Is it possible to trace the origins of British postmodernism to Chicago?

Above:  another irritating review of the Victoria & Albert Museum's Postmodernism exhibition, this time by Tim Adams in the Observer.  Irritating because it is yet another commentator who obviously has no sympathy for the subject, which makes you wonder what the point of his witterings are, if all he wants to do is be disagreeable.  Perhaps the Left is so committed to modernism that they cannot tolerate the reality that the modernist style was overthrown in the popular imagination long ago, despite new atrocities such as The Shard getting through (perhaps the pro-modernists secretly believe that the proletariat should once again be confined to Ronan Point-type tower blocks, with anyone complaining about the smell of gas sent to a Health & Safety re-education camp).
  
That said, it seems there are limitations to the exhibition.  Kirsty Wark on the Review Show complained that it had little intellectual underpinning.  For various reasons it is likely to be some weeks before I can get to the exhibition myself, but in the meantime I have been doing a little research of my own.

For instance, is it possible to trace the origins of British postmodernism to Chicago?

Above:  in 1980 there was a major exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre of Chicago Imagists.  The exhibition is now long forgotten, but at the time attracted a lot of attention.  The Camden Arts Centre is no longer among London's premier visual arts venues, but in 1980 it was at the heart of discussion (particularly as so many artists lived in Camden).

Above:  the Who Chicago? exhibition later travelled to Sunderland, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast - so a good proportion of the United Kingdom's arts community would have seen it.

Above:  the Introduction identifies a theme of reacting against the collectivisation of society and in favour of the individual.

Above:  another article in the catalogue (which is 210 pages long) talks about "straying from Modernist values".

Above:  many of the artworks that were in the exhibition (and illustrated in the catalogue) seem to chime with postmodernism.  I am not an art critic, but even I can see a resemblance between these paintings by Ed Paschke and the postmodernist performance art of Leigh Bowery.  And postmodernist artist Jeff Koons used to be Ed Paschke's assistant.

Above:  we should not forget the other anti-collectivist philosophy that came out of Chicago at the same time.  Milton Friedman's Free To Choose was published in 1980 and changed the economics of the western world.  As I said in a previous blog post, I think the essence of postmodernism is contained in the phrase "free to choose".

But as I say, I havn't yet seen the exhibition.  These are just a few of my initial thoughts.  I might go to the Victoria & Albert Museum and come away with a completely different perspective.