Postmodern. adj. Pertaining to other than that following the modern; the postmodern reacts against it. That which is classical or traditional may be incorporated, if it is incorporated with an awareness that has gone through modernism. More obvious attributes, than ‘historical quotation’, are ‘loud colours, bold patterns’ and ‘a good degree of wit’, according to a newspaper report anticipating the V&A’s autumn exhibition entitled ‘Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990’. The report proffers its definition with mutterings of the thorniness and trickiness of composing such a thing, before stating ‘some people even consider it a term of abuse’.

Before my recent, attempted demolition of the argument that photography is not art, I fessed up to its straw construction; as if, with the confession out the way, the spectacle could still be. Perhaps I was even hasty. Some would have the Deutsche Börse prize be the new battleground. The fight now seems to be a modern/postmodern analogue, if not that thing exactly, with a particular genre of photography, more postmodern than modern, finding favour with members of the art crowd and the shortlist draughtsman, to the exclusion of other genres. The prize’s catalogue glorifies those “reexamining the photographic medium" in ways such as Thomas Demand’s, who recreates pictures by rebuilding the subjects in folded paper before photographing those builds himself. It might seem, therefore, to be concentrating on the arduousness of arriving at a representation, which I argued should not be the be all and end all of art. I shall endeavor to view the exhibition now before wading any further.

Reading:

Postmodernism London's V&A museum attempts a definition Art and design The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/28/postmodernism-retrospective-london-v-and-a

Deutsche Börse When is contemporary photography not photography Art and design guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/06/deutsche-borse-prize-photographers-gallery

Do the Deutsche Börse prize jury really get photography Sean O'Hagan Art and design guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/dec/02/deutsche-borse-prize-conceptual

PAUL GRAHAM The Unreasonable Apple (2010)
http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/03/theory-paul-graham-unreasonable-apple.html