A late 20th-century aesthetic philosophy influential in literary criticism, architecture and the visual arts. In literary criticism, Postmodernism is a style of discourse that comments skeptically on the nature of the text and its meanings (see Deconstruction). In architecture, Postmodernist theory begins with Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, published in 1966. It presents a challenge to mainstream 20th-century architectural aesthetics, as exemplified by the International Style. The hallmark of the Postmodern style in architecture is the adoption of elements of historical styles that are rich with associations, and the recombin-ation of those elements in self-consciously irreverent or ironic ways. Web resources here and here.

James Wines. Indeterminate Façade (BEST Products showroom). Houston, TX. 1975.