Postmodernism
Bahc Yiso, Pride Series, 1993, Wood, steel, net, Pride:33.5×91.5×55, Big Pride:33×97×58, Super Pride:30.7×91.8×55.5, Ultra Pride:31×92×57.2, New Pride:31.5×91.5×55, Double Pride: 34×96.7×53.6cm. MMCA collection

Postmodernism

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Postmodernism emerged to prominence in the 1980s as a broad intellectual critique of modernism in its role as the dominant philosophical zeitgeist of the 20th century. Postmodernist critique has a general tendency to challenge the separation between high and low culture, strict distinctions between artistic genres, as well as notions of originality, newness, and authorship. The term postmodernist art can be used to cover a wide range of creative approaches, none of which are limited to medium-specificity, however, appropriation and citation are often considered as important characteristics. In art history, the label can be applied to many artworks created after the 1960s; however, it is not used for one specific genre of art. The term can be applied to not only pop art in its resisting of cultural hierarchies and conceptual art deviating from medium-specificity,  but also land art, body art, video art, and installation art in terms of their critically expanding of artistic genre and form in challenge to established convention. In the context of the 1980s, Neo-expressionist paintings, returning back to figuration and historical eclecticism (such as Julian Schnabel’s works), and the ironically “staged” self-portrait photographs of Cindy Sherman question the originality and provide evidence of the variety of artistic practices that could be termed as postmodernist art. As such, the term postmodernism, can perhaps most usefully be considered in application to the diverse types of artistic practices that challenge the conventional notions of modernism. In Korea, postmodernist works offer an equally diverse field of practice depending on the definition of “postmodernism” in question. Historically, the term was used to describe the work of the small art groups called “New generation” that emerged between the end of the 1980s and early 1990s. These groups often focused their work on de-centered topics, usage of multi-media, an affinity with popular culture, and a casual attitude towards fine art. Some people also regard the Minjung Art movement as representative of postmodernism in Korea. This is because it emerged as a direct criticism against national modernist art including Dansaekhwa of the 1970s.
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service

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