yellowdaisy4, Habermas

I think Habermas was trying to explain how modernity is the change from what is old and traditional to what is new and different. He states “most recent modernism simply makes an abstract opposition between tradition and the present” which means that modernism is changing things like art for example to fit with changing society. I also really like the quote of “modernity revolts against the normalizing functions of tradition; modernity lives on the experience of rebelling against all that is normative”. I feel like this quote explains more of the change from things from classical to things that are more different and out there instead of what old and new. In terms of art, which Habermas references when explaining modernity, this concept makes me think of Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol took traditional art like portraits and still-lifes and made something completely different and new out of them. His painting of the different colors of portraits of Marilyn Monroe or the Cambell’s soup can show this change into modernity. This ties to the quote of “modernist culture has come to penetrate the values of everyday life” because Andy Warhol’s work was so different than classical art that it kind of threw people off a bit until the new colorful different kind of art emerged and slowly became more mainstream. Art like Andy Warhol’s also explains the avant-garde concept. What avant-garde is to me are people or things that are totally different from the norm and are imaginative and very creative. I feel like this concept has been present in most of our readings in explaining what modernism is. To me, what’s avant-garde especially in art is the most beautiful because it doesn’t bore you at all and reawakens your creativity and gives a new aesthetic experience. However, ironically it seems works that are avant-garde are becoming more common because now people want what is different from everything else which makes it kind of confusing to separate what is inspired non-conformity and what is more typical mainstream non-conformity.