Formalism directs artist to attend to the compositional aspect of their artwork whether than the exclusion of any other concerns. It encourages artists to explore, experiment, and eliminate subject matter. It frees artist from having to tell stories in visual media, from pictorial representations of reality, and from including subject matter. Formalist pay attention to the composition of the work, and focus on visual elements such as line, shape, and color, and do not focus on their expressive content.
Post modernism insist that are and aesthetics are too powerful and pervasive in our social, ethical, and political world to be considered on their own apart form their non-aesthetic influences. Postmodernists differ from formalist because they will not allow art and aesthetics to be considered apart and aloof from the social, ethical, and political world.
Realists want the use form to be subservient to, and not distracting from, what a work of art truthfully shows about the world. Expressionists want to the form of a work of art to embody the emotion articulated and communicated in a medium. Formalists want the form and the form alone to be attended to by the maker and the perceiver. Things such as expression of emotion, narratives contained within works, a function of what a work is designed to perform, or references to the world doesn’t matter to them. Postmodernists do no make their artwork for society they focus heavily on the aesthetics of the work. But they do want their artwork to have some type of impact on the world.