In this essay, I will be giving a summary on post-modernism and deconstructivism, focusing on their key features, characteristics, social influences, how they relate to other art movements, and some key figures who practiced them.
Post-modernism was a reaction to modernism, which is associated with an analytical approach to the function[1]. It encompasses movements such as Futurism, Constructivism, De Stijl and Bauhaus. Built around the concept of simplicity is key, modernism focuses on creating a universal language through the use of geometric shapes, asymmetrical composition, and absence of excessive decorations. It suppressed diversity and complexity and was seen as boring or inhumane and sometimes even hostile. Modernism rejected historical styles and embraced the idea of functionalism[2]. In areas of architecture, such as mass housing projects, historical places were destroyed, allowing for a single urban function to exist in a single area. This resulted in over-simplified spaces which rejects the rich complexity of traditional spaces. The modernist notion of zeitgeist that obliterated the past and wiped out differences in tradition and experience was condemned. History proved to provide a more communicative language allowing architecture to regain the public role which the modernist denied. Thus, this led to the anti-modernist period known as Post-modernism.
Post-modernism was created in 1978 and originated from Italy. It reacted to the cleanliness, blandness, functionalism, and utopianism of modernism, and as such, some of its key characteristics are its rejection of the industrial process.[3] It relied on decorative elements and used layered imagery, collages, and photomontage in graphic design. It questions the emphasis that modernists have placed on logic, simplicity, and order and is represented the increasingly fragmented nature of societies in the 80s. It became desirable to break away from Modernism to explore the full complexity of human experience. Post-modernism advocates the merging of fine art and mass culture, highbrow and populist art, incorporating symbolism, and uses visual ideas out of their normal context. Post-Modernism drew its symbolic forms and motifs from Art Deco, Constructivism, De Stijl, Surrealism, Pop Art, Kitsch and Computer imagery. It also revolves around the belief that consumers are more likely to relate to them on a psychological level. A key figure in post-modernism is Piero Fornasett (Milan, 1913-1988), who designed hybrid buildings and products quoting from historic styles and pop culture, juxtaposing historic architectural visuals onto his furniture and interior designs. An example of post-modernism in his product designs would be Chair with backrest in the shape of a Corinthian capital (Figure 1). Despite his designs being dismissed by modernists in the 1950s to 1960s, they found favor and reappraisal with the arrival of Post-Modernism in the 1980s.
Figure 1. Piero Fornasetti, Chair with backrest in the shape of a Corinthian capital. Image taken from http://www.italianways.com/surreal-chairs-by-piero-fornasetti/
Contributing significantly to the acceptance of Post-Modernism as an International Style in the 1980s was memphism, which is an art movement which was founded by Ettore Sottsass in 1981. Memphis is a Milan-based collective of young furniture and product designers led by Sottsass. It was a reaction against minimalism and centered around the idea of radical, funny, and outrageous[4]. Memphis designs were focused on historicism, which borrowed concepts from the past and present, with clashing colours and forms were used as a way to show its rejection towards simple functionalism. Some of its characteristics include bright colour palette inspired from pop art, bold geometric forms from inspired from Art Deco, and Kitsch Styling, as can be seen in Sottsass’ Carlton Shelf (Figure 2). Some of the prevailing features include Laminate and Terrazzo materials, which were usually found on floors, were incorporated into tables and lamps, creating bright, multi-coloured objects with a rejection of typical shapes. For example, instead using a typical rectangular shape for chair legs, circle or triangle legs would be used. As postmodernism started to gain attention, some started to pick on the movement. In addition, the global recess forced designers to be more practical. A new architectural tendency associated with post-structuralist theory and constructivist form reacted against post-modernism, and this group of believers soon went on to start the art movement called deconstructivism.
Figure 2. Sottsass Carlton, Shelf. Image taken from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/14/7c/36/147c36b2b72b0946d98b3c053c68975e.jpg
Originating in France, 1988, deconstructionism derived from concepts of deconstruction by Jacques Derrida in the late 1960s as a method of literary criticism. Derrida believed a text could have multiple interpretations, and therefore could never mean exactly what it says or say what it means[5]. Deconstructivism aimed to extract the meaninglessness of the text by destabilising its intellectual foundation, challenging ideas of rational order to expose hidden meanings. His philosophy translated into a style of architecture and interior design which aimed to challenge ideas of rational order and expose hidden workings, overturning functionalism and rationalism. An example of deconstructivism in architecture is Hadid’s Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (Cincinnati, 1997–2003); it is not a traditional museum that isolates and protects the artwork within. Instead the building blends with its urban context through an “urban carpet”; the museum’s entranceway floor seems to emerge from the plane of the street, which, curving slowly upward, eventually becomes the building’s organizing element[6]. The exhibition galleries interlock like a cluster of three-dimensional concrete pieces creating a radical departure from the traditional linear succession of gallery spaces. (Figure 3). Deconstructionism drew references from Russian Constructivism, which believed that art and design should be absorbed into industrial production. It used a geometric, precise, almost mathematical method in their work and consisted of rectangles, squares, and circles as the predominant shapes. Its emphasis was placed on the dominance of machine over nature. The fragmentation and geometric shapes were seen later during the Deconstructivism period. Another art movement that was referenced in deconstructivism is minimalism. In minimalism, artworks were stripped down to their most fundamental elements and essentials. It centered on reduction in expressive media and the value of empty space, exploring with materials, space and lights while avoiding stylistic mannerism. This runs similarly to the lack of a central focal point in objects of deconstructivism. In addition, by stripping an object down to its essentials, its core, pure meaning and content is addressed. Deconstructivism architecture is characterised by shearing and fragmentation, where the architectural form seemingly explodes into loose collections of related fragments. Non-rectilinear shapes were used, which distorts and dislocates conventional architectural structure, destroying the dominance of the right angle and the cube by using the diagonal line and the `slice’ of space. It also manipulated surfaces manipulation via the use of multi-layering planes to suggest multiple interpretations.
Figure 3. Zaha Hadid, Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art. Image taken from https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/572c/e40a/e58e/ce74/ca00/0092/medium_jpg/956_CAC_RH_1303-61_hi_res.jpg?1462559749
In conclusion, post-modernism rejected the industrial process in movements like functionalism and modernism, using motifs to relate to consumers on a psychological level. Following that was deconstructivism, which aimed to provoke shock, uncertainty, disruption, distortion by challenging and putting juxtaposed elements together to contradict each other in order to challenge traditional ideas of harmony, continuity, and stability, rejecting the idea of the perfection and ornamentation.
[1] Aylesworth, Gary. “Postmodernism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. September 30, 2005. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/.
[2] “Modern Architecture.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. October 25, 2018. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/art-and-architecture/architecture/modern-architecture.
[3] Harrison, Sylvia. 2001. Pop art and the origins of post-modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511497681.
[4] “Memphis Group.” Wikipedia. November 06, 2018. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group.
[5] Lawlor, Leonard. “Jacques Derrida.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. April 16, 2018. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/derrida/.
[6] Fiederer, Luke. “AD Classics: Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art / Zaha Hadid Architects.” ArchDaily. May 07, 2016. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://www.archdaily.com/786968/ad-classics-rosenthal-center-for-contemporary-art-zaha-hadid-architects-usa.
