I recently meandered over from the School of Communications, where I teach at American University (disclaimer 1), to the art department, from where I graduated a couple years ago, back when it was still largely a painting program (disclaimer 2) to check it out the MFA Thesis Exhibitions. I’d heard a few accounts already; the word “postmodern” lumped in a few times. But it’s easy to be a bit skeptical of a dismissive comment that casually uses “postmodern.”

In essence, postmodernism is a philosophical movement reacting to the genocides of World War Two and after by examining and deconstructing language. Boiled down, postmodern theorists took language, stripped it of universal meaning and showed that context is created by each individual. A postmodern painting, then, does not necessarily have to be produced with paint; the same effects of large matted swaths of color can be produced with tape or cut patches of colored paper. When applied to fine art it allows the boundaries to broaden beyond the traditional media of painting, drawing and sculpting, opening the doors for digital, video, installation, and performance.

But justifying all “strange art” as a result of postmodernism doesn’t fly. Arguably strangeness in art can be addressed by Pollock’s splatters, by the Dada happenings in the Cabaret Voltaire, by Manet’s brash handling of paint and representation in Luncheon on the Grass, or by the birth of easel painting in Renaissance Italy. But the work at the MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Katzen Arts Center is not a result of postmodernism, but rather of the evolution of art and perhaps some awkward decision-making. While the work does not break the boundaries of what is and isn’t art, it might push your boundaries, just a little. What is clear is that American University’s MFA program is no longer the Mecca for the cult following of Stanley Lewis landscape painting.