Postmodernism - Eclecticism

Postmodernism is a term which has created and continues to create debate and criticism, sometimes ridiculed and often theorised, the term in itself is complex and often reffered to as a social condition rather than an actual Art movement. As described by Rick Poyner "the products of postmodernism culture tend to be distinguished by such characteristics as fragmentation, impurity of form, depthlessness, indeterminacy, intertextuality, plurism, eclecticism and a return to the vernacular. Originality, in the imperative modernist sense of making it new, ceases to be the goal; parody, pastiche and the ironic recycling of earlier forms proliferate. The postmodern object problematizes meaning, offers multiple points of access and makes itself as open as possible to interpretation" (Poyner, R.2003,p12)

Beginning in the 1970's, Postmodernistic views differed from earlier Modernist attitudes, instead of having an optimism to search for all things new and strive for purity and perfection, Postmodern attitudes moved towards destruction, believing that society created identity; design, art and architecture began to portray these ideas and attitudes, common traits include unconventional layouts, illegible typography and electic use of old and new sources and styles.

Eclectic, defined in the Oxford dictionary as ' selecting from various styles, ideas or sources' is a term often associated with Postmodernism, whereas modernist artists had strived to create new, purist forms, postmodern designers used previous styles, mixing with modern medium to create unusual, sometimes contraversial works.

Jamie Reid's iconic God Save The Queen design for the anarchistic punk group, The Sex Pistols is an early example of postmodern eclecticism, the use of collage and deconstructing images is typical Dada style, whilst using newspaper cuttings to create the typography, the use of photographs with cut and pasted letters created an eclectic image which can be defined as also portraying eclectic views and theories from the artist as well as the culture of this period. Jamie Reid's designs often involve many aspects of postmodern parody, double-coding, deconstruction and revivalism.

Tom Van Den Haspel uses an eclectic mix of sources; he combines the old with the new, using ephemera and found objects and merging them with modern photography and digital typefaces. His designs are intriguing, open to be analysed by the audience. The styles are an assortment of aspects taken from earlier movements, portraying characteristics of constructivism, cubism and dada.

Barney Bubbles (Colin Fulcher) is often described as an original postmodern designer; his designs carry all the characteristics associated with the term 'Postmodernism', especially eclecticism. His works involve an eclectic use of historic styles as well as an assortment of medium, his self portrait designed for the Face magazine in 1989, has similarities to cubism, dada, constructivism and abstract art and could be closely associated to the works of Lissitzky, Van Doesberg, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Pollock.

Bibliography

Appignanesi, R, 1999. Introducing Postmodernism. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin Pty.

Poyner, R, 2203. No More Rules Graphic Design and Postmodernism. London: Laurence King.

Stangos, N, 2006. Concepts of Modern Art. London: Thames and Hudson.

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html (accessed 2nd October 2009)

http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/modpostmod.html (accessed 3rd October 2009)

http://integralworld.net/martin-smith.html (accessed 3rd October 2009)