Postmodernism

This brief introduction explores Postmodernism as an intellectual current and as it shaped the visual arts. Heartney writes plainly, steering clear of specialist vocabulary, so newcomers can follow the ideas.

She places the movement in its historical context, tracing how it arose in opposition to Modernism's core convictions, especially its faith in positivism and universal principles, while also growing out of those same convictions. Her analysis then turns to landmark Postmodern artworks by Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine, Jeff Koons and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Eleanor Heartney is a contributing editor for Art in America, New Art Examiner and Art Press. In 1991 she received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism. She serves on the board of the American section of AICA and is the author of Critical Condition: American Culture at the Crossroads (1997). She lives in New York.