I been thinking quite a bit about the end of Postmodernism. 40 years of it makes it almost the longest lasting ism of the 20th century - Cubism would have to be number one - lasting until the early 1950s. The driving force behind POMO was irony and it used to be practiced with wit and force, but today everything is about irony - most every artwork we see these days is described as "steeped in irony" or "dealing with issues in an ironic fashion" or Christ, I don't know - you fill in the blank. What happened to plain outright humor? When DeKooning painted those goofy women he was cracking wise - it wasn't irony - it was an aggressive joke at the expense of Cubism. This week I saw Carroll Dunham's show at Gladstone and spent a bit of extra time having a moment.... This isn't irony - this is in your face slapstick anger - and boy is it great. There are really 2 shows going on - in the first gallery are abstractions made out of his dickheads - and this is POMO irony done well. In the off galleries he's just put it out there. I would describe them but my mother would wash my mouth out with soap. They are - without a doubt - the best paintings I've seen in quite a while. Dunham is still interested in a bit of ironic play - witness the torn up bags that are stuck to the surfaces - but the dickhead is now busy with his own female private parts and shoving firearms into delicate areas. These are the first great political paintings made by this POMO generation - mainly because Dunham has moved beyond it. I looked in awe at the power he was able to create in just the few works on view. It made the irony in the other room look lame and ineffectual - ie: decorative. I highly recommend you see this!

As for POMO irony- well....FU - as the Letterman guy does it.... Here is a link to an article on irony and Postmodernism that I thought was right on point! One of my favorite bits is here...."Our age has not so much redefined irony, as focused on just one of its aspects. Irony has been manipulated to echo postmodernism. The postmodern, in art, architecture, literature, film, all that, is exclusively self-referential - its core implication is that art is used up, so it constantly recycles and quotes itself. Its entirely self-conscious stance precludes sincerity, sentiment, emoting of any kind, and thus has to rule out the existence of ultimate truth or moral certainty."