The two artists use the art of fusing high and low art. They do so by mixing these two arts so that they bring out the best of their messages to the people. However, the two artists use the postmodern characteristics differently hence; the need to look at each artists separately and their use of the styles. The high art refers to the use of high culture in the artistic works by the artists above (Koons & Sischy 2008). The low art on the other hand refers to use of popular culture by the artists in their works.
The paper analyzes each artist independently by looking at the postmodern characteristics that they use and how effectively they use the characteristics. These characteristics were in use in the late 20th century by artists. Artists use these postmodern characteristics to express their ideas in regard to such issues like changes that are taking place. For instance, Barbra uses these styles to express her ideas of changing the aspect of feminism in today’s world. She uses her black and white photographs and phrases such as “you” to refer to the male gender (Koones 2007).
The photographs that she uses aim at encouraging the female gender no to feel inferior to the male gender. She also uses her photographs to encourage the male gender to advocate for stopping inequality and promote equality for the female gender. This is an issue in the postmodern times and Barbara uses culture to bring out her message concerning some of these issues. The photograph below shows Barbara’s art that encourages the female gender to avoid the inequality that exists in the world today.
Barbara Kruger, Your Body is a Battleground, 1989. https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSwFlQpfRL3cvLnt8HcSOuDt9dWHdbI241yZUdd82TBeXkrvzia8w. Some of the quotes that Barbara uses in her work include the use of phrases that are most common in her work like to emphasize on her topics. Her topics deal with classicism which she expresses in her magazines and her drawings that sell in the world. She aims at encouraging and motivating people. They include such phrases like the use of various pronouns in reference to many things that she touches in her topics.
For instance, she uses “I”, “YOU” as a way of using the style of imagery (Suarez 2007). She also uses other phrases like “WE” and “THEY” in many of her magazines and other arts. These phrases aim at expressing her ideas in her arts as she uses the postmodern characteristics in her captions. She also uses them in her videos and audios. Barbara’s major topics base themselves in the social life in the postmodern era. For instance, the on how we relate with each other in the social life.
This includes such aspects like kindness of people to one another in the daily social lives (Zurbrugg 2004). It also includes the brutalities that people face in their social lives as they interact with each other. She uses art to express all these and high art improves her messages to the public. There is a difference between the uses of postmodern characteristics by the two artists above because of the style they use to express their arts. Jeff tries to bring out some humor and playful aspect in bringing out his message to the public by using the characteristics of postmodernism (Suarez 2007).
Barbra on the other hand uses high culture unlike Jeff who uses the popular culture for his arts. However, they are all characteristics of the postmodernism in displaying their messages of art to the public. Jeff utilizes the popular culture to showcase his art traditionally. Another contrast between these two artists in regard to how they use their materials and techniques to display their arts is that Jeff is more popular than Barbra. This is because Jeff uses skills that attract children because of their sense of humor.
For instance, he makes sculptures with smiling faces that made from mustard (Zurbrugg 2004). This attracts both kids and adults which has made more popular because of his technique and the colors that he uses to attract the attention of his target group.
Read More