Postmodern Era Synthesis Ash.P4.T5

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, greatly influenced postmodern artists, Pollack and Warhol. Freud believed that truth is elicited through reason, and that reason itself “elevates humanity far above other creatures.” Religion is not compatible with Freud’s scientific and logical reasoning; he wrote a book that referencing to spirituality, named The Future of an Illusion. He developed a theory that people acted out of unconscious, innate instincts that could not be escaped. These irrational actions are often based in the concept of sexuality.
However, in the postmodern era, reality was seen as subjective. An individual’s perception of reality differed from others’ due to different experiences, exposures, opinions, etc. As a reaction to the modern era, people strayed from the logical and scientific mindset - similar to Freud’s - to one that was more illogically inclined, focusing more on the differing perspectives that society presented its many issues with.
Andy Warhol, an American-born artist of the postmodern era, was an integral leader in the pop art movement. His block print paintings revealed how profoundly Freud had influenced his art: as a direct reaction to Freud’s theories of reason and science, Warhol diverges into the zeitgeist of the postmodern era by forcing onlookers to observe an artistic idea with many perspectives, as contrasting colors change from block to block across the painting. Warhol’s paintings that repeated images but altered the colors portrayed messages of how the importance lies on ideas and personal perception, rather than the objective observation of the recognizable and repeated subject of the painting. In a way, the repetition of such images draws the attention away from the image, and brings it to the use of colors and how that evokes emotion and a deeper understanding - one that is personal and specific to each person.
In addition to Warhol, Jackson Pollock, an influential leader of abstract painting in the postmodern era, revealed the shift of sensibility from Freud’s age. Pollock used a range of darker colors in his most famous drip paintings. The mood created by the cool colors and formless layers of paint “dripped” onto the canvas reveals the kind of undefined and nonuniform state of mind and the intertwining personal perceptions of ideas that all come from one “reality” that is presented on the canvas of life. Such abstract portrayals of the shift from organized reasoning stand in stark contrast to the modern era ideals, creating a message of the newfound intricacies of personal interpretation of the relative reality of individuals.