But just as abstract expressionism can be understood as a reaction to, or a complicating of, that ‘suspension of disbelief’ that has characterized the rapport between artist and audience for millennia (and that has survived that long for good reason), the aspects of postmodernism that dwell in irony and self-consciousness can likewise be understood as a reaction to the sincerity and dreamlike nature of representation, which is, I would wager, if not more fundamental to art than is the former, then more capable of holding the interest of an audience.