Postmodernism versus Modernism - Essay Example

Modern art and culture are very distinct from postmodern art and culture. Firstly, modern art and culture is more geared towards social change. Modernist art and culture express rebellion towards anything traditional and this can somehow be linked to the reasoning that “the conventions of the society were what led to the two World Wars” (Kamhi 33). One can sense this rebellion in Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Duchamp_Fountaine.jpg) --- an art piece created in 1917 that somewhat shows a shifting away from the traditional idea of art by creating something which is not traditionally considered as art into an art piece. Postmodern art and culture, on the other hand, maybe rebellious in nature but shows a bit more disillusionment (Kamhi 35-6). This may be due to disillusionment caused by the wars, which can be seen in Chris Burden's “The Reason for the Neutron Bomb” (http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/exhsolo/exhbur79.html) --- an art piece created in 1979 which represents the Soviet tank buildup. The nickels used can be easily seen as the money “wasted” for such unnecessary production. While both modern and postmodern art and culture depict rebellion in some form, they were, and are, pushed by different reasons and expressed in different ways. Postmodern art is definitely more geared toward diversity in expression, as can be seen in the famous street art in California, while modern art is more towards rejecting what has been done before (Kamhi 38).