Approaches to Postmodern Art-making

Terry Barrett proposes a new list of principles in his article Approaches to Postmodern Art-making that should shape an art education curriculum besides the standard elements and principles of design like line, shape, texture, ect. Some of the principles or themes that Barrett mentions are escaping the confines of museums, high and low art: kitsch, rejecting originality, jouissance, working collaboratively, appropriation, rejecting originality, simulating, mixing media, mixing codes, recontextualization, layering, hybridity, gazing, facing the abject, constructing identities, narratives, metaphors, and irony, parody, and dissonance. Below are some examples I found to be interesting.

Appropriation: " To appropriate is to possess, borrow, steal, copy, or excerpt images that already exist, made by other artists or available in the public domain and general culture". (Barrett, pg. 5)

Yasumasa Morimura

Recontextualization: " A means of constructing meaning by positioning a familiar image in a new and unexpected relationship to words". (Barrett, pg. 8)

Michael Ray Charles

Layering: " Some artists pile images on top of each other, thus changing the meanings of the images in their original uses" (Barrett, pg. 7)

David Salle

Hybridity: " Is mixing diverse cultural influences in a single artwork". (Barrett, pg. 6)

Pipilotti Rist

Gazing: "The tendency to represent women in ways that heightened the sexual or erotic aspects of women's bodies". (Barrett, pg. 9)

Vanessa Beecroft