Postmodernism

Frederic Jameson's chapter argues that postmodernism is the "waning or extinction of the hundred-year-old modern movement" (1), that all the art during the period of modernism were the final extraordinary pieces. (The motivating question is the loss of meaning in postmodern art- sort of a downward path.) Jameson claims that postmodern art lacks much of what made modern art so great, such as emotion, individuality, and depth. Postmodern pieces were art from a "postindustrial society." The periodization of the modernism and postmodernism is very important. These two occured at times where society was at different stages, and postmodermism had a different positioning in the economic system of late capital. The culture and situation during a time period has a big influence on the art that is created.

Expressions of art such as Andy Warhol and pop art, and also photorealism, were not as exceptional as modern art. When we look at Van Gogh and Andy Warhol's works, we see that the postmodern piece has a certain flatness and is superficial, when compared to the high-modernist piece. Van Gogh's "A Pair of Boots" has much feeling in the piece, while Warhol's "Utopian Gesture" did not. Post art tended to be in the mass media and the meanings of the pieces are lost because of its reproduction in the media.

Questions:
I'm not too sure about the section on page 15 about Munch's painting. It would be nice to go over that part.
Also going over the explanation of the four modelts repudiated by contemporary theory could be helpful as well.