Big Nerd's Favorite Postmodernist Artists

catsarecoolaswatermelon 7th Pd.

M.C. Escher is a Dutch artist and is well known for his surrealist artwork and optical illusions. Escher tends to combine multiple objects and merge them together to create an illusion so it’s almost as if there are 2 different things you’re looking at. Metamorphosis is a perfect example of one of his famous pieces.

Here is the link to his other artwork if you are interested, trust me, you will be.

M.C. Escher

John Smith, 7th says: This Digital Image created by Frederik Heyman for Arca is one of the most beautiful art pieces I've ever seen. This artwork was used for Arca's cover of her album KicK iii. KicK iii is one of the third albums in her KiCk cycle, a compilation of 5 albums based on Doña Arca, a persona created by transgender non-binary artist, Alejandra Gharsi, from Venezuela. Doña Arca is a symbol of empowerment, sexuality, self expression, and identity. In the image below, Doña Arca stands above these creatures with double heads. Arca herself has two heads, symbolizing the face we put for others, and the face we put for ourselves. It's a beautiful and stunning image and will forever be one of my favorites.

Hero Brine 7th

The painting is called "Grandfather Clock Digging Grave," and it's by pawel kuczynski. It is a great depiction of time and death. It has a scary look to it and is symbolism that death is inevitable. It has an element of paranoia and irony because as the clock ticks its digging the hole deeper and deeper.

Selena Gomez 7th

This is a painting by @poorteffy on instagram called "RAW DEAL". He uses many postmodern elements in his art. At first glance you see the hyperrealism with the distorted face and hands but also the black humor with the title and the greedy appearing hands.

rosemary juniper lee 7th

I couldn't find a piece of postmodern, like a portrait, painting, or some kind of architecture. So, I decided to talk about "JoJo's Bizzare Adventure" which is an anime about family generations that fights a guy named Dio or other evil people. The lore and storyline of this anime is wild, so I'm mostly gonna talk about the art style and the overall vibe of the show. So it has tons of maximalism because the show design mocks other anime styles. The design and character design are insanly over the top, such as the hyper-masculine male characters kinda makes fun of certain mangas. Plus the finishing fight moves of some of the JoJos are really crazy with tons of colors, noise, and fast moving parts which maximalizes the fight scenes in the show, Plus, there's

magical realism elements such as world-building. The creator of the anime created this concept of a magical version of people that has superpower (yes, that doesn't make sense but pretend that you understand. It also has some historiographic metafiction elements like it includes World War II but it has some details changed because they

were supernatural beings walking around. I could write a lot more because it's a weird show but I definitely recommend it!!

BOB ROSS 3rd

In "Pride" Florian Krewer in my opinion takes us on a journey of what the 20th century has become with his contemporary art. He uses surreal elements like a man sitting on the corner and birds flying around him, but at the same time it gives you a feeling of being in a surreal dimension. My interpretation is that the man is pondering all that he has endured in the last couple of years. With covid it could include a loss of a job or family hinse why he is all alone in the image. While he he sits their though he lets all of his anger and grief consuming him from the inside out which has now swarmed him clearing all judgement. It gives us A overall uneasy feeling with raging colors and his black eyes staring directly at you makes this piece defiantly speak to you in many different ways.

Legolas 3rd

Lego Bridge Painted by Martin Heuwold

Image taken by Morty CC BY-SA 3.0

This is the Lego-Brücke (translated to Lego Bridge) in Wuppertal Germany. I mean it kind of in the name, plus playing with Lego bricks was like the coolest thing you could do back then. I don’t really like looking at painted art, but I really enjoy Art in the sense that it is a representation of culture. I think this Lego Bridge does that sort of thing since it mixes a nostalgic look to a rather bare object. There is a form of fabulation or intertextuality since it brings what is a tiny thing to us into a larger form which you can actually walk on. Its a little child’s dream come true.

Crystal Shanda-Leer 3rd

This artwork is called Surrel by Marcus Jansen. Marcus Jansen is an Urban artist which is a genre of postmodern art. urban artists tend to travel from city to city and create works of art that represent the culture and movement they see throughout the city. I just think everyone of those are beautiful

Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden

2ndThing

5th Period

Let me paint a picture. 1,500+ reflective silver balls, $2 each, tightly arranged, your reflection staring back at you as you look at it. I love the idea! Essentially buying your narcissism, the viewer is now forced to confront their own ego. The reflection purely depends on your perspective (how high you hold it, how far away it is from your face, etc.), and that perfectly reflects the fluidity of how one views their own vanity. This pastiche and parody of artistic norms is prime Postmodernism.

This woman is funky, I love it. Kusama primarily works with instillations that push the boundaries of art. Her use of repetition in her art work mimics her struggles with mental illness. What I find so interesting is some might find the continuity of a pattern comforting, while others might find it anxiety-inducing. Super cool amiright?

