Crossing Borders/Breaking Boundaries 2000:

A Multidisciplinary Institute for Arts Educators

 
   

Considering the Postmodern

Teacher: Greg English
Arts Discipline: Visual Arts
Grade Level: High School
Team: C
Topic: Considering the Postmodern

Click here to view the lesson plans of other Team C members.

"What do you get when you cross a postmodernist with a used car salesman?
Answer: You get an offer you can't understand?"

- - Written by "vance" to a listserve, in turn quoted by "MaloneyMK" on the ArtsEdNet listserve, Jan. 27, 1998...now requoted by me :)

some noble attempts at definitions:
(check all that apply) your selections may be broadcasted on NBC® live. Your decisions may be altered to meet the needs of all audiences. All checks should be made with the thought of conformity in mind. NBC® reserves the right to through your answers in the trash
Postmodernism is probably best understood as a critique of society in reaction to modernism (Kissick, 1993). While modernists believed in the possibility of art as universal communication, postmodernists believe art to be contextual or culture specific. While modernists created "art for art's sake," the postmodernists seek a connection between art and life (Gablik, 1991). Postmodernism has decentered the individual and creativity (at least in theory), while emphasizing the interaction of language, culture and society. Postmodernists accept multiple views, fragmentation, and exhibit tolerance for ambiguity (Barrett, 1994).
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POSTMODERN LESSON eyeDEAS in visual artPostmodernism may be complex, but that only offers us more opportunities and possibilities to teach art in a holistic and meaningful context. Eliot Eisner (1998) believes "both curriculum and teaching should help students internalize what they have learned and relate it to life outside of school" (p. 29). I strongly believe that teaching students to see artwork, their world and the relationship between the two provides them with an authentic understanding of art. Below I am proposing lesson plans that are either 1) about postmodern art and the postmodern era or 2) use a postmodern strategy for teaching concepts or 3) both. My goals are to:
    • Expand on these ideas by developing them into lessons and testing them over the course of this institute and beyond.
    • Collect more information regarding postmodernism and make it available on this site.
    • Gather ideas and lessons from others that can be posted here as a forum for teachers to use.

Lesson ideas provided at the institute by Dr. Greg Metcalf:

    • Assign students to "correct" a masterpiece. Have students rework their masterpiece according to the principles of postmodernism.
    • Combine two sources of art images to create a postmodern work (a comic strip with a Renaissance painting).
    • Create Barbies in the style of artists (Picasso Barbie).
    • Create an architectural design/model that represents an idea (a building that represents America).
    • Make symbolic masks that reflect an idea in postmodern culture (racism, AIDs, etc.)
 

Lesson ideas I have thought about while at the institute:

Concept: Deconstructing something old by taking it apart and reworking in new ideas.

  • Lesson Idea: Find an old book and collage into it. How does the text dialogue with the collaging? Explore visual puns and irony to critique/enhance the book. Is the book still a book? A work of art?
  • Lesson Idea: Give each student the same simple outline drawing ( a contour of a fruit basket or an animal). Then assign each student a different artist. Have them create/recreate the outline drawing in the style of their artist. How might they do this with a postmodern approach?

Concept: Analyze commercial advertising (magazine and TV ads) and remake them.

  • Lesson Idea: Choose a sampling of ads that exemplify postmodernism. Identify postmodern advertising strategies and the reasoning behind them. Judge the ads. Are they effective? How does each person interpret them?

Concept: Discuss and critique the differences and influences of modernism and postmodernism.

  • Lesson Idea: Locate postmodern art or architecture that uses art/architecture from the past. Also find the originals for which the postmodern pieces are "borrowing" from. How did the postmodern artist steal from older work? Why? Is this considered stealing, borrowing or enhancing? Can anything you do be "original"?
  • Lesson Idea: Display a body of modern work and without telling the students that the work is considered modern art, have them identify and analyze characteristics that is seen in the body of work. Have the students develop there own "ism" name for this body of work. Do the same with postmodern work and then use their criteria lists to compare and contrast modernism with postmodernism.

Concept: Create a postmodern work of art that critiques or comments on a postmodern piece of music.

 

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Sponsored by The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, The Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies, and the Maryland State Department of Education.

 

We welcome your comments and suggestions.
Last updated 25 April 2001