Dictionary
Posthistoire

"Posthistoire" is a form of post-modernist painting that ties in with the philosophy of Post-structuralism as of the 1980s. At first, the term was only used in France, but it would soon spread all over Europe.
Literally taken, the term "Posthistoire" refers to the period after the "end of history". The figurative art of "Posthistoire" is characterized by historic references to various epochs of history, but also with references to the present and the future, single elements were extracted and combined in often confusing ways. Montages of citations that were full in contrasts were created, which were not shy of ridiculing serious motifs by showing them in combination with banal and opposed matters. An ironic culture pessimism is the basic idea of "Posthistoire".
Among the main representatives of "Posthistoire" are François Rouan (born in 1943) and Gérard Garouste (born in 1946) in France as well as the Russian-born artist Vitaly Komar (born in 1943) and Alexander Melamid (born in 1945) in the USA. The latter two, who closely co-operated as "Komar & Melamid", were also dealing with Socialist Realism and the cultic overglorification of Stalin. Their painting "The Origin of Socialist Realism" (1982/83) can be mentioned as an example, it shows a paralyzed Stalin who is cuddled by a charming muse in an photographically exact manner that calls reminiscence of the meticulousness of the old masters.