Thing 1 5th

Balance - Sabir Haque

Balance by Sabir Haque is a very simple art style, practicing the postmodern element of minimalism. Minimalism is shown here as this painting is very simplistic and does not have a lot of focus points. The main thing is the rocks balancing and there is nothing else in the painting that might want to catch the viewer's eyes. What I find so incredible about this painting is the message it sends. Nothing is impossible if you try hard enough, and I think we all need to be reminded of this when we get too hard on ourselves.

Check out more of Sabir Haque's paintings here: Sabir Haque Paintings | Fine Art America

Anonymoussmile05 p.5

Marilyn Diptych

The painting "Marilyn Diptych" by the artist, Andy Warhol is a postmodern painting of Marilyn Monroe. The separation of the contrasting colors in this painting grabbed my interest to it. Intertextuality and pastiche are used to include modern day colors to the black and white coloring they had in pictures when Marilyn Monroe was alive. This painting was also created right after Marilyn Monroe died. The color part represents her life, while the black and white morns her death. The repeated images of her face also represent her importance and presence on the media.

Silent Shark 6th

This postmodern art, "Surreal" by Marcus Jansen, caught my attention because of the scene it creates. It includes fabulation as it seemingly creates a new world that we are somehow a part of. The street art also heavily plays on the element of maximalism. The different colors and characters help create a complex reality that mimics street/urban life.

To learn more about this art style you can visit https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/why-is-urban-art-inherently-postmodern

porcifan234 p3

I chose Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. I chose this because of the beautiful simplicity of it. The minimalism is definitely postmodern, along with the hyperrealism. I live all of the details in this painting and I love looking at old artists' work because I fell like they were so ahead of their time. This is definitely an example I would say was ahead of it's time.

the link: https://historylists.org/art/20-of-the-world%E2%80%99s-most-famous-art-pieces.html

Bentley&Scout 7th

"Comedian" by Maurizio Cattelan

This art piece screams minimalism. It seems so simple because it's very plain with just two different items presented. The banana and the duck tape look like an actual picture being taken which can represent pastiche because of the mix of two different things.

Cyber Surfer 4th:

Heavenly Highway of Aunt Fränzi (1974-1975) by Lubo Kristek

This painting, done by Lubo Kristek, screams magical realism. The main focal points of this piece are painted smoothly and clearly defined. A woman's head and neck lay on a white pillar, and she frowns at the observer. Roads leading to the sky intersect at the end of the mountains and go through the clouds. The sky is grey, but the setting sun creates red accents that hit the clouds. A single live rose is at the forefront of the image, while a row of dead flowers lead up the mountain. All of these characteristics are far fetched, dream-like, and surreal. The painting could even be perceived as a horror based upon the tone, colors, and expression of the lady.

Kachan 6th

Painted based on the Nazi Germany bombing of the Basque town of Guernica, Spain, in April 1937, Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" shows the misery of the destroyed town through the indiscriminate killings of hundredths of women and children. The element of Maximalism is evident within the enormous canvas painting as it is filled with captivating abstract work which depicts the reality of the day the bombing happened. The reality in which people were caught up and killed. I'd like to think that the size and chaos shown in the picture are based on the gravity of the issue.

BelugaGray 7th period

Jeff Koons is the artist behind "Balloon Dog" structures. Koons is known for making millions off of his pop culture structures of random objects. He does have his reasonings for the objects he choses to create. They symbolized good times, from birthdays and parties with the shiny texture. He also said it symbolized life in the way it represents a balloon. He uses the postmodernism element of maximalism in the extremity of the size and cost of the minimal amount of structures.

the_freckle_face 7th

This painting is called "Under the full Moon" By Randi Matushevitz. This painting uses intertextuality and a focus on exteriority to portray the concept that everyone has a dark side. Everyone has something about them that no one else sees or knows about. It links to the idea that the crazy people come out when the moon is full, connecting back, our wild side won't come out until the right moment, either when everyone is expecting it too or when no one is ready for it.

Donald Duck 7th

Artist Bill Freeza created and painted this beautiful picture that describes the attack of western civilization. I absolutely love how freeza was able to execute the element of minimalism through the simple shapes and colors to get his point across. Using such simple shapes to discuss a major topic, really reveals the post modernism characteristics, because he was able to inform the audience using non-complex visual pieces to look at.

Anne Teak 4th

This is Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych piece is one of many postmodernist art pieces and it is several images of Marilyn Monroe. This was taken from one of her films Niagara that was reproduced through color. It has postmodernist details of mass production and has the intertextuality of popular modern art along with society components. This also undermines the authors authority by the repetitiveness of her face in many different shades.

More pieces can be found here