As discussed in Postmodernism Definition, it is challenging to the art student to define postmodern art. What is more useful when writing or talking about modern and postmodern art, is to identify the qualities of each. There are some characteristics that set postmodern art apart from modern art; if you start with a characteristic, and examine its implications and context in relation to the definition of postmodernism, things start to fall into place more easily.

Postmodernism encompasses a philosophical, political, and aesthetic shift away from modernism in the 1970s and 1980s. The term postmodernism is used in almost all disciplines, but here we are discussing the definition of postmodernism in the areas of art, design, and architecture.

Postmodernism is one of the most challenging concepts to the art student. While some artworks may seem easy to categorize as "postmodern" by their mix of imagery and their date of creation, others evade categorization. Postmodernism rejects the firm definitions of Modernism; this evasion from definition can easily exasperate the student when asked on an exam to "define postmodernism".

Color is a powerful tool for artists and communicators. How we see and perceive color and color combinations is connected to how our brains work. Color is also connected to how we feel. Basic color theory involves the science of light, the principles of pigment, the categories of additive and subtractive color, as well as physiology of the human eye and the psychology of the brain. Basic color theory can help us understand why some colors excite us while others depress us; it can explain why some colors, placed side by side, can nauseate the viewer; and basic color theory has a lot to do with our media and how images are produced.

The short answer: yellow and red make orange. Yellow and red are two of the three primary colors on the color wheel chart (blue is the third). But if you've ever tried to make a beautiful pumpkin orange from the red and yellow in your paintbox, and ended up with something more like terracotta, you might have wondered how to get orange. The problem isn't with the theory, it's with those primary colors, which might not be as pure as they seem.

What is a color wheel or a color wheel chart? It's a way of organizing colors (also called "hues") in a circle to illustrate their relationships to each other. A simple color wheel contains six colors: the three primary colors, yellow, blue, red, and the three secondary colors, green, orange, and violet. There are many different kinds of color wheels, and they use different theories, and vary depending on what industry they're used in, but lets stick to basic paintbox colors for now.

The short answer: blue and red make purple. Blue and red are two of the three primary colors on the color wheel chart (yellow is the third). And in color wheel terminology, purple is called violet. But, have you ever tried to mix blue and red together in your paintbox, and instead of a beautiful purple you get a muddy burgundy? It's not because you got the theory wrong; it's because not all colors are created equal.