To start with, Modernism is most basically described (by Wikipedia) as a revolt against "traditional" values. It started out as the antithesis to Realism, which was an artistic movement that placed merit in accurately portraying subjects. The picture on the right pretty clearly exemplifies this, the artist did not make this particular painting with realism in mind. Modernism emphasizes the human power of creativity and creation, it concerns itself with breaking down barriers of traditional means of art like chronologically bound sequences of events. Essentially, Modernism holds that works of art need not be created under any sort of barriers and so bizarre, surreal and seemingly random scenes are usually associated with Modernism.Post Modernism does not directly oppose Modernism the way Modernism opposes Realism. In fact, it doesn't directly refer to the Modernism I discussed at all. Instead it refers to "modernist" viewpoints and symbols of societal progress. Post Modernism deals with expressions of skepticism among what would be considered progress. For instance, the internet is a sign of technological progress, however Post Modernism is wary of information available from it as literally anyone can put it there regardless of background.
The basic ethos of Post Modernism is skepticism and uncertainty, focusing on ideas or concepts that have the potential to warp reality. The picture below is perhaps the most well known Post Modernist piece:
This roughly translates to "This is not a pipe." The intent here is to illustrate the shortcomings of language as well as the capability of words and/or images to lie, or at the very least not offer the greatest accuracy.
I hope this clears things up a bit. A work can be Modernist, Post Modernist, neither, or even both due to their unrelated genesis. Hopefully now we can bring up one or the other without everyone in the room rolling their eyes.
-Sergio L. Barrio
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