Art Sunday/ Song Saturday/ Poetry Wednesday; POSTMODERNISM

This seems to have spontaneously evolved into a combination of Art Sunday, Song Saturday and Poetry Wednesday all rolled into one.

Postmodernism, Andy Warhol and Lou Reed

Postmodern art is a term used to describe art which developed in the aftermath of ‘Modernism’. The term covers a multitude of Art, Styles and Media;  the depiction of consumer or popular culture being just some of them.

The depiction of common objects presented as Art was sometimes referred to as ‘Lowbrow Art’ or as Pop Surrealism. Actual definitions are difficult, since the movement itself rejected strict definitions and absolutes. So called ‘Lowbrow art’ does serve to illustrate  one of the central themes in postmodernism which is that; the distinction between "high" and "low" art are no longer recognized. The boundaries are irreversibly merged.

One of the first to use the term "Pop Art" to describe paintings or images that celebrated consumerism of the post World War 11 era was Lawrence Alloway . He used the term for art which depicted, and often celebrated material consumer culture, advertising, and iconography of the mass production age. Early works of  David Hockney and Richard Hamilton, are good  examples of this type of work together with later American examples which  include the bulk of the careers of Andy Warhol  and  Roy  Lichtenstein

Pop Art as an example of postmodernism shows how the so called "Great Divide" between high art and popular culture is smashed for ever. The most obvious example of this type of work has to be Warhol. Fame and notoriety soon attached themselves to Warhol and his fourth floor studio apartment in New York, (called the Factory) soon became the place to be for absolutely any one who was any one. It developed into a meeting place for New York’s Poets, musicians, drug addicts, aspiring rock stars and entourage of eccentric personalities.  At some point during this avant-garde gathering Warhol was taken to a little club called ‘Cafe Bizarre’ and introduced to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, the rest as they say is history.  At their very first meeting Andy Warhol is supposed to have said to Lou Reed that they did the same thing with the music as he did with his work. This appears to have been true; Lou Reed was to music as Andy Warhol was to Art. Warhol managed Velvet Underground for a while but their most famous and iconic collaboration has to be the un-named album known simply as ‘the Banana Album’, Warhol produced the album and designed the now instantly recognisable album cover.

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/82/Warhol

What is not so well recognised is Lou Reed’s poetic works. Their music was so bizarre that many people did not listen to it, and even those who did rarely recognised the poetry contained within the lyrics.  Consider the lyrics of

‘’The Black Angel's Death Song’’; but remember this was something like 40 years before ‘Trainspotting’;  similar experiences of the authors and similar messages but Lou Reed has infinitely more poetry in the telling.

American spelling left as this is the way it was written.

’The Black Angel's Death Song’’

The myriad choices of his fate

Set themselves out upon a plate

For him to choose

What had he to lose

Not a ghost bloodied country

All covered with sleep

Where the black angel did weep

Not an old city street in the east

Gone to choose

And wandering's brother

Walked on through the night

With his hair in his face

On a long splintered cut from the knife of G.T.

The rally man's patter ran on through the dawn

Until we said so long

To his skull-shrill yell

Shining brightly red-rimmed and

Red-lined with the time

Infused with the choice of the mind

On ice skates scraping chunks

From the bells

Cut mouth bleeding razor's

Forgetting the pain

Antiseptic remains cool goodbye

So you fly

To the cozy brown snow of the east

Gone to choose, choose again

Sacrificials remains make it hard to forget

Where you come from

The stools of your eyes

Serve to realize fame, choose again

And roverman's refrain of the sacrilege recluse

For the loss of a horse

Went the bowels and a tail of a rat

Come again, choose to go

And if Epiphany's terror reduced you to shame

Have your head bobbed and weaved

Choose a side to be on

If the stone glances off

Split didactics in two

Leave the colors of the mouse trails

Don't scream, try between

If you choose, if you choose, try to lose

For the loss of remain come and start

Start the game I che che che che I

Che che ka tak koh

Choose to choose

Choose to choose, choose to go