround Black power, joy, and dignity. This is a painting I'd probably have in my kitchen or hallway. I enjoy this one a lot.
...........................................................................................................................................................................
School of Beauty, School of Culture
Kerry James Marshall's painting School of Beauty, School of Culture was influenced by a beauty school in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, known as "Your School of Beauty Culture." Created in 2012, the artwork is now part of the Birmingham Museum of Art's collection. Kerry James Marshall's School of Beauty, School of Culture was painted in itself a school of color, form, and diversity, testifying to Black culture's diversity and richness. The deep dark skin tones of the figures, a hallmark of Marshall's use of paint, reverse the omission of dark-bodied Black figures in Western art during history, leaving space for bodies and stories and histories. The subjects' bodies—women and children engaged in activities like doing hair, talking, and playing—transmit animpression of collectivity, happiness, and agency. The salon, as a site of collectivity in the life of African Americans, is a site where Black beauty is reappropriated in an active manner, where hairstyles like braids and afros actively resist the Eurocentric norm. The rich color and the cultural symbolism inherent in the painting rejoice Black identity and Black history in explicit counterpoint to the historically exclusionary and reductionist tendencies of mainstream media. Sleeping Beauty's dreamface against the rich background laments the intrusiveness of dominant cultural narrative, juxtaposing Eurocentric ideas of beauty withindependent, communal beauty celebrated in the salon. Marshall's artwork testifies to diversity not merely by its visual description of Black beauty but by situating it in front of the stage of art and thus creating a scathing critique on representation, empowerment, and spaceappropriation on behalf of a culture. By this volume, Marshall rearranges the parameters of beauty and of belongingness to create a pictorial negation of exclusionary cultural definitions as well as open up space for emergent, expansive constructions of the self. Same goes for this one. I enjoy this one a lot, I'd probably have it hanging in my hallway or kitchen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Refrences:
This blog is a thoughtful exploration of how postmodern art embraces diversity and gives marginalized voices to a powerful platform. The discussion of the Infinity Mirror Rooms was captivating and the words I feel represented it well even seeing it as a first time viewer myself and to create my own opinions. Her work invites viewers in to otherworldly spaces while addressing the themes like mental heath and identity. The pieces tie into the theme of representation and expanded my understanding of how this art style can have a great message and advocate for whatever they are wanting to push a message on and that is something to be appreciated. All of the color contrasts were probably my favorite, and definitely appreciated Past Times.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog, the description, and the paintings. Also, postmodern art and its diversity are crazy because there are so many paintings with different styles—it's incredible. Likewise, the diversity of art comes from how you interpret it. One of your images that caught my attention was Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms. I would love to walk around and see those lights someday; it would be crazy for me since I've never seen anything like that.
ReplyDeleteGood evening,
ReplyDeleteI like the effort you put into this blog post. One part that appealed to me was Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms, specifically, how the room was intended to be for everyone regardless of race, gender, or background, which is a great representation of the theme of identity, as since it's open to anyone, they can come up with their own interpretations.
I really enjoyed Yayoi Kusama’s art. I think it appeals to me because of the patterns, especially polka dots and the color dizziness that she creates. It’s mesmerizing to look at it. Kehinde Wiley’s artwork has a very different style. I don’t necessarily find it appealing but I do really appreciate his creativity. You picked two very interesting artists. Thank you for exposing their art to the class.
ReplyDelete