We Understand It and We Don't

Acquisitions No. 1: Postmodern Consumption Case Study, Free Resources, Duran Lantink Fall 2025 Runway, and a Flamin' Hot Cheeto

​​Here we acquire perspective, not just things, and I do not think I could have picked a headier topic for the new and improved Acquisitions.

Duran Lantink’s Barbour.

The Theory: Postmodern Consumption

Postmodernism, as a cultural, artistic, and philosophical movement, is notoriously difficult to define despite its sweeping impact on American life. Postmodernist work rejects truth and tradition, while embracing artifice and symbolism. It constructs new realities based on those symbols, which are often reworked to diminish their original meaning. Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych (1962) is a famous example of this: 

“Warhol took Monroe as his subject in different mediums, silk screening the actress’s image multiple times in a grid in bright colours and in black and white. By repeating Monroe’s image (and that of other celebrities) over and over again, Warhol acknowledged his own fascination with a society in which personas could be manufactured, commodified, and consumed like products.”

Postmodernism began over a decade before gallery walls were plastered with repeated silkscreen paintings of American icons. Interestingly enough, postmodernism coincided with the rise of consumerism in the 1950s. Although cars, televisions, and household appliances signified a certain level of success, they were branded pragmatic, even moral purchases. According to historian Elaine Tyler Mae, “Purchasing for the home helped alleviate traditional American uneasiness with consumption: the fear that spending would lead to decadence.” Of course that unease and fear would not last long.