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NSWVisual ArtsThe Frames
Quick questions on The postmodern frame: HSC Visual Arts core concept
6short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the postmodern frame in critical practice?Show answer
Critics applying the postmodern frame typically open with the appropriated source, then identify the strategies the artwork deploys, then situate the work in the postmodern tradition (Duchamp, Pop Art, Pictures Generation, contemporary). Hal Foster's writing in October magazine is a canonical example.
What is appropriation?Show answer
The use of existing images, often from popular or commercial sources. Roy Lichtenstein's paintings of comic-book panels (Whaam!, 1963), Sherrie Levine's rephotographs of Walker Evans (1981), Richard Prince's appropriated Marlboro cigarette advertisements (Untitled, Cowboy, 1989).
What is irony?Show answer
Saying or showing one thing while meaning another. Andy Warhol's celebrations of consumer culture (Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962) are simultaneously embraces and critiques.
What is parody and pastiche?Show answer
Humorous imitation (parody) or imitation without satirical intent (pastiche). Glenn Brown's pastiches of Frank Auerbach and Rembrandt; Damien Hirst's spot paintings as a parody of the unique artist's gesture.
What is seriality?Show answer
Multiples that undermine the unique original. Warhol's Marilyns; Donald Judd's identical aluminum boxes. Walter Benjamin's 1936 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" is foundational for thinking about seriality.
What is institutional critique?Show answer
Artworks that attack the gallery and museum system. Hans Haacke's Shapolsky et al. (1971), Andrea Fraser's Museum Highlights (1989).
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