Modernism and Post Modernism

The philosophical movement, Modernism, started in western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when cultural trends and other changes came about. The industrialisation of society, the horror of WW1 and the rejection of Enlightenment thinking and religious belief, were some of the many factors that shaped Modernism into what it became.

Modernists believed that traditional forms of art, architecture,
social organization, literature and other activities of everyday life, were no longer fitting to modern society andwas outdated in the new economic, social and political environment.

In art it pursed more with the moving-picture show, divisionist  painting and abstract art, which coincidentally all had precursors in the 19th century.

Modernism was noticeable for its self-consciousness, leading to experiments with form and the focus on techniques, processes and materials used in painting, poems and architecture etc. It rejected the ideology of realism and focuses on parody.  Modernism is considered a mode of thinking, defining characteristics of self-reference that run across in arts and disciplines of modernist arts. Basically a form should meet its function, favouring the pragmatics of a form rather than its aesthetics. Many modernist designers include Mies van der Rohe, the designer and director of the Bauhaus art school, located in Germany, where many product designers such as Alessi studied at.

In the late 20th Century Postmodernism started up in arts that was completely different to Modernism and would constantly criticize it. Postmodernism involves skeptical
interpretations of art, literature, fiction and many other features as well as being closely teamed with deconstruction and post-structuralism as it gained popularity with them at the same time. Postmodernism is applied to numerous art, music and literature movements that react against the ideologies of modernism. Postmodernism looks to escape the double-mindedness of Modernism through its criticism by extending it to religion